Monteverdi: L’Orfeo (DVD) – Krystian Adam, Hana Blažíková

Composer: Claudio Monteverdi
Artists: Krystian Adam, Hana Blažíková, Lucile Richardot, Francesca Boncompagni, Gianluca Buratto, Kangmin Justin Kim, Furio Zanasi, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists
Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner
Director: John Eliot Gardiner, Elsa Rooke
Video Format: NTSC 16:9
Sound Format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS Digital Surround
Language: Italian
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean
Region: All Regions
Number of Discs: 1
Studio: Opus Arte
DVD Release Date: April 22, 2022
Run Time: 119 minutes

Opera was in its infancy when Monteverdi wrote L’Orfeo, only six years after the first example of a drama set wholly to music had been performed in Florence. He brought to the work a revolutionary synthesis of text, staging and musical architecture that virtually defined the future of opera. 

John Eliot Gardiner first conducted L’Orfeo at the Proms in London in 1967. For decades he has been at the forefront of Monteverdi performance and scholarship, and in 2017, he undertook the crowning achievement of his association with the composer, an odyssey to perform all three surviving full-length operas. 

This performance of L’Orfeo was given at the historic Teatro La Fenice in Venice – which has seen triumphant premieres of works by Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, and many others – in a critically acclaimed semi-staged production.

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