Monteverdi and the mystical Orient

Program: madrigals and arias by Monteverdi and Arab Christian songs

The poems of Torquato Tasso were a vast source of inspiration for a whole generation of musicians. Illuminated by the mysterious Orient that fascinated him, Tasso painted the most expressive episodes of the great epic of the Crusades. Without obscuring the bloody and warlike aspect of this century full of fury, the Crusades were also the scene of the meeting of two cultures that, on this occasion, mingled and seduced each other. Monteverdi, the genius of the early Baroque, knew better than anyone else how to express this idealised Orient, both in his a voce sola pieces and in their polyphonic transcription. The sublime Pianto della Madonna finds its echo in the Lamento d’AriannaIn the collection Sestina, we can also appreciate one of the peaks of Madrigal art: the magnificent Lagrime d’amante al sepolcro dell’amata.