Opéra Royal - Landi : La morte Orfeo

Cultural

Stéphane Fuget continues his exploration of early Italian opera, after recording the trilogy of Monteverdi operas at Versailles.

Stéphane Fuget continues his exploration of early Italian opera, after recording the trilogy of Monteverdi operas at Versailles. Following on from the latter (Orfeo, 1607), Stefano Landi's La Morte d'Orfeo (1619) sets to music the return of the hero after his failure to bring Euridice back to earth. In his grief, Orfeo renounces earthly joys. Dionysus takes offence, and delivers him to the fury of the Bacchae: he dies torn to pieces under their blows.

Alternating between the rage of Bacchus, the cruelty of his priestesses and the strange indifference of Euridice, who has drunk the water of oblivion, La Morte d'Orfeo uses musical effects to create an emotional dynamic rich in contrast, like the chiaroscuro of Caravaggesque painting: a hypnotic beauty...