Today it is my birthday! and Diego surprised me with a present of one of my favorite Baroque music composers. It’s a DVD of Claudio Monteverdi’s ‘Banquet of the Senses (Madrigali erotici e spirituali)’:
We will have a long weekend of listening to beautiful music, meeting with friends, knitting, spinning, AND sewing.
Speaking of which, this is a sneak peek of presents I have been making for friends:
Happy Holidays everybody and have a 2010 full of Happiness, Love, Peace and exciting projects!
It is raining… again in Toronto, and we are both home reading, and I am also spinning some yummy merino.
Then I came to the Internet to look for some stuff and I find a jewel on YouTube: Claudio Cavina’s madrigal group ‘La Venexiana’ performing Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea.
This group specializes in renaissance and baroque music (our favorite), and performed several Monteverdi’s operas as well -playing with period instruments, of course-, but the thing that makes them really special is not just the quality of their musical work, but their originality.
Take a look a this! It is Ottavia (mezzosoprano) ordering Ottone (countertenor) to kill Poppea… over the phone…
And once again on YouTube, I come across Argentine baritone Victor Torres playing Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at le Grand Theatre de Geneve with Il Giardino Armonico… I am in love with that voice and the modern staging too…
And yet another incredibly beautiful version of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, this time conducted by the great René Jacobs, a specialist in this type of music, and again played with period instruments, which really sound very different from modern ones. The staging is also so contemporary!
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