Stravaganza d’Amore! The Birth of Opera at the Medici Court – Pygmalion

   in Opera Now (Jul, 2017)
A release that compliments La Storia di Orfeo is Stravaganza d’Amore!, charting the musico-dramatic works of the Medici court that preceded Monteverdi’s Orfeo. The fabulously wealthy Medici family, Dukes of Florence, threw limitless resources as a succession of court entertainments, with composers providing intermedi, music inserted between acts of plays, which became so popular that they took on a life of their own. They gradually took the ascendant, and by the end of the 16th century the transition from choral music (polyphony) to monody (solo) was well under way. If this all sounds rather worthy and dusty don’t fear, as conductor Raphaël Pichon has created an original and entertaining compilation of …