L'Orfeo

In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi performed his Orfeo at the opening of the carnival in the court theater of Duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua. For the first time in the history of music, real characters are animated by overwhelming human emotions: the modern opera is born with this extraordinary dramatic power. After Le Retour d'Ulysse dans sa Patrie, Stephane Fuget, a great specialist in this repertoire and its historical instrumentation, brings together first-class vocal and instrumental virtuosos for this new Orfeo: he entrusts the beautiful and sensitive Julian Prégardien with the title role to sing all the splendor and pageantry of the first true hero in the history of opera.