Stravaganza D'Amore!

The Birth of opera at the Medici Court

A perfect blend between music and poetry, a Renaissance ideal, 'intermedi', or interludes, were presented with lavish visual and musical resources, using the arts as a demonstration of dynastic and political power in late 16th-century Florence. After reaching an initial peak in 1589 with the intermedi composed for Bargagli s 'La pellegrina', this tradition was furthered inthe burgeoning genre of opera by such composers as Peri, Caccini ('Euridice', 1600) and, very soon, Monteverdi('L Orfeo') and Gagliano ('Dafne'). Rather than aiming for the impossible ideal of a reconstruction, Raphaël Pichon has devised an imaginary intermedio by selecting the finest gems from this repertory, featuring the figures of Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice, and above all Cupid. Make way for a veritable festival devoted to the human passions, sumptuously packaged in a glamorous 160-page CD-Book.