Special event: Pygmalion makes its Australian debut with a residency at the Adelaide Festival (27 February–6 March).
‘For me, the Vespro is the first cinematic work in the history of music. Monteverdi’s dramatic genius means that each psalm (and especially the first three) is presented as a genuine scene of dramatic action. He sets the scene, and makes us feel, visualise, even touch it!’ (Raphaël Pichon, exerpt from the booklet, Vespro della Beata Vergine, 2023, harmonia mundi)
Be transported through time and space to one of the cultural glories of western civilisation and spend an evening in Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice at the dawn of the Italian Baroque. Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 – astonishing for the grandeur of its conception and the opulence of its sound – immediately conjures the splendour and pageantry of Venice’s golden age. In his setting of the Vespers, Monteverdi drew on centuries of sacred music tradition, but he broke the mould by bringing the theatricality and drama of opera into the church.
Over two special nights, Pygmalion will revive the spirit of St Mark’s through a spatialised performance of the Vespers in the spectacular acoustic of St Peter’s Cathedral.