In C. Monteverdi / M. Toni, 

conductor and harpsichord Massimiliano Toni, 

Ensemble The Third Practice, 2010 (Contribution from Banca Popolare di Novara)

Orfeo 2.0 a baRock opera

Mantua, 24 February 1607, the select public of the Gonzaga court is in front ofa work that projects contemporary music into the future, a work that opens up language

music to infinite possibilities: the Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, the beginning of the lucky storyof the Opera in music.

How to face Monteverdi's L'Orfeo today? The score alone is in our hands: the grade, the text esome hints of orchestration… Where is the problem then? Try to think of jazz without therecordings: we would know less than 10% of the notes played live by mostgreat jazz players of all time. Well, Monteverdi's score tells us nothing about all the notes

improvised by organists, by harpsichordists, by harpists, by the guitarists and lutenists of Orfeo, and especially, by the singers!

Although philology helps us get an idea of ​​this repertoire, I'm sure direct listening, thanks to a time machine, would leave us shocked. How to empty our ears and the

our musical memory so that that music sounds new again, revolutionary andCONTEMPORARY? It is almost painful for a classical musician to acknowledge the harsh reality: a

concerto rock, pop or jazz has a communicative power infinitely superior to anymodern performance of ancient repertoire, despite the extreme beauty of the texts and the mastery of

composers.

The inspiration for Orpheus 2.0 a baRock Opera was born at the Aix-en-Provence Festival 2007. Duringendless stage rehearsals I improvised modern rhythms and harmonies on this music

very ancient, incredibly, the singers sang better; certain "strange" and not twisted melodiesthey were more. Hence the idea of ​​expanding the experiment, and narrate the Fable of Orpheus with new sounds, in search of the modern in the ancient. Dal Blues al Rock al Jazz-Rock, dal Progressive al Post-Punk, passing through Experimental Rock and New-Progressive: all of these styles are great formodal melodies of Orpheus, rather, after 400 years of tonal music, they are even more modern.

Why perform Monteverdi's Orfeo in this form? The answer is in the emotions and in thecommunication of these emotions through musical performance. There is somethingincredibly moving, of magical and powerful, in Monteverdi's music, that I don't have yetheard in any modern performance. This energy must be released through a way ofsing new, inserted into new and current sounds and rhythms. In this way an “old” music of409 years, comes directly to the ears of audiences of all ages, especially young people, and comeslistened to without intellectual filters, like the songs of a musical.

I do not expect Claudio Monteverdi to agree, but I'm sure he would recognize thepassion that inspires the experiment, a passion all ignited by the greatness of his music.

Massimiliano Toni

created by

Massimiliano Toni

Orfeo Enea Sorini

Eurydice / The Messenger / Hope. Hersie Matmuja

Music / Proserpina / Nymph Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli

Charon / Pluto Federico Sacchi

Shepherd / Spirit Jorge Juan Morata

Pastor / Spirit Oskar Verhaar

Pastor / Spirit Florian Goetz

the art of the Barokorchester world

concert master

Werner Ehrhard 

orfeo’s band

Edoardo Maggioni, Alex Canella, Tommaso Caccia, Fabio Longo, Francesco

lighting designer and visual concept

Jean-Paul Carradori

sound engineer

Oscar Mapelli

Conducted and arranged by

Massimiliano Toni