Monteverdi 'The Other Vespers'
- Submitting institution
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University of York
: A - A - Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies : A - A - Music
- Output identifier
- 55005601
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Glyndebourne, Lewes
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first performance
- April
- Year of first performance
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Monteverdi: The Other Vespers (TOV), Hollingworth’s CD as director of I Fagiolini, was released in 2017: the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth. While recordings of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers abound, this Gramophone award-shortlisted CD focuses on a later collection (‘Selva Morale e spirituale’, 1641), comprising a liturgical reconstruction reimagining the possible content of the sole documented example of Monteverdi directing a Vespers service in Venice (1620). The CD also includes first recordings of Palestrina’s ‘Ave verum corpus’ and Donati’s ‘Dulcis Amor Iesu’.
After recording, a UK TOV tour May – November 2017 facilitated further exploration (première, Brighton Festival; 8 subsequent concerts, including Edinburgh, Salisbury, Stour, and Brecon Baroque Festivals). Alongside TOV Hollingworth directed I Fagiolini in other Monteverdi performances: the 1610 Vespers (UK), mixed repertoire programmes (Poland and UK, including BBC Proms), plus the première and subsequent tour (UK and Europe 2017-2019) of a staging of _L’Orfeo_, later developed with masks and singer-operated puppets in collaboration with Music Theatre for All.
The research undertaken towards the disc was invaluable in generating continued momentum: subsequent rehearsal and performance embedded this research in TOV and other Monteverdi performances, while also facilitating further experimentation. The TOV microsite (https://microsites.ifagiolini.com/theothervespers/) provides information on key issues, especially under the ‘Performance Practice’ and ‘Listen out for’ tabs. Freedom of passaggi-style ornamentation over falsobordone textures was a focus, as well as voicing, but most significant is the approach to duple/triple timing. Most performances of Italian music of this period in the last 40 years take a minim of duple time equivalent to three triple semibreves. Hollingworth explored a relation of duple semibreve to three triple semibreves (implied by the contemporary concept of _tripla_). Subsequent performance finessed this, with further microlevel changes in performances of TOV, but also _L’Orfeo_ and other pieces where the same issues arise.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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