I travelled from Malta to London and down to Sussex to watch Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo, which is possibly one of the very first operas ever composed.
There was plenty of exquisite singing and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed by Jonathan Cohen, was resonant and crisp; just the sort of sound that an orchestra with two theorbos, a harp and plenty of brass should sound … A cross between Gonzaga panache and galant music in its infancy …
It’s extraordinary how the opening toccata of L’Orfeo and the opening of the famous Vespers of 1610 start in exactly the same way: “Deus in adjutorium meum intende”!
