FULL I GROTTESCHI (Monteverdi) Part 1 Miro Brussels 2025 Stéphanie D’oustrac, Jeremy Ovenden, Mark Milhofer, Giulia Semenzato

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: I Grotteschi Part 1 Miro  
• Composer: Monteverdi Claudio  
• Libretto: various    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Theatre Royal de La Monnaie, Bruxelles, Belgium  
• Recorded: April 17, 2025
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Stéphanie D’oustrac, Jeremy Ovenden, Mark Milhofer, Giulia Semenzato, Matthew Newlin, Raffaella Lupinacci, a Arianna Vendittelli, Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani, Jessica Niles, Federico Fiorio, Jérôme Varnier, Xavier Sabata
• Conductor: LEONARDO GARCÍA-ALARCÓN  
• Orchestra: Cappella Mediterranea  
• Stage Director: Rafael R. Villalobos  
• Stage Designer: EMANUELE SINISI  
• Costume Designer: Rafael R. Villalobos  
• Lighting Designer: FELIPE RAMOS  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Auvio  
• Date Published: 2025  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, frsubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

A new family saga, distilled from L’Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) was among the founders of a new genre that was to restore Greek tragedy: opera. One of his first favole in musica follows the singing poet Orpheus, who with his enchanting music convinces the gods to retrieve his beloved Eurydice from the underworld. While the young composer wrote L’Orfeo (1607) for a select audience at the court of Mantua, with Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (1639–40), the now acclaimed master created his first musical drama for Venice’s public opera scene. For years, Penelope has been searching the horizon for her husband Odysseus. When the king of Ithaca finally reaches his home port, his wife is surrounded by pestering suitors whom Odysseus has to drive away in disguise and with help from above. Monteverdi took a final step with L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642), in which the mistress of the Roman emperor Nero goes to extremes to have herself crowned empress.

‘Pur ti miro / Pur ti godo’ (I look at you, I long for you), Nerone and Poppea sing at the end, when nothing stands in their way. This opposition, between merely looking and longing, is the starting point for I Grotteschi, a new twofold performance distilled from the Monteverdi trilogy. Over the course of two evenings, we are introduced to a successful family that shuts itself off from the world during a pandemic. Driven by loss and desire, its various generations gradually become entangled in a suffocating power struggle. Director Rafael R. Villalobos reduced the almost fifty initial roles to a small group of ‘grotesques’, composite characters who all bear allegorical names and sometimes have more than two faces. His thoughtful retelling calls for an equally informed musical vision, for which La Monnaie can count on conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón and his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea.

Quoted from La Monnaie

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