Monteverdi / Vespro

Musical mosaic of 17th-century cosmopolitan Venice, Monteverdi's Vespers seen through the prism of The Tempest borrow the currents crossing the Mediterranean, cross East and West and blaze with the colours of shimmering timbres.

The 1610 masterpiece, from which the copious Magnificat culminates, has fascinated Simon-Pierre Bestion for a long time.

Taking advantage of the freedom offered by the score, he chooses deliberate vocal and instrumental colours, resolutely Mediterranean, and the inclusion of 17th-century fa-burden and Gregorian antiphons.

' This powerful, rich and personal re-reading of Monteverdi's masterpiece shines with the fervour of collective impulse, the uniqueness of a creative approach—which the lights of Marianne Pelcerf and the spatial design further emphasise—and the accomplished art of recomposition emblematic of French conductor's and ensemble's proposals.

Cast: La Tempête—Choir and Orchestra; Simon-Pierre Bestion, conception, arrangements, staging, direction; Marianne Pelcerf, lighting design.