Sunday, September 22
Croatian Naional Theatre in Varaždin, Main Stage, 7.30 p.m.
Ensemble Contratemps
María Hinojosa, Clorinda
Jorge Juan Morata, Tancredi
Furio Zanasi, testo
Adrián Schvarzstein, actor
Farran Sylvan James & Maria Gomis, violins
Lixsania Fernández, viola da gamba
Katy Elkin, shawms, flutes, dulcimer
Eduardo Egüez, theorbo and guitar
Joan Palet, double bass
Albert López Cortés, percussion
Jordi Domènech, harpsichord
Didac Cano, circus
Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė, dance
IL COMBATTIMENTO di Tancredi e Clorinda
Music: Claudio Monteverdi - Libretto: Torquato Tasso
Samuel Scheidt
Gagliarda La Battaglia
Marco Uccellini
Aria Sopra la Bergamasca
Agostino Steffani
Bella mia
Giorgio Mainerio
Gagliarda
Claudio Monteverdi
Moresca
Franceso Cavalli
Musica (from the opera Gli amori d’Apollo)
Claudio Monteverdi
Sinfonia (from Il Combattimento)
Sinfonia (from the opera L’incoronazione di Poppea)
Franceso Cavalli
Sinfonia (from the opera Gli amori d’Apollo)
Claudio Monteverdi
Vorrei baciarti
Andrea Falconieri
Ciaconna
Follia
Claudio Monteverdi
Zefiro torna
Claudio Monteverdi
Ohimè, ch’io cado
Claudio Monteverdi
Toccatta (from the opera Orfeo)
Claudio Monteverdi
Vi ricordi
Claudio Monteverdi
Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Marco Marazzoli
Qui va il Combattimento
Ensemble Contratemps is the new name of the troupe Le Tendre Amour, which has performed several times at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, where it has been awarded twice - with the Jurica Murai Award for the best interpretation and the Ivan Lukačić Award for the highest performance achievement. It is an early music ensemble based in Barcelona, which has given numerous concerts across Europe and the United States, participating in both the most prestigious early music festivals and concert seasons. In addition to concerts, their activities include productions of chamber operas and productions that combine theater, circus, and Baroque music. The ensemble collaborates with record labels Brilliant Classics and K617, and has been recorded live by national radio stations in Catalonia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and Croatia. With the production they will present this year at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, the ensemble revives the premiere of Monteverdi's work Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, combining instrumental and vocal virtuosity with elements of circus and a good dose of humour. About the production itself, they write:
“One Carnival season at the Mocenigo Palace in Venice in 1624 (exactly 400 years ago!!) some of Monteverdi’s amorous madrigals were being performed. Suddenly, the guests were surprised to see three characters enter the scene, two of whom were covered in armour: Tancredo and Clorinda, along with a Narrator who sang verses from Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered in an innovative style known as recitar cantando. Afterwards, the couple sang while acting as fighting in the dramatic story until the tragic end. The audience, the composer tells us, was amazed, because they had never seen anything like it before.
The general fascination around 1600 with what Ancient Greek drama may have looked – and sounded – like, and from already existing theatrical entertainments, gave inspiration to Claudio Monteverdi take those first steps to create what we now call ‘opera.’ Monteverdi´s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is adapted from an episode in Torquato Tasso’s great epic about the First Crusade, Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem delivered), a Romance set against the backdrop of the First Crusade, when Godfrey of Bouillon conquered Jerusalem. Tancredi, a Christian knight, challenges a Saracen to fight to the death. He does not know that, behind the Saracen’s suit of armour, is the renowned woman warrior Clorinda, who refuses to reveal her identity. Following a bloody battle, Tancredi vanquishes his opponent, but, as he lifts the helmet of his dying enemy, he realizes that this mysterious knight is the woman he loves. Clorinda asks him to baptize her, and she dies in peace.
In a famous preface to his 8th set of madrigals, in which Il Combattimento can be found, Monteverdi described the musical challenge set for himself. He wrote that music had long been able to depict the emotions of love, but it needed a new language to express the more agitated emotions of anger and the violence of war. For this, he developed an ‘agitated style’ (stile concitato), where fast repeated notes create an exciting effect. In Il Combattimento, even the Narrator (Testo) sometimes sings the text extremely fast to create excitement. Different sounds convey the battle, the horse trotting, trumpet fanfares, the combatants circling each other, and the movement of the swords. Also unusual for the time was the use of pizzicato to depict the short blows of the sword, or diminuendo (tapering the sound from loud to soft) within a single bow stroke. The level of detail in Monteverdi’s instructions about how to perform this piece is unprecedented for his time.
Taking inspiration from the idea of a ‘Carnival’ evening exactly 400 years ago in the Mocenigo Palace, our Contratemps production not only includes music of Monteverdi and his contemporaries such as Steffani, Cavalli, Mainerio, and Uccellini but also dance and circus. Our troupe of court jesters (singers, musicians, actors and acrobats) present a comic and poetic production to the nobles surprisingly found onstage. Highlighting the human relationships described in Monteverdi’s madrigals, the performance is a meeting of unlikely situations provoked by the jesters, games of musical and vocal virtuosity, and interaction with the public. The evening concludes with the piece Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, performed for the chosen nobles of the evening - although maybe, just maybe, the ending would be innovative even for Monteverdi. It is theatre after all, isn´t it?”