Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1180483 in Music
• Released on: 1997-05-20
• Format: Enhanced

Customer Reviews

The "soundtrack" of the film...
This CD is a companion to the filmed version of the consort of music dressing up as Shepherds and courtesans and play-acting the settings of Monteverdi's madrigals in the Palazzo Te in Mantua where the early madrigals were written and first performed. The visuals of the film are not to everyone's taste of 'serious' performance, and the rest of the documentary on Moneteverdi's life there is a mix of sound scholarship and Antony Rooley's interpretation filling in the gaps.

This disc contains all the madrigals used in the film and a contrafactum created from each one. This simply means that a later composer set different words to Monteverdi's music, usually a religious text when the original madrigal was a bit too naughty ...

The Consort of Musicke is world class as ever, and here is all the music without the sometimes distracting visuals. One for any collection of Monteverdi, or madrigals, or late renaissance music, or Emma fans.