Monteverdi: La favola d'Orfeo

A performance by the chorus and dance ensemble of the Iván Fischer Opera Company and the Budapest Festival Orchestra on period instruments

The reason why it is listed as La favola d'Orfeo is because this is the original title that the work was presented to the Mantuan audience under at its world première in 1607. The ending was also different from the finalé familiar to audiences today. In the original libretto, the opera does not end with the benevolent arrival of Apollo and Orpheu...s's elevation to heaven, but rather to a wild bacchanalia and the murder of the protagonist. This production is a staging of the original concept, with the missing musical part reconstructed by Iván Fischer. The work of the same creative team responsible for last year's successful mounting of Falstaff, it will travel on to Vicenza and Geneva after the Budapest performances. The soloists hail from every corner of the world, with Hungarian soprano Emőke Baráth and Italian tenor Valerio Contaldo in the leading roles. The dancers are working with choreographer Sigrid T'Hooft. One of the leading authorities on Baroque movement and gesture, she has been helping the orchestra with its early music productions for years.
Fischer has described his thoughts regarding L'Orfeo in a series of blog posts on his Facebook page. What excites him most of all of all about the question of the mysterious mythological minstrel with magical powers is the role that this cult figure played in the transitional years between the Renaissance and the Baroque era. He describes how Platonic love conflicts with those devoted to their infatuation with earthly pleasures and explains why he chose the initial, Renaissance version of this piece for the production.

A production of the Iván Fischer Opera Company, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Müpa Budapest, the Vicenza Opera Festival and the Grand Théâtre de Genève.