Making its long-awaited return to Melbourne Recital Centre and celebrating their 20th year, Pinchgut Opera will perform the first of their two performances for 2021, on Thursday 25 March with the soaring melodies of Monteverdi’s Vespers.
Artistic Director Erin Helyard has curated two concert programs for Melbourne audiences in 2021 designed for thoughtful reflection and celebration. Then in September Pinchgut performs the very of best of Baroque splendour with Purcell and Charpentier.
A spectacular masterpiece of sonic grandeur, Monteverdi’s Vespers blends the grand traditions of Venetian sacred music with the new world of the baroque: opulent choruses, dramatic solo arias and duets, and some of the most ambitious instrumental music the world had ever heard.
Helyard describes Vespers as “an indubitable masterpiece, composed over 400 years ago, that continues to move us today: the most famous and sublime of all Italian sacred works of the 17th century. Come hear it performed, in all its exquisite period detail, in the way Monteverdi probably intended it – with one singer and instrumentalist per part. This adds transparency, colour, and clarity to the natural grandeur of the piece, just as stained glass does so in a cathedral.”
Joining Pinchgut’s celebrated chorus, is Melbourne’s own sensational countertenor, Max Riebl from the famed Riebl family, alongside Australia’s finest Baroque players in the Orchestra of the Antipodes. Included in the orchestra is Melbourne’s own Laura Vaughn, who plays the viola da gamba and lirone. The Vespers will amaze and delight.
Pinchgut Opera were last at Melbourne Recital Centre with the concert Bach and Telemann in April 2019. Prior to that Pinchgut Opera had its very first performance in Melbourne in December with the wonderful Vivica Genaux.
Monteverdi’s Vespers
Melbourne Recital Centre, Corner Southbank Boulevard and Sturt Street, Southbank (Melbourne)
Performance Thursday 25 March 2021 – 7.00pm
Bookings: www.melbournerecital.com.au
Pinchgut Opera will also present Monteverdi’s Vespers at Sydney’s City Recital Hall on Saturday 20 & Sunday 21 March. For more information, visit: www.pinchgutopera.com.au for details.
Image: Pinchgut Opera presents Monteverdi’s Vespers (supplied)