ORFEO in Amsterdam
The press is talking about a "miracle".
After the world premiere of Verdi's opera Otello, a young cellist - future conductor Arturo Toscanini - came home in the middle of the night and drummed his mother out of bed. "Otello is a masterpiece," he shouted. "On your knees! And say: "Viva Verdi."
Our excitement was a bit like that, Saturday after Leonardo García Alarcón's L'Orfeo de Monteverdi. The ensemble and the soloists revealed the genius of the drama: they took us to the heart of the music. There was no escape, because for more than two hours the reality consisted only of Monteverdi's world, encompassing past, present and future.
Valerio Contaldo's brilliant tenor expressed the double character of Orpheus: on the one hand the lively and provocative cynic, on the other the mournful and warm-blooded lover.
But what touched the most was Cappella Mediterranea, which embodied as rarely does the hells, earth and sky above Monteverdi's Orpheus.
