Monteverdi, Vespro Della Beata Vergine by Monteverdi, Thu 22 Aug 2024, From (2024/2024), Conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, Basilique Sainte Marie-Madeleine, Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, France

The origins of Vespers (from the Latin vesper: evening, the most solemn hour of the Divine Office) date back to the earliest days of Christianity. Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine reproduces the main prayers of Vespers for the Virgin under Roman rite (five psalms, the Ave maris stella hymn and the Magnificat). Marian devotion, which was defended in the 16th century by the Council of Trent in response to the Protestant Reformation, was particularly common in Mantua, where Monteverdi was Kapellmeister to Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga. A NEW TYPE OF RELIGIOUS MUSIC With his Vespro della beata Vergine, Monteverdi produced one of the first masterpieces of European sacred music. His score is a sum of prayers, both meditative and theatrical, replete with expressions of joy and even the utmost sensuality. The baroque nature of the music is fully present in the highly virtuosic vocal part, which alternates with instrumental passages of incredible depth. Eager to rediscover how musical sources were staged at Venice’s Basilica di San Marco, Leonardo García Alarcón, by now a familiar figure at Radio France, reveals the beauty of this music at the helm of his ensembles, Cappella Mediterranea and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur.