Monteverdi: L'Orfeo

Disc 1
1	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
2	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
3	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
4	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
5	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
6	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
7	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
8	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
9	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
10	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
11	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
12	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
13	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
14	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
15	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
Disc 2
1	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
2	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
3	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
4	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
5	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
6	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
7	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
8	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
9	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
10	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
11	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
12	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
13	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
14	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
15	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
16	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
17	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
18	La favola d'Orfeo, opera,
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
1.	La favola d'Orfeo, opera, SV 318 1:43:10
	Composed by Claudio Monteverdi
	Performed by Antonio Abete, Concerto Italiano, Gianluca Ferrarini, Sergio Foresti, Furio Zanasi, Luca Dordolo, Sara Mingardo, Monica Piccinini, Marco Scavazza, Anna Simbola and Raffaele Giordani
	Conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini

All Music Guide

"L'Orfeo" has become enough of a standard that it's no longer treated as a museum piece requiring reverential sobriety in its presentation, but even by modern standards, Naïve's recording must qualify as one of most uninhibited and vivacious on disc. This quality is not merely a matter of tempo, even though this version is overall somewhat faster than the average. Rinaldo Alessandrini, director of Concerto Italiano, cites extensive theoretical writings by Monteverdi and his contemporaries concerning the necessity of extreme rhythmic flexibility, particularly in the recitatives, to allow them to follow the natural rhythms of speech as closely as possible. A contemporary, Aquilino Coppini, wrote that Monteverdi's music requires " a beat that is not always regular: sometimes you must press ahead or abandon yourself to a slackening of speed, then hasten on once more," and Monteverdi encouraged the use of sprezzatura (studied carelessness) in regard to rhythmic notation. Most modern performers put these principles into practice, but few are so daringly free as Alessandrini, and the results are highly effective in communicating the extremes of emotion that Monteverdi aimed to express. He also extends a freedom of tempo to the choruses and strophic songs, in which the verses are sung at a "normal" tempo, but whose ritornelli, the instrumental interludes between verses, race by at lightening speed. The resulting rambunctiousness gives the drama an urgency that's entirely engaging. Alessandrini's soloists have not only the dramatic instincts to put the drama across convincingly, but the kind of voices that are both tonally pure and colorfully full of character. Furio Zanasi is a vocally expressive and charismatic Orfeo. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent; Monica Piccinini as La Musica, Anna Simboli as Eurydice and Prosperpina, Sara Mingardo as Messaggiera and Speranza, Sergio Foresti as Caronte, Antonio Abete as Plutone, and Luca Dordolo as Apollo aren't international stars, but they certainly have the goods. Naïve's sound is clean and present, and its liveliness is well-suited to this high-spirited and infectious performance. Stephen Eddins

BBC Music Magazine

This is unquestionably the most subtle rendering of the Orfeo text that’s available on compact disc. Furio Zanasi (Orfeo) is exceptionally good.... [A] remarkable display of the union of music and poetry. Anthony Prior

Newark Star-Ledger

1/2 No one leads performances of Italian early music with a keener mix of color and scholarship than keyboardist/ conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini. Bradley Bambarger

The Guardian

Alessandrini puts a vivid, theatrical stamp on the proceedings, from the very first drum beats of the opening Toccata, and shows his preference for fast tempi... Without question one of the finest new releases of the year so far. Andrew Clements