Concert 'The Madrigals of Monteverdi VII' C. Monteverdi

This splendid compilation of madrigals in nine volumes, published between 1587 and 1651, represents one of the pinnacles of Western music literature. In this session, we continue this splendid journey through a corpus understood as an exercise in proto-opera and a theatre of emotions. This fifth book, published in Venice in 1605 and dedicated to his patron, Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua, where he worked as a violist, marks a turning point in his work, as the composer radically develops his style incorporating a series of innovations that sparked a famous controversy. Giovanni Maria Artusi accused Monteverdi of an exaggerated application of chromaticism and excessive dissonances far removed from the classical style of Palestrina. Monteverdi responded with a text justifying that the seconda prattica fitted more with madrigals rather than sacred music, stating 'words are the masters of harmony, not its slaves.' Rinaldo Alessandrini will guide us through this fascinating realm filled with precious miniatures.