A Fine Italian Hour - Under the Rose of Heaven

Ensemble Elegos here presents music that first sounded 400 years ago – during the first years of opera. The pioneers of opera looked for new ways to express human emotions musically and much in their musical language was revolutionary. 400 years later we are still very familiar with these same emotions and the music sounds at once centuries old and modern. Among the pieces presented in this programme are fragments of Claudio Monteverdi’s first opera – L´Orfeo – and works by Giulio and Francesca Caccini, who were important figures in the Florentine opera scene. Florence is also the hometown of tenor Enrico Busia, who is here accompanied by Sólveig Thoroddsen on baroque harp and Sergio Coto on theorbo – a bass lute that was the most popular accompanying instrument of the era, as it echoes the nuances of the human voice particularly well.