English Baroque Soloists
Monteverdi Choir
Sir John Eliot Gardiner Conductor
Elsa Rooke Director

Period performance pioneer Sir John Eliot Gardiner is revered worldwide, not just for his searching scholarly insights into early music, but also for the astonishing intensity and freshness of his compelling performances.

The sensuous music of Monteverdi has been a pillar of Gardiner’s music-making since the 1960s. He reaffirms his decades-long relationship with the International Festival with a remarkable project: to bring together all three of Monteverdi’s surviving operas, as opulent as they are virtuosic.

L’Orfeo, first performed in 1607, is the first great operatic masterpiece – a tribute to the transcendent power of music, and a celebration of a love that even death cannot destroy. It’s a feast for both the mind and the emotions, expressed in some of Monteverdi’s loveliest melodies and most colourful instrumental music.

This remarkable landmark project offers a rare opportunity to experience all three surviving operas by Claudio Monteverdi as directed performances in concert. They are conducted by period performance pioneer Sir John Eliot Gardiner, in celebration of the 450th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Image: Frederic Leighton