Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine

"All this is expertly filmed and edited, with little to distract from the progress of the work or the focus on what is being heard at any moment. It is perhaps unusual for the lighting director to receive as prominent a credit as he does here, but you soon see why. Bertrand Coudec has much experience lighting operas, and he dramatizes the Vespers by often darkening the main body of instrumentalists and choir and lighting only a soloist in a gallery, then returning to a full glare on the orchestra and choir as the musical focus returns to them. This play of light and shade is never too fussy but often dramatic, and it must be said that much of the Vespers is thus made theatrical - which in many ways it is, and the composer of course is not averse to bringing aspects of his theatre music to his score, not least in the opening fanfare derived from his opera Orfeo. It almost feels like a private performance for the viewer, since there is no sight or sound of an audience at all, until after the work has finished." MusicWeb Recommended