Una Stravaganza Dei Medici (8)

This is the music composed for an extravagant wedding ceremony between Ferdinando de' Medici and Christine of Lorraine on May the 2nd 1589. These musical sections were intermezzi's for a showing of the comedy La Pellegrina by Girolamo Bargagli. The visual aspect of the spectacle was entrusted to Bernardo Buontalenti. We are lucky to have contemporary accounts both of the staging and of the musical performance which made a video such as this possible. This spectacle was one of the turning points in the transition from renaissance to baroque aesthetics in the world of music and theatre.

In this 1986 recording the Taverner Consort, Choir & Players are conduced by Andrew Parrott. The extensive cast of wonderful early music specialists includes Emma Kirkby, Tessa Bonner, Emily Van Evera, Evelyn Tubb (sopranos), Mary Nichols, Terry Anderson, Catherine Woolf (altos), Nigel Rogers, Andrew King, Mark Padmore, Charles Daniels, Rogers Covey-Crump (tenors), Alan Ewing, John Milne, Richard Wistreich (basses) and many more marvelous singers which I will omit for want of space.

The 8th video (out of 8) features this music:

Intermedio V - Jove's Gift to Mortals of Rhythm and Harmony (continued)
Malvezzi: O fortunato giorno a 7 cori
Cavalieri: O che nuovo miracolo a 5 ; a 3

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• una
• stravaganza
• dei
• medici
• emma
• kirkby

[BlueRainSoda12]

Wait, what CD? What would the CD be called? Is it on iTunes? I adore this! I'm obsessed with La Pellegrina.

[lalagonegaga]

@BlueRainSoda12 The CD is also called Una Stravaganza Dei Medici and is currently out of print, I'm afraid.

[prmaklpboo]

I've been looking for this for 20 years! No kidding. I saw the original on UK TV Channel 4 in 1989/1990 and was spell bound then. I bought the CD but never managed to see it again until now.

Thank you for uploading it, sincerely.

I notice there's more songs on here than on the CD. So much the better. Wonderful stuff.

[saulproud]

Thank you for this wonderful gift.

[omoetamo]

i bought the cd in early '90 but I didn't Know this video. amazing!

[millertj27]

Do you realize this work is divided into 6 Intermedia, not 5?

[JohnDeNotteaux]

Beautiful.

[Nini19733791]

We have watched the Video Cassette at university when I studied (musicology) ages ago, and I always hoped that EMI or Brilliant would re-edit this production on DVD, but they never did. So I was glad to see this here, but unfortunately the material is not suitable to put it on VCD. The music is not loud enough and the photography is too blurry. This is very sad. I suppose I have to place a special request at ArkivMusic.

[Choubris]

This was a Thames Television commission broadcast around Christmas time in 1989 and never, to my knowledge, repeated. An ephemera, as in the case of the original performance in 1589. A re-mastered DVD release would be great but I doubt there would be enough commercial interest even if the original masters were available.

A VHS video was released by EMI Classics ( MVD 99 123 23) together with a CD of the soundtrack (CDC 7 47998 2) and is a Thames Television / Taverner Consort production.

[gganilgg]

Utter beauty.

Thank you.I've waited for this for 15 yrs.

[christiaandhooghe]

In what part..is the Sorceress????

Riding the clouds, with a car...