Una Stravaganza Dei Medici (6)

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 6th video (out of 8) features this music:

Intermedio IV - Arion and the Dolphin (continued)
Girolamo Fantini: Fanfara
Malvezzi: Sinfonia a 6
Jacopo Peri: Dunque fra torbide onde
Malvezzi: Lieti solcando il mare a 7

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Category:

Music

Tags:

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

[Cadmium77]

A great work of art, and a magnificent piece of sorcery/renaissance magic/proto science. I strongly recommend the works of Dame Frances Yates of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, such as "Giordano Bruno" and "The Rosicrucian Enlightenment" among many others. Thank you for posting it. I'm glad to see transition music has so many fans, intelligent fans at that.

[lalagonegaga]

LOL! I've just started reading The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Are you inside my hear or what? XD

[Parmafoi]

Why I have never heard of it before?

For me Nigel Rogers is the best Monteverdi singer ever and I thank You lalagonegaga to find and reveal it

I wish I could have it on DVD

[stetson245]

yes he is. I am his daughter and this video must be false this is his voice but not his face they have dubbed him

[Cadmium77]

Great minds think alike. Thanks for the Mirielle Matthieu song...

[sealforvr]

A great example of a royal Masque and a good illustration of the vast wealth of the monarchs of the period, that they could commission a work like this to be performed once, then put away. We are very lucky that this came down to us completely intact, with staging notes and conductors comments from the performance, down to the ex tempore of the individual performers.

[ManfredDeJesus]

I remember watching this when it first came on tv in Australia in 1994. I loved it, and it's what got me into early music

[Faircrowd1]

Very interesting & enjoyable

[mradaChris]

Very enjoyable! I am having a "ball" today!

c.