Claudio Monteverdi - Lamento della Ninfa

"Le tre parti, che cantano fuori del pianto della Ninfa, si cantano al tempo della mano; il pianto di essa va cantato a tempo dell'affetto del animo, e non a quello della mano".

Monteverdi's eighth book of madrigals, published in 1638, represent, in many ways, the culmination of this art form. The dramatic expressiveness of the genre is pushed to its outermost limits. Moreover, we see the emergence of a cycle as madrigals composed over a long period are skillfully strung together creating a magnificent tableau. Monteverdi attaches the name "madrigals of war and love" to the work, but there is a sense of progression to it. It owes something to the intermedio tradition of the Renaissance, but it moves in the direction of the early Baroque opera. The war-like madrigals are composed in a style that conveys great agitation and pumping adrenalin. Blows fall, heroes triumph, but they also make fatal mistakes. Monteverdi develops new techniques to convey this through the medium of the human voice, especially the rapid-fire repetitions of the stil concitato. But for pure theatricality and for dexterity that foreshadows the grand operatic tradition, nothing competes with the Nymph's Lament found in the second part of the book. War, devastation, death are quickly followed by pity, expressions of loss and lamentation. The turning of the wheel of human emotion proceeds in a smooth glide. And while Monteverdi's initial madrigals in the series aim to get the blood pumping and to build apprehension, the second group tug relentlessly at the heartstrings. The lament is certainly one of Monteverdi's absolute masterpieces, its tonalities are rich and dynamic, and it marks a breakthrough for the early Baroque style. The truly operatic soprano solo is juxtaposed against a male trio, and all of this is built over a continuous, hypnotic four-note ground bass (similar to the technique used in many of the duets in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, but here to better effect). In Monteverdi's instructions, the soprano is given license to vent passionate expression (a tempo dell'affetto dell'animo e non a quello della mano, he writes), while the trio adhere to a rigorous tempo. The effect is like nothing else in the madrigal literature, and indeed, Monteverdi is breaking out of it —opera is being born. (http://harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006452)

Soprano: Rossana Bertini

Video editing: A. Uras and R. Pischedda

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Claudio
• Monteverdi
• Lamento
• Ninfa
• Non
• Havea
• Febo
• Ancora
• Amor
• Madrigali
• Bertini