Una Stravaganza Dei Medici (5)

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 5th video (out of 8) features this music:

Intermedio III - The Golden Age is Foretold (continued)
Giovanni de' Bardi: Miseri abitator a 5

Intermedio IV - Arion and the Dolphin
Malvezzi: Io, che l'onde raffreno
Malvezzi: E noi, con questa bella diva a 5
Malvezzi: Godi, Coppia Reale a 5
Malvezzi: Che vede uscir da voi a 5
Malvezzi: E discacciar dal mondo a 3
Malvezzi: Onde fara ritorno a 5

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Category:

Music

Tags:

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

[exitdogger]

Thanks for posting this! I had this many years ago on Laser Disk and have long missed it!

[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.

[janeym]

Heavenly music! I admit I was kind of horrified by the visuals...haha

[Parmafoi]

I cannot believe this is real.

What a wonderful job they did.

Would it be available on DVD?

Is this Emma Kirkby singing ?

[mradaChris]

I like the dolphin aria...

[mradaChris]

Wow this is so dark but it is a great production!

chris

[ypofero86]

Love the volcano, hell kind of thingy at the beginning, just awesome!