Monteverdi Vespers of 1610

Not many works change the course of musical history, but Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 did. This masterpiece straddled the fault-lines separating the austerity of the Renaissance and the dramatic theatricality of the Baroque. It is a grand collection of psalms, motets and sinfonias that can feel as emotional as opera and as eternal as plainsong, while drawing extensively on both. Positioning groups of voices and instruments around its performance space, Monteverdi’s piece provides an immersive musical experience and also a rare one, given its treacherous technical and interpretative challenges. In the galleries of the Sheldonian Theatre, and then in the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Marios Papadopoulos marshals this most majestic and timeless of sacred works.