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Energetic playing, clarity and precision from Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques in three dramatic pieces by Monteverdi, but some weighty singing obscures the detail. 

Staged at Dutch National Opera’s workshop, Madrigals reduces the distance between public and performers and creates a real sensorial experience. 

Emotions run high in a programme of Monteverdi madrigals given by Cantar Lontano at the Utrecht Early Music Festival.

Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci, a darling of the Parisian opera stages, puts on a fine display of her vocal range on the occasion of the American première of her production titled Era la Notte (in English translation, “It Was Night”). Originally staged in 2006, this performance is being presented in New York as part of the White Light Festival at the Lincoln Center.

It is not often you find Monteverdi and Stravinsky snuggled side-by-side on the same programme, but that was exactly what was packed into the latest instalment of The Bostridge Project: ‘Ancient and Modern’ series at the Wigmore Hall.

There are some musical compositions that have always been a bit of a gamble, for composers, performers and even listeners. They might be exceptionally difficult, require extraordinary forces, or show such originality as to be perpetually startling.