THE THEATRE OF MUSIC

In 1999, I Fagiolini began this new project in collaboration with West End director Peter Wilson MBE. The aim was take important large-scale works of secular Renaissance repertoire by Monteverdi, Banchieri, Vecchi, Janequin, Flecha and other which previously regarded as ‘difficult’ because of their context or language barriers. Using their dramatic potential they have been transformed into staged music-theatre pieces, making them accessible to any audience while remaining completely faithful to the music and the original intentions. The project has been a huge success with audiences, promoters and critics and has allowed many more people to enjoy secular Renaissance repertoire.

“I Fagiolini has carved out a niche for itself exploring some of the more off-the-wall corners of early music in a performance style that is at once true to the period and communicative to today's sophisticated audiences.” Daily Telegraph

Banchieri - Festino del Giovedi Grasso (1608) (The Little Carnival Party)

In Banchieri’s Little Carnival Party five friends meet during Carnival to sing for their own entertainment before dinner. There are jokes, party games, tongue-twisters and references to charracters from the commedia dell’arte including wheezing old Pantalone. Even animals join in the fun but before things get out of hand, the fun is punctuated by the most beautiful and bittersweet madrigals in the most extravagant Gesualdo-esque style. A gentle Renaissance farce.

“vivid performances ... hammed up just enough to be properly carnivalesque, but never so much that the music gets lost.” The Times

Banchieri – Barca di Venetia per Padova (1623) (The Boat from Venice to Padua) 5 singers plus harpsichord/lute

Take a trip up the river Brenta from Venice to Padua with a series of characters drawn from commedia stereotypes. From the quayside departure amongst noisy gondoliers, some of the passengers introduce themselves including a courtesan, a moneylender and the traditional drunken German. They sing a few madrigals (wonderful pastiche of Gesualdo and others) to pass the time - but Rizzolina is bored and tells of her amorous education, eliciting an excited response. A prayer-meeting is broken up by more madrigals and popular-style lovesongs, accompanied by the imitation of a lute, one of whose strings breaks. On arrival at Padua it’s time to pay for your tickets and drinks - but beware the conman.

Senfl – Das G’läut zu Speyer

A peal of bells from the Rhine town of Speyer presented as figures from a German clocktower.

“Uncompromised musicianship was coupled with an unbounded joy in brilliant caricature.” Frankfurther Rundschau

Janequin – La Chasse

A royal hunt for a stag at the French court, bringing the scene to life like a Breughel painting.

«un ensemble qui ait en partage avec Croce la rigueur de l'ethnomusicologue et la gourmandise du caricaturiste. » Diapason

Da Flecha - La Bomba / El Fuego

Both ‘ensaladas’; infectiously rhythmic accounts of a shipwreck and a fire, ending in Christmas scenes.

“to see them cannot be described!” El Diario

Giovanni Croce – Mascarate piacevoli

A collection of Venetian carnival pieces caricaturing all levels of Venetian society.

‘I Fagiolini while maintaining the highest musical standards, bring to brilliantly characterised life such figures of politically incorrect fun as senile legislators, inebriated and incomprehensible pedlars and foreigners trying to speak Italian’. The Daily Telegraph

This list of pieces is only a suggestion and must be confirmed with I Fagiolini before going to print.