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Toronto Consort Recreates Lavish Venetian Celebration with Monteverdi's Christmas Vespers TORONTO, November 29, 2005 — The Toronto Consort is thrilled to present Monteverdi’s Christmas Vespers of 1641 at 8:00 pm on December 9 and 10, 2005 at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre. No stranger to the music of this Italian master, the Consort has performed many of the composer’s operas in concert, as well as his better-known 1610 Vespers. Joined by period strings, recorders, theorbos, keyboards and guest soloists, the Consort recreates the lavish celebration of the Christmas Vespers that Monteverdi himself might have led in 17th-century Venice. Tickets are available through the Box Office at (416) 964-6337. Monteverdi’s best-known sacred work is his spectacular Vespers of 1610, however scholars have recently discovered that his Selva Morale e Spirituale contains music for other services, including psalms, Magnificats, hymns and motets for a Venetian Christmas Vespers. From this collection, Artistic Director David Fallis has selected settings appropriate for a Christmas Eve vespers service that might have been in heard in 17th century Venice. Monteverdi’s stunning double choir settings will be performed one-on-a-part by sopranos Michelle De Boer and Katherine Hill, altos Laura Pudwell and Peter Mahon, tenors Kevin Skelton and David Arnott, and basses John Pepper and Andrew Mahon. Performances of the composer’s large sacred works routinely draw sell-out crowds, and the sheer beauty of Monteverdi’s music effects audiences as much today as it did in the 17th century, when Florentine editor Francesco Sansovino wrote this description of the Christmas Vespers: “Christmas Eve is celebrated with the sweetest sounds of voices and instruments by the salaried musicians of the church and by others hired specially to make a greater number, since on that evening they sing in eight, ten, twelve and sixteen, to the wonder and amazement of everyone, and especially of foreign visitors, who declare that they have never heard music as rare, or as remarkable in other parts of the world.” Media Contact:
© 2005, Toronto Consort |
The Toronto Consort
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