Les Traversées Baroques & le Chœur de l'Opéra de Dijon

In continuity with the admirable Vespers of last season, Les Traversées Baroques, the Chœur de l’Opéra de Dijon and Étienne Meyer give a passionate perusal of Monteverdi’s great sacred testament, Selva Morale e spirituale.

A major work of Western vocal music, with its allegorical title taken from noble poetry, the "Moral and spiritual forest" is a collection of more than 40 sacred pieces published in 1640, three years before the composer’s death. Most are devoted to the liturgy of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, and testify, in a quasi-testamentary manner, to the influence of this sanctuary on the composer born in Cremona. What is most prodigious, of course, is the extraordinary quality of the pieces, which reveal such a wide variety of form: from solo arias to the grand polyphony of eight voices and concertante instruments, as well as spiritual madrigals with three to five voices, works for a capella choir in the Renaissance style… At the heart of this cosmogony, made up of ardent faith, lightness and poignant suffering, Monteverdi revels in the magistral deployment of strict counterpoint, expressive figuralism, mass effects and dramatic intensity: while remaining devoted to a religious life, he had forgotten nothing of the experience of L’Orfeo or L’Incoronazione di Poppea.

Musical director Étienne Meyer
Les Traversées Baroques
Chœur de l’Opéra de Dijon 

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Claudio Monteverdi
Selva Morale e spirituale