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‘L‘Orfeo is an opera about an opera. It’s a powerful musical drama. It’s about the power of art in building the world,” says the director and artist William Kentridge. Claudio Monteverdi’s 1607 work, if not the first opera, is the oldest opera still performed today, written when the form was in its infancy.
Monteverdi called his work – composed for music at the ducal court of Mantua, “favola in musica – a musical legend”. “Monteverdi was a genius,” says conductor Jonathan Cohen. “This piece is about the most famous singer in the world. He begins with the introduction where he has the symbolic form of La Musica (Music, here sung by Francesca Aspromonte, who also plays Eurydice in this production), who says ‘I am music, and I have the power to stop the birds from singing, the power over nature.’ And of course Orfeo, the singer, has the power to control even rocks, trees, animals and affect people’s thoughts.”
This is the first time Glyndeborne he has been creating work.
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William Kentridge (centre) during the trial, aboveand, down, Kentridge talks to Francesca Aspromonte (La Musica/Euridice) and Roseline Wilkens (Euridice).
Kentridge is looking at La Musica’s pictures. “La Musica leads the prologue, and, as it were, makes the whole opera come to life.” Production gives the idea of Musica as a force of creativity, they are like an artist in their studio, who paints sets, paints ideas as they do it. which I have done mainly as charcoal drawings, either in notebooks or on large sheets of paper.”
The artist’s studio is a combination of a Bauhaus studio with items from the Kentridge studio in Johannesburg – and imported from South Africa. The animations – all drawn by him – transform the stage into different places.
In Monteverdi’s opera, Euridice has only 12 lines to sing. Kentridge’s performance gives him a lot of scope, and keeps him until the end of the opera, trying to find his voice, say, or his song. “There are always two songs, not one,” says Kentridge. “There is the song of Orpheus, but there is also the unheard song of Eurydice.”
Monteverdi’s Orfeo is adapted from Ovid’s telling of the Metamorphoses myth. Kentridge was also inspired by Rilke’s retelling of the story of Orfeo, and his events are set around the 1920s – the time when Rilke was writing the Sonnets to Orpheus.
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Driver, Jonathan Cohen; aboveFrancesca Aspromonte (on the left) and choreographer Gregory Maqoma (right).
“There’s a lot of freedom in baroque music,” Kentridge says. So you’re not just looking at the visuals, but you’re looking deeper. There’s a lot of room for the artwork to show up.”
L’Orfeo has survived because – very strangely – it was published. Monteverdi wrote the instruments he wrote: for his time the greatest and most successful number. Musicians from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (conducted by Cohen) play period instruments, in the Glyndebourne pit there are theorbos (bass lute, with a very long neck), lirone, viol and bass viol and harps. Cohen plays three keyboards – a harpsichord, an organ on the floor and, to his left, a “regal” organ – an organ with reeds.
One of the innovations of Monteverdi’s opera was his determination to make the music expressive. The song should emphasize and explain the text and express the feeling.
“There are always different time periods in opera,” Kentridge said. “You have the time when the song was written, in this case, 400 years ago. You have a set time, which in our case is 100 years ago. And then you have the time of the audience that is watching, which is 2026. And then here you have the additional information, which is Ovid repeating about something, five years that you stop at 2,00 years. way.”
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(above on the left) Director William Kentridge and Krystian Adam and assistant director Luc De Wit; (top right) Kystrian Adam and Nick Frentz on stage during the rehearsal; (bottom left) Krystian Adam, Francesca Aspromonte and Nick Frentz in the background; (bottom rightAdam and Frentz.
“Like all music, you have to put your life into baroque music,” says Krystian Adam. “There are rules, of course, but baroque music always involves improvisation. In your voice and your energy, you have to have the flexibility to use many different styles. When you listen to Monteverdi’s music, you can often recognize some aspects of jazz, even rock and pop music. My song, “Vi ricorda, o boschi ombrosi” could be a modern Eurovision song.
Adam was born in Poland but has lived in Sardinia for 20 years. He went to Glyndebourne on his bike. “I live in Eastbourne and every evening I go to the beach … I clear my head.” Does he swim? No, it’s too cold – in Sardinia too at the moment! But I look and I touch it with my feet.” It’s his, and Francesca Aspromonte’s first time at Glyndebourne. “I like how you get the chance to meet other players from other sports, and watch the rehearsals,” Aspromonte says. Musicians often stay in their own lane.
Both speak of the “genius” of Monteverdi. Adam said: “I really like this opera because the music is very good. “It was the first opera I sang professionally. His poetry, his beauty – I love him to death,” adds Aspromonte.
“L’Orfeo talks about the power of art and the power of music. It has the power to change people’s lives and it can change even from death to life. And I think that’s why it endures. Not only that, but it’s a great work of art,” says Cohen.
L’Orfeo, a co-production with the Greek National Opera and the New York Metropolitan Operaand to Glyndeborne till 25 Julyin Athens 30 October to 14 November and at the Metropolitan Opera New York later.
