Monteverdi’s Vespers
Friday, September 19, 8.00pm
Saturday, September 20, 8.00pm
Sunday, September 21, 3.00pm
Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College

Grant Llewellyn, conductor
Chen Shi-Zheng, stage director

To purchase tickets, visit Telecharge.com or call 1 800 233 3123.
Tickets may also be purchased at the Majestic Theatre's box office at 219 Tremont Street in Boston, starting at 10.00am prior to each performance.

Monteverdi, the Shakespeare of music, wrote this love song to the Virgin Mary in 1610. Now, the Handel and Haydn Society has commissioned a groundbreaking fully-staged production of this monumental work. Alongside the Chorus and Orchestra, celebrated director Chen Shi-Zheng and a troupe of Asian dancers bring an Eastern view to this intensely personal expression of religious devotion.

About the Work
A lone tenor intones a bit of ancient chant. Suddenly the air is filled with a massive D major chord, ornamented with joyous fanfares. This is the sound of a new era, the dawn of the seventeenth century; Monteverdi’s Vespers is a work that inaugurates the Baroque. Published in 1610, this brilliant collection of liturgical music won Monteverdi the important position of music director at San Marco in Venice, and remains a lasting monument to his art.

Monteverdi’s Vespers has several elements. First, there are five big psalm settings; for each, Monteverdi uses its ancient chant as a cantus firmus threading its way through every verse. He finds wonderfully different ways of treating these psalm-tones—in a web of imitative counterpoint, or with the whole chorus reciting together, or with the cantus firmus as one voice in a florid solo ensemble. In between these psalms, Monteverdi introduces small-scale motets for solo voices, which grow increasingly elaborate in the course of the collection. Lastly, there are some other items: a dancing instrumental sinfonia accompanying a repeated acclamation, a beautiful treatment of the ancient hymn-tune “Ave Maris Stella,” and a splendid Magnificat, where Monteverdi uses all his compositional resources to set Mary’s own words.

To read the program notes, CLICK HERE.
To learn more about the production, CLICK HERE.
To read the Stage Director’s notes, CLICK HERE.
For directions to the Majestic Theatre, CLICK HERE.

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