Madrigals in Arcadia

Collegium Vocale Gent and conductor Philippe Herreweghe unlock the gates to Arcadia, a pagan Garden of Eden where shepherds and shepherdesses surrender to nature, song, and love. In an original way, Herreweghe and his singers merge songs by Monteverdi and his contemporaries into a dramatic story about the lovers Tirsi and Clori, alternated with instrumental intermezzos. A story through powerful themes of longing, closeness, separation, death and reunion, culminating in a dazzling dance suite.

Collegium Vocale Gent and founder Philippe Herreweghe are internationally renowned for their work in the field of historical performance practice, specifically their performance of Bach cantatas and early Italian music by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Gesualdo. Through its many performances and recordings, the ensemble has established itself as an expert in this repertoire and as masters in weaving spellbinding atmospheres. Rest assured, these seasoned voices wield the power to conjure the essence of 400-year-old madrigals, echoing them anew in our modern world.

19:00 / Lecture Early Music by Jan Van den Bossche (in Dutch)
Madrigals, madrigalists, and madrigalism
This lecture delves into the history, rise and fall of the Italian madrigal. With its perfect marriage between polyphony and poetry, between balanced form and great eloquence, the madrigal is the undisputed zenith of Renaissance music. It was the most popular, secular genre in the 16th and early 17th centuries.

It was not only performed by Italians; composers from above the Alps, such as Di Lasso and Willaert, also wrote numerous madrigals that are now considered among the best in the genre. And even the German early Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz embarked on a musical odyssey, culminating in a masterpiece - a collection of Italian madrigals. With Claudio Monteverdi, the madrigal reached its highest point. With his last, masterful madrigals, he introduced a new sound and ushered in a new era.

Programme booklet (Dutch)