Songs of Love & War

Academy of Ancient Music performs Monteverdi’s genre-defying Madrigals of Love and War. Unrequited passion has never sounded sweeter.

In lovers’ hearts, ice and fire mingle… and when Claudio Monteverdi published his Madrigals of Love and War he opened the floodgates to a new world of European art: magical tales of bold warriors and lovestruck nymphs, told in music that explored uncharted realms of tenderness, fantasy and drama. With Monteverdi, all bets are off.

But at AAM, those are exactly the odds they like. Directed by Laurence Cummings, and with the stellar voices of tenor Ed Lyon and soprano Anna Dennis, tonight they’re playing for the human heart itself, on an evening-long journey into one of music’s wildest, wittiest and most exquisitely beautiful minds. Monteverdi dedicated this music to an Emperor: today, they’re playing it just for you.

From Claudio Monteverdi's Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi (1638):

Sinfonia, a doi violini e una viola da brazzo
Altri canti d'amor
Hor che'l ciel e la terra (prima parte)
Così sol d'una chiara fonte viva (seconda parte)
Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Amor, amor from Lamento della Ninfa
Ballo: Movete al mio bel suon

Anna Dennis soprano
Ed Lyon tenor
Academy of Ancient Music
Laurence Cummings director & harpsichord