Philip Pickett

LOOKING BACK

Monteverdi L’Orfeo 2007

NEW LONDON CONSORT
Philip Pickett

Jonathan Miller director
Sue Lefton choreography
Shirin Guild costumes

Mark Tucker Orfeo
Julia Gooding La Messaggiera
Joanne Lunn La Musica, Proserpina
Revital Raviv Euridice
Mark Chambers Speranza
Andrew King Apollo
Michael George Plutone
Simon Grant Caronte

An extensive tour of highly acclaimed performances in Poole, Bristol, Brighton, Newbury, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Gateshead, Glasgow, Rotterdam, Paris, Luxembourg, Bergen, Aranjuez, Pamplona, Warsaw, Jerusalem, Beijing, Guanajuato and Mexico City.

Reviews from the tour...

There was one performance only at the Queen Elizabeth Hall of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, given by the New London Consort under Philip Pickett, and staged minimalistically by Jonathan Miller. It was tremendous. What was so marvellous about the New London Consort’s account was its directness and its intensity. Orfeo wailed, wept, sobbed, as well as singing his lines with the utmost expressiveness. And he, like all the performers, was given plenty of time by Pickett to fill the text and the vocal line with meaning. An experience both beautiful and sublime. The Spectator

From the moment in the Prologue when Joanne Lunn got the whole fable underway with La Musica's aria about the power of her art, the meshing of the score and the drama was perfectly achieved. Every member of the cast seemed totally at ease, so that this recreation of the most important event in the history of opera seemed the most natural thing in the world. The Guardian

There was something very special in this performance of Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo. This was one of the most exquisitely staged performances of the opera imaginable. In a beautifully sensitive and unforced production by Jonathan Miller, the opera was costumed in cool contemporary greys and blacks and staged with a miraculous economy of choreography that captured every nuance of movement, dance and theatre in the opera without remotely cluttering the stage. The sheer ravishing beauty of the music was projected effortlessly by conductor Philip Pickett and his great period band, the New London Consort, ranged around a fluid and endlessly expressive team of singers. Whatever has happened since in opera, Monteverdi did the lot, expressively and dramatically, centuries earlier. Wonderful. The Glasgow Herald

In this performance by Philip Pickett and the New London Consort one could enjoy Monteverdi’s masterpiece in its purest form, with fifteen excellent instrumentalists arrayed on both sides of the stage. Mark Tucker, a beautiful and expressive singer, turned Orfeo into a man of flesh and blood; Julia Gooding’s tidings of woe after Euridice’s death made for a moving moment. And the oppressive scenes on the bank of the Styx and in the underworld, where the striking bass Michael George reigned as Plutone, were masterfully executed, both scenically and musically. Rotterdams Dagblatt

The mutual understanding between the musicians was astonishing, and for most of the concert Pickett could afford just a few friendly nods thanks to the incredible continuo group. The ensembles were light, fluent and rhetorical. Pickett knows everything and more about L'Orfeo. His collaborator, the legendary stage-director Jonathan Miller, is an erudite of the old school, and every discreet gesture had a symbolic meaning. The consistency of the production, together with Pickett's thorough analysis of the musical material, was amazing. These are values too-rarely achieved in our under-educated and under-funded artistic world. Ruch Muzyczny (Warsaw)

2007 Performance Diary

Mar 12	NLC Lighthouse Arts Centre Poole UK Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Mar 14	NLC Queen Elizabeth Hall London UK Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Mar 16	NLC Bridgewater Hall Manchester UK Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Apr 4	Philip Pickett / Aalborg Symphony Orchestra Aalborg Denmark Telemann Overture in F Major Locatelli Concerto grosso Il pianto d'Arianna Mozart Rondo for violin in C major Mozart Symphony 39
Apr 12	NLC Colston Hall Bristol UK Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Apr 24	NLC City Halls Glasgow UK Monteverdi L’Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Apr 25	NLC The Sage Gateshead UK Monteverdi L’Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
May 1-13	Philip Pickett / Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire Nantes France Vivaldi The Four Seasons Vivaldi Gloria
May 16	NLC The Dome Brighton UK Purcell Dido 1700
May 19	NLC Royal Palace Aranjuez Palace Spain Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
May 20	NLC Royal Palace Aranjuez Palace Spain Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
May 21	NLC Baluarte Auditorium Pamplona Spain Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir J. Miller
May 24	NLC Philharmonie Luxembourg Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
May 30	NLC Cité de la Musique Paris France Purcell Dido 1700
Jun 8	NLC Sherover Theater Jerusalem Israel Monteverdi L'Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Jul 22	MoG Buxton Festival UK Private Lives
Jul 26	MoG Cambridge Summer Festival UK Rough Musick
July 31	MoG Concergebouw Amsterdam Netherlands Shakespeare's Musick
Sep 10	MoG Riojaforum Logroño Spain All the King's Men
Sep 11	MoG Iglesia de San Pedro Vitoria Spain All the King's Men
Sep 12	MoG Iglesia de San Miguel Estella Spain All the King's Men
Oct 6	NLC Teatro Juárez Guanajuato Mexico Monteverdi L’Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Oct 8	NLC Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City Monteverdi L’Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Oct 9-10	Philip Pickett / Centro Nacional de las Artes Mexico City Master classes
Oct 15	NLC Westminster Cathedral London UK Monteverdi Vespers 1610
Oct 16	NLC Seville Festival Spain Purcell The Indian Queen
Nov 1	Philip Pickett / Aarhus Symphony Orchestra Aarhus Denmark Haydn Symphony 101 Clock Haydn Paukenmesse
Nov 16	NLC Philharmonic Hall Warsaw Orfeo Monteverdi L’Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Nov 19	NLC De Doelen Rotterdam Netherlands Monteverdi L’Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Nov 23	NLC Town Hall Birmingham UK Monteverdi L’Orfeo dir Jonathan Miller
Dec 13-14	Philip Pickett / Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra Pamplona Spain Beethoven Overture Coriolanus Beethoven Piano Concerto 3 Beethoven Symphony 8
Dec 21-23	Philip Pickett / Rotterdam Philharmonic Rotterdam Netherlands Panufnik Trumpet Concerto Vaughan Williams Folk Songs Resphigi Botticelli Triptych Bizet L’Arlesienne Suite