Schwetzingen SWR Festival: L'Orfeo without Words

The Ensemble Continuum brings Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo to the concert stage – entirely without words. Orpheus loves. And Orpheus sings. Thus, the title character in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo brings his wife Eurydice back from the underworld to life. And in the same way, the creative musicians of Ensemble Continuum bring the opera to the concert. After all, they too love this early Baroque piece, and those who want to sing do not necessarily need a voice; they can also use the electric guitar, the accordion, the viola da gamba, the sackbut, the recorder, the harpsichord, and the organ. L'Orfeo without words is a condensed essence of opera. It is an exciting music theater about two people, a superpower, and the chance that can lie in failure. Instruments take on the roles of the singers – and prove that it is just a stone's throw from today back to the premiere year of 1607. Feelings do not age any more than Monteverdi's music. It still feels incredibly fresh here – right up to an ending that presents a pastoral-tinged apotheosis to the failure of the doubting hero. "Who sows in pain reaps the fruit with all gain," sing the shepherds and nymphs in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. Here, they do not need words. The original staged version will be performed on May 2 and 3 at the Schwetzingen Rococo Theater.