Monteverdi: Orfeo Differently

A stunning Baroque opera in a minimalist, yet emotional and musically diverse version – this is what Elina Albach and CONTINUUM offer.

"Reduce to the maximum" – this is the motto under which the musicians reinterpreted Monteverdi's Orfeo, the first opera in music history. The opera comes to life as an intimate concert narrative, an imaginary work, leaving plenty of room for the audience's imagination and individual experiences. An opera without singers?

According to Elina Albach, "Monteverdi's music is so lyrical and so rhetorical, every element of an opera is so much in the music itself that it is possible." Four Baroque instrumentalists from the CONTINUUM ensemble (Elina Albach, Liam Byrne, Anna Schall and Philipp Lamprecht) will perform the radically reduced music, accompanied by reduced text projections and visual elements created by the graphic duo Happy Little Accidents. Instead of the opera's stage splendor, the performers place emphasis on immediacy and the richness of chamber music. The evening may bring exciting insights to those familiar with Monteverdi's work, but it promises no less experience for those who will encounter it for the first time in this revised version. As Elina Albach put it, "the most important thing for the audience is to experience and enjoy the performance as it is born in the moment."