L'Orfeo, Favola in musica(1998)
First seen at La Monnaie in Brussels on 13 May 1998, this production of Monteverdiâs LâORFEO seen through the eyes of Trisha Brown and RenĂŠ Jacobs has become an operatic classic in a few short years. This is doubtless because it offers a total symbiosis of music, text and movement â described by the critic of the Daily Telegraph of London as being âas close to the perfect dance opera as I have ever seenâ. Or to quote Gilles Macassar in TĂŠlĂŠrama: âIn the pit and onstage, the Brussels production has only one watchword: mobility, nimbleness, dexterity. The singers run, fly, whirl like dancers defying gravity. From the flies down to the footlights, the whole theatre is under a fantastic spell.â For Christophe Vetter, on ConcertoNet: âThis Orfeo can be seen again and again with immense pleasure. . . . RenĂŠ Jacobsâs conducting continues to arouse admiration for its precision, its stylistic rigour, its inexhaustible inventiveness and its feeling for the contrasts so vital to this repertoire.â