In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi premiered his Orfeo for the Carnival opening in the Court theatre of Duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua. For the first time in the history of music, real characters are brought to life with deeply moving human feelings: with this exceptional dramatic power, modern opera in born. Stéphane Fuget, a great specialist in this repertoire and its historical instrumentation, after Le Retour d’Ulysse dans sa Patrie, has brought together some of the finest vocal and instrumental virtuosos for this new Orfeo: he has entrusted the eponymous role to the splendid and sensitive Julian Prégardien, to sing all the magnificence of the first true hero in the history of opera.

For the premiere of his Cavalleria rusticana in 1889, Pietro Mascagni had to make a whole series of cuts and transpositions: The chorus at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome was not up to the demanding choral parts, and the soloists of Santuzza and Turiddu sometimes complained that their parts were uncomfortably high – and so the composer not only deleted large parts of the choral passages, but also changed his carefully thought-out key concept. Nonetheless, the piece was such a resounding success at its premiere that it continued to be performed in modified form – even after the piece had long since begun its triumphal march around the world.

In 1906, Komitas gave a concert and lecture in Paris. Debussy came on stage after the concert and knelt before the Armenian composer (who was also a priest, a singer and a pioneer of ethnomusicology), exclaiming: ‘I bow before your genius, Reverend Father.’

In the seventeenth century, the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice took in young orphan girls who received advanced musical instruction. The concerts given there attracted visitors from all over the world, curious to hear these divine voices which remained invisible, since the girls performed hidden behind the grilles of the chapel gallery. Vivaldi became Maestro de’ Concerti of the Pietà in 1714, and it was his pupils who performed his famous Nisi Dominus.