Stravaganza d'Amore! - The Birth of Opera at the Medici Court;

Late sixteenth-century Florence was alive with theater. Seeking to achieve the perfect blend between music and poetry, intermedi (interludes) were inserted into plays. These interludes were presented with lavish visual and musical resources. After reaching an initial peak in 1589 with the intermedi composed for Bargagli's La pellegrina, the tradition survived the burgeoning genre of opera through the work of such composers as Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi and Gagliano. On this release, rather than aiming for the impossible ideal of a reconstruction, Raphaël Pichon has devised a sort of imaginary intermedi by selecting the finest gems from this repertory, featuring the figures of Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice, and above all Cupid.