To support the theatrical releases of The Full Monteverdi we have re-cut the trailer. It now focuses on the characters rather than simply the concept, and we’ve added a few quotes in for good measure. Watch it below on YouTube or click here for a larger QuickTime HD stream.

“This film is a brilliant adaptation of Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals that is totally faithful to the composer’s music… a brilliant conceit and it works spectacularly well…  This film makes explicit the drama that is inherent in the music and poetry and can, therefore, do a great deal to promote appreciation of Monteverdi’s madrigals… members of I Fagiolini sing with tremendous expressivity, flawless intonation, and amazing vocal technique. So convincing was their performance that it was not difficult at all to suspend disbelief… This is a highly recommended DVD that should prove attractive to both opera lovers and early music devotees.”

William E. Grim Opera Today (USA) Aug 2009

http://www.operatoday.com/content/2009/08/the_full_montev.php

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The UK premiere on SkyArts prompted a new and rather nice review in the Independent on Sunday, in which the film’s realism came in for particular praise:

“John La Bouchardière’s adaptation… had a poignancy that only those who have married their childhood sweetheart and lived happily ever after would fail to recognise…  Shot in a series of unremarkable flats and streets, at restaurant tables and in toilet cubicles, with mascara, snot, baby bellies, wrinkles, receding hairlines and all the accoutrements of experience exposed, this was an exceptionally well-crafted, thoughtful film, beautifully sung and very bravely acted.”

Read the full review, here.

The Full Monteverdi will receive its UK television premiere on 25th December at 20.00 on both SKYARTS 2 and SKYARTS HD. Head of Programming, Adrian Zak writes: “The Full Monteverdi was one of the first projects I was involved with here and it is one of those I am most proud of. We wanted to give it the slot it deserved.”

Given that Gramophone magazine’s critic, Richard Lawrence, recommended that viewers might “need to be in pretty good emotional shape to… survive the experience of watching it”, some may be surprised by the decision to broadcast the film on Christmas day. Director John La Bouchardiere, however, is sticking to his guns: “It will certainly be an unusual antidote to tinsel television but Christmas is about valuing relationships, so just cuddle up in front of the telly and share what’s left of the sherry.”

For full Press Release CLICK HERE

www.skyarts.co.uk

Collaboration between Copenhagen Renaissance Music Festival and the Danish Film Institute gave The Full Monteverdi its Danish screen premiere at Copenhagen’s Cinematek last week. Director John La Bouchardiere was flown over to introduce the screening; the response was such that the question and answer session afterwards had to continue in the cinema foyer, before many in the audience dashed to the DFI shop to buy a copy of the film on DVD. Thanks to Björn Ross and Claus Kjær for working together, gathering such a broad audience and for making the event one of the best screenings we’ve had.

Australia’s broadcaster SBS will show the country’s network television première of The Full Monteverdi on Saturday 18 October at 1pm. This is the film’s second trip to the Southern Hemisphere, following numerous transmissions of the episode version on New Zealand’s The Arts Channel in 2007 and earlier in 2008.

The so-called British summer has provided us more opportunities to show The Full Monteverdi on big screens around England, in venues as widespread as Zeffirelli’s in the Lake District and Chichester Film Festival on the South coast. It’s good to see the film attracting some local press, too, such as this review in Worcester News.

We’ve also had interesting and enthusiastic feedback from our post-screening discussions (music director Robert Hollingworth at Dartington and director John La Bouchardiere at Chichester). The film continues to amaze its audiences, leaving many of them bowled over by its by its emotional force and universally astonished that The Full Monteverdi got made at all. John will be hosting another discussion after the film’s Danish Premiere in November.

More critical acclaim from the USA:

This is a remarkable way of realizing a book of madrigals that was never conceived to be heard this way. It’s highly successful, whether you watch with the English subtitles on or off. Not a word is spoken, for apart from ambient sound there is nothing to be heard but the singing, interrupted only by the briefest of pauses. The emotional expression on all the faces is convincing, an aspect that could easily have spoiled the effect. Repeated viewing will certainly reveal overlooked details, as the viewer becomes familiar with the dozen personalities that pop up in succession with some rapidity. Remember, six amorous breakups are unfolding simultaneously, the emotions and meanings of the madrigals applying equally to all of them. The production was made jointly for five national television systems and Naxos, and it has been broadcast since last autumn. This is a remarkably original conception, carried out with astonishing success. I have never realized the meaning of a set of madrigals as clearly as I did here.

J. F. Weber Fanfare (USA) July/August 2008

The Full Monteverdi comes home once more. The Cheltenham Music Festival hosted the very first three performances of the original live show back in 2004 and had such a huge success that it put on three more the following year. This was the beginning of a long exhilarating journey that took in a further visit to the town early in 2007 for much of the location shooting. Now, in 2008, transformed into a film and glistening with awards, the project returns again for a screening at the same festival. The Full Monteverdi, you could say, has come full circle – three times.

Screening details:

The Full Monteverdi 17.00 5 July
Pittville Studios, Albert Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL52 3JG

http://cheltenhamfestivals.com/whats_on/event_detail.html?id=2103

Cheltenham Festival Box office: 01242 227 97