The Full Monteverdi

The Full Monteverdi on Facebook

thefullmonteverdi — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:10:36 +0000

Fans of The Full Monteverdi can now keep in touch using our official Facebook page.

A favourable turnaround in the blogosphere

thefullmonteverdi — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:00:46 +0000

American blogger Paul Padillo has reconsidered his first reaction to The Full Monteverdi; now past his initial misgivings about the mixing of old and new, he now finds it an “oddly beautiful… gem of a movie”. Read his complete posting here.

Monteverdi reaches cinemas in New Zealand

thefullmonteverdi — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:03:42 +0000

The Full Monteverdi opens in cinemas across New Zealand today, 24th June, care of Rialto Distribution.

Monteverdi the modern man

thefullmonteverdi — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:43:42 +0000

Music director Robert Hollingworth offers fascinating insights into the music of Monteverdi in his keynote speech for the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music.

Monteverdi meets St Magnus

thefullmonteverdi — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:38:15 +0000

The Full Monteverdi will be making a trip to Orkney, where the St Magnus Festival will screen the film at the New Phoenix Centre in Kirkwall. Showings take place on 22nd June at 4pm and 6pm.

More praise for The Full Monteverdi in South Africa

thefullmonteverdi — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:33:49 +0000

The Full Monteverdi draws more acclaim in South Africa. Paul Boekkooi of Independent News and Media hails the film as “frontier-shifting musical drama”, “a brilliant idea: to show through contemporary everyday 21st-century environments and the latest film techniques, but without any CGI intervention, how Monteverdi’s texts… can spell out every emotional conflict lovers still feel today” that is “diligently thought through and well-crafted to the hilt.”

Welcomed in South Africa

thefullmonteverdi — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:46:14 +0000

The Full Monteverdi‘s opening weekend at cinemas in South Africa has been well received. According to The Sunday Times there, “it’s daring, original and, for classic music buffs, it is a unique treat”, while Artsmart describes the film as an “audacious cinematic experiment by John La Bouchardiere so skilfully devised and presented that by the end it is impossible not to be drawn in to the dramatic interactions”.

For this week’s timings, visit the listings page at Polyphonic Films.

Monteverdi goes theatrical in South African cinemas

thefullmonteverdi — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:39:04 +0000

The Full Monteverdi will be released across South Africa by Ster-Kinekor Cinemas on Friday 2nd April. Multiple screenings will take place each day in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Return to Oz

thefullmonteverdi — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:26:29 +0000

The Full Monteverdi will be back on Australian television soon. SBS will broadcast the film again on 20 February 2010 at 1pm, offering viewers a cheery way to start their Saturday afternoons.

Why Monteverdi’s fourth book?

thefullmonteverdi — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:45:40 +0000

Music director of The Full Monteverdi, Robert Hollingworth, will be talking on BBC Radio 3 this Sunday 31st January about why Monteverdi’s fourth book of madrigals is top of his list of all-time favourites:

At school in chemistry lessons, instead of writing up experiments, I used to list my all-time favourite cricketers. (Mr Morris encouraged my parents to let me give up chemistry.) On going to university to read music, my tutor John Milsom, perhaps recognising this penchant for lists, asked me what I thought were the greatest books of madrigals ever and while we argued about 2nd and 3rd place, there was never any question of what came first: Monteverdi’s 4th book of madrigals from 1603. It has an unequalled variety and a virtuosity that leaves you breathless, but what hit me as a 20 year old setting up my own solo-voice ensemble was its emotional power.

For years, I performed these pieces with I Fagiolini, noting the different audience reactions. Although I find UK audiences very sophisticated when it comes to listening to Renaissance polyphony in general, I was often disappointed when it came to their emotional reaction to Monteverdi which seemed to be more intellectual than emotional – although that was perhaps more how they expressed what they felt.

Anyway, when John La Bouchardière came along with his idea of dramatising an entire book of madrigals, that same 4th book, I was very interested, though quite skeptical as I didn’t think an audience would be able to listen to that much polyphony without some help along the way by means of pauses. We tried it out and the rest is history – but the thing that convinced me to go ahead with the project was that it would change the way some audiences heard and felt the music.

Sunday’s programme on Radio 3 looks at nearly all of Monteverdi’s 4th book, in performances by I Fagiolini and The Consort of Musicke along with the two top Italian ensembles, Concerto Italiano and La Venexiana. This comparison with the other groups should be interesting in itself and a non-dramatic introduction to the pieces worthwhile for anyone who has seen the film but not looked at the music on its own. For my part, I now find it quite difficult to sing the music without remembering what happened in The Full Monteverdi at that point…

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To hear the programme and for more about the show:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qbzp9