La Nébuleuse / Gabriel Rignol

Cast: 13 artists (3 singers - 2 violins - 1 viola - 1 bass viol - 1 bass viol - double bass viol - harpsichord - organ - harp - theorbo)

Created around Claudio Monteverdi's Combat de Tancrède et Clorinde, the programme is structured as a coherent overview of the Italian musical world of the 17th century. Written for the Venice carnival of 1624, the Combattimento was a landmark work of innovation for its time, being the only madrigal to include stage directions, bringing it close to the operatic genre. The text, taken from a poem by Tasso, focuses on Testo's (Antonin Rondepierre - tenor) narration of the heart-rending story of Tancredi (Imanol Iraola - baritone), a Catholic crusading warrior who, unable to recognise his lover Clorinde (Jehanne Amzal - soprano), ends up killing her during a duel.