Selva morale e spirituale

To kick off the 2024 edition of the Festival de Printemps, William Christie conducts a program that draws on one of Claudio Monteverdi's most famous masterpieces: the Selva morale e spirituale. This monumental work is without a doubt one of the high points in the history of Western vocal music. Published at the very end of the composer's life, it marks the culmination of the sacred side of his work, which William Christie strives to show in all its depth, brilliance and modernity. From this immense "moral and spiritual forest" - of which Les Arts Florissants had already recorded some of the jewels in the late 80s - a new anthology is proposed in this concert, made up of some of the major pieces from this collection of over forty. For the occasion, it features the voices of singers who have become emblematic of Les Arts Florissants, most of them graduates of the Jardin des Voix academy for young singers or of the Juilliard School in New York.