Lamento d'Arianna

Arianna’s Lament is all that remains of Monteverdi’s second opera L’Arianna (1608). So moved were audiences by what they heard, and so impressed were musicians by Monteverdi’s ground-breaking style, that this climactic scene was independently published and circulated widely in manuscript. This was the first operatic “hit” in history and, much imitated, started a craze for cathartic laments. Monteverdi himself even harmonised the piece as a five-voice madrigal. But this is not an aria. For the highpoint of the opera Monteverdi chose the cutting-edge style of “recitative”. This was the most expressive language open to composers: setting the words to speech rhythms, shaped to the rise and fall of the human voice. With swiftly changing emotions, Arianna comes to terms with her abandonment by the Athenian hero Theseus, after having helped him slay the Minotaur and escape the labyrinth. It’s the ultimate tribute to Monteverdi’s skill that her anguish and emotional turmoil still seem so real and affecting today.