Review: Vecchi: L'Amfiparnaso****

At Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, York

Opera, as we know it, was still a long way off when the Italian composer, Orazio Vecchi, composed the madrigal comedy, L'Amfiparnaso.

First seen in 1594, it has been recreated by the outstanding vocal and instrumental group,

I Fagiolini, for this year's York Early Music Festival.

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They would be the first to agree that it is only an educated guess as to how such works would have been presented in those days, but the text – which is difficult to translate – would indicate a rather thinly-disguised bawdy tale. Performed in Venetian masks with a few props, and a painting of an old Italian town to provide the scenery, the story was mimed to the musical backdrop, the singers often doubling as actors.

The modernisms should be dropped as they add nothing, but the group milked every possible laugh, if at times the sexual innuendo became a little too explicit.

I suppose we were all guilty of watching the comic antics on stage and paid too little attention to the excellence of the singing. It was on that exalted level we have come to expect from the company, the soprano, Anna Crooks, being a delight throughout, while the two instrumentalists added a very discreet accompaniment.