MUSC 320 Playlist - "Possenti spirto"

"Possenti spirto" from L'Orfeo
Composer: Claudio Monteverdi
Librettist: Alessandro Striggio
Score (Takes you to IMSLP page, not PDF... they unfortunately only have the score for the full opera)


Here's the first piece on the MUSC 320 playlist for you all to enjoy. I know that we talked about L'Orfeo in class, but we sure missed a ton of good music. I'd highly recommend clicking on this album in Spotify and listening to the entire thing. This recording features Nigel Rogers as Orpheus, and you hear him here singing "Possenti spirto" (also sometimes spelled "Possente spirto"). In this scene, Orpheus is begging Charon, boatman of the River Styx in the underworld, to let him cross the river. It's a moment of heightened emotion, and one of the most beautiful arias that Monteverdi ever wrote. The interplay between the voice and the instrumental duets is especially fun.

Be sure to open the list in Spotify and subscribe to it, as that's where I'll be adding everything in the future. For the next few posts, I'll keep posting the whole playlist, but eventually that will get cumbersome and I'll just post individual pieces. If you go to the playlist, though, you'll find them all there.