La Venexiana
La Venexiana, was founded in 1996 by Claudio Cavina, and is presently the most well known madrigal group around. Its name derives from the anonymous renaisaance comedy of the same name. La Venexiana aims to incorporate into its musical interpretations, the theatrics, subtleties of language and conflict between refined and popular, or sacred and profane, art that characterises our culture today. Since the beginning of 1998 La Venexiana has collaborated exclusively with the Spanish label Glossa. La Venexiana’s collection, Il Madrigale Italiano, includes madrigal works by Monteverdi, Luzzaschi, Luca Marenzio, D’India, and De Wert. With their interpretation of Italian madrigals, the group won the International Prix Cecilia (1999), Prix Cini (2000), Prix Amadeus (2000), Amadeus CD of the year (2001), Gramophone Award (2001), Cannes Classical Award (2002), Grand Prix du Disque Academie Charles Cross (2003) and Deutschen Schallpattenkritik (2005, 2006). All these awards proclaimed La Venexiana as the “New Orpheus” of the Italian madrigal repertoire.
In 2007/2008 La Venexiana performed the Ballo delle Ingrate and Era la Notte (Paola Reggiani’s production) at the Festival Van Vlaanderen, Vevey, Hamburg, Cremona Festival Monteverdi, Eilat, Madrid Teatro Real, Potsdam Sanssouci, and Amsterdam Concertbegouw. In 2008 La Venexiana concluded the recording of Monteverdi Edition, cited as the most imporant release of the Year. Their Grand Tour with L’Orfeo by Monteverdi was a great success in London, Melk, Regensburg, Lyon, Weingarten, Jerez, Brugge, Udine, Modena, St. Gallen, Viterbo, and Eilat, and in 2008/2009 it was also performed in Sablé, Chatilly, and Seattle. La Venexiana’s performance in 2008 of the Incoronatione di Poppea, for The New Opera Project, was recorded by Glossa and then shown in Herne, Paris (Cité de la Musique), Regensburg, Milan and Perigueux.
La Venexiana’s latest projects: in 2010 the group will perform Artemisia by Francesco Cavalli and in 2011 The Return of Ulysse by Monteverdi. In 2010 La Venexiana started a new recording project with Glossa, Madrid: The Cavalli Opera Edition. Their performance programme for 2012 includes the first performance of Handel’s Opera Rodrigo and new repertoires including Opera Arias, Scarlatti Oratorios, Bach Cantatas, and pieces by Handel and Vivaldi. La Venexiana has established a new style in Italian early music performance: a warm, Mediterranean blend of textual declamation, rhetorical colour and harmonic refinement.
www.lavenexiana.net