Appollo's Fire Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 October 15, 2010

Adult $40 | University Park Student $19 | 18 and Younger $27

Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, returns to Penn State—after its triumphant Schwab Auditorium debut in November 2007—to perform Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, 1610. The Vespers, based on Catholic evening prayers and featuring orchestra, soloists, and chorus, is considered the most ambitious work of religious music before the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach. Apollo’s Fire, directed by conductor and harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell, has earned a national reputation for its dramatic, spontaneous, and improvisatory performances of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music played on period instruments. “The entire account [of Monteverdi’s Vespers] was an Apollo’s Fire triumph,” writes a reviewer for Cleveland’s Plain Dealer. “Sorrell must be one of the best conductors around in this repertoire. In her hands, the glory of Monteverdi’s accomplishment couldn’t have been more radiant or moving.”

Complimentary round-trip shuttle service is provided between the Eisenhower Parking Deck and Schwab Auditorium.

Official Website: http://www.cpa.psu.edu/events/apollo.html