As a curtain-raiser to our 400th-anniversary performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 (see Prom 75), the vibrant French ensemble Le Poème Harmonique conjures up the carnivalesque atmosphere of 17th-century Venice, where the streets and palaces provided a cultural melting pot for the popular and artistic styles of the day.
Along with one of Monteverdi's most famous madrigals, the Lamento della ninfa, the programme includes rarely heard music by Francesco Manelli, the first composer to write operas for the paying public as opposed to the privileged court.