The on-going 7th Beijing Music Festival is a must-attend for opera fans when four productions entertain during the two week event.

Yu Long, the Festival's artistic director, says the showcase is one of the best in the country.

During rehearsals of Romeo & Juliet -- the opening show of the Poly Theater event -- Yu talked about the absence of opera in the capital city. "As China's center of arts and culture, Beijing should have a diversity of performances on stage including opera," he said.

Yu, who is also the artistic director of China Philharmonic Orchestra, criticized Beijing's opera houses which produced too few shows. He said he was ambitious to present more operas both by Chinese artists and foreign troupes.

Following Romeo & Juliet which was co-produced by the Theater in Capital of Tulous, Shanghai Opera House Choir and China Philharmonic Orchestra, the second opera to be featured in the Festival is Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, performed by Philip Pickett's New London Consort at the Poly Theater on Wednesday.

It is acclaimed for the virtuosity and flair of its instrumentalists and singers and its commitment to presenting early music at the very highest levels.

"The earliest opera to retain a place in modern repertoire is Monteverdi's L'Orfeo," said Zeng Wei, program director of the Beijing Music Festival.

"L'Orfeo is one of the most significant works in the history of music as it is among the earliest examples of the operatic genre. The fact that it is still performed today is testament to its enduring dramatic effect," said local music critic Lun Bing.

A dramatic version of the story of the legendary Orpheus, the musician who sought to bring his beloved Eurydice back from the Underworld by the power of music, L'Orfeo was Monteverdi's first opera written in 1607.

It is based on the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus, son of Apollo and Calliope. Orpheus (Orfeo) loves Euridice, and when she dies, Orpheus is so grief-stricken that he approaches Pluto, God of the Underworld.

He plays his lyre so beautifully that Pluto grants Orpheus the opportunity to descend into Hades to find and return with his beloved Euridice.

One condition is made: Orpheus must not look at her as he returns with her to the world of the living. During the return, Orpheus doubts that Euridice is following him, and he looks back at her. As he does so, she vanishes into the shadows of Hades forever.

Under the baton of Pickett, this production of L'Orfeo is directed by Jonathan Miller. The cast is led by the renowned tenor Mark Tucker as Orpheus and Revital Raviv as Euridice.

A remarkable interpreter in the baroque and classical repertoire, Tucker has performed and recorded alongside many of its leading exponents, including Gardiner, Harnoncourt and Jacobs. Of Anglo-Venetian parentage and bilingual, he has a particular interest in Italian repertoire.

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) can, with more justification than anyone else, be called the founder of opera. His place in the history of Renaissance music can be justly compared with that of Shakespeare's in the history of literature.

Although only three of his operas including L'Orfeo are extant, their power and imagination make them the only early operas to be performed currently in the modern repertoire.

Born in Cremona, Monteverdi, a chorister of Cremona Cathedral and pupil of Ingegneri, published his first work, some sacred madrigals, at the age of 16 and then served at the court of the Duke of Mantua from the early 1590s until 1612.

Opera was a very new form in Monteverdi's day. In fact, the term "opera" didn't even exist when he wrote L'Orfeo in 1607. He called it "a favola in musica" or "story in music." And the work broke completely fresh ground and is of the most significance in the history of opera.

Monteverdi took what had previously been rather monotonous, one-dimensional music drama and enriched it with a full musical expression complementing a coherent dramatic experience.

Many instruments he used in the original L'Orfeo are now considered obsolete in modern symphony orchestras.

Examples include the recorder, harpsichord, viola da gamba, positive organ, reed organ, lute, and guitar. Although these instruments are sometimes played, or may be added individually to modern orchestras, they are not grouped together for accompaniment purposes as Monteverdi would have done.

"Monteverdi's music sounded very different from the musical language of today. Since musicologists do not have specific details on how Monteverdi's music was performed, contemporary performances of L'Orfeo are difficult and sometimes controversial," said Yu.

"But I believe the New London Consort would bring an impressive version, because it is best known for Renaissance and Baroque music and it has been particularly praised for performances of music of Monteverdi and Biber," he added.

The New London Consort is firmly established as a world's leading early music ensemble with an uniquely wide and colorful repertoire of medieval, renaissance and baroque music. Aside from the popular concertos of Bach and Vivaldi, its recordings tend to focus on the operas of the first part of the Baroque.

The Consort has an enviable reputation for the flair, versatility and virtuosity of its members and for consistently presenting interesting and carefully planned programs which combine the very best in scholarship and entertainment.

Each member of the Consort is a virtuoso in his own right and their playing is tight and lively.

Philip Pickett is the founder and artistic director. His interest in the context of music is evident in the New London Consort's programs, which often include reference to the cultural and historical trends of the era that are relevant to the featured music.

The other two operas are The Wager by Chinese composer Wen Deqing, based in Switzerland and to be staged in the Poly Theater on Friday, followed on the next day at the same venue by Magic Flute of Marionette Theater at Schonbrunner based in Vienna.

(China Daily October 18, 2004)