Diavolo

The seventeenth century gave the Devil a voice of his own: the bass. Deep, theatrical, capable of seducing before it frightens.

The programme follows this voice through four works in which the Devil loses, one by one, his grip on the word: Monteverdi’s Pluto, who commands; Carissimi’s Lucifer, stripped of the violins, alone with the continuo; Stradella’s damned soul, adrift in a sea of flames; and Vitali’s Devil, driven back into Tartarus to keep Mary safe.

All around them: battles, dances of the shades, chaconnes whirling like a circle that never closes.