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I Fagiolini (Robert Hollingworth director)
Grounded in the classics of Renaissance and Twentieth-century vocal repertoire, I Fagiolini is
renowned for its innovative and often staged productions of this music. I Fagiolini has staged Handel
with masks, Purcell with puppets, and in 2004 premiered The Full Monteverdi, a dramatised account
of the composer’s Fourth Book of Madrigals (1603) by John La Bouchardière, which has since been
turned into a highly successful film shown all over the world. In 2006 I Fagiolini toured its South
African collaboration Simunye and in 2009 created Tallis in Wonderland, a new way of hearing
polyphony with live and recorded voices.
In 2011, I Fagiolini celebrated its 25th anniversary with a commission from Orlando Gough, The Spell,
a semi-staged production of Purcell King Arthur with the English Concert, and the hugely successful
world premiere recording of Striggio Mass in 40 Parts on Decca. The recording stayed at the top of
the specialist classical chart for nearly four months and won the 2011 Gramophone Early Music
Award and a Diapason d’or de l’année.
2012 featured a tour of Striggio Mass in 40 Parts, the group’s Royal Albert Hall Prom debut and the
release of 1612 Italian Vespers, (Gramophone CD of the Month) premiering multi-choir music by
Viadana and a reconstructed ‘lost’ Gabrieli Magnificat. It also saw the launch of yet another unlikely
collaboration, How Like An Angel (HLAA), this time with Australian contemporary circus company,
Circa. HLAA premiered as part of the Perth International Arts Festival and toured the UK as part of
London 2012 returning in 2013 with 22 sell-out shows. I Fagiolini closed the year with a new
production for Opera North, including shadow puppetry, of David Lang The Little Match Girl Passion.
2014-15 included debuts at the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (Shakespeare’s Globe), Carnegie
Hall and I Fagiolini’s first tour of Australia with Musica Viva, which included a new commission by
Andrew Schultz and Timothy Knapman.
I Fagiolini’s most recent immersive theatre project, Betrayal: a polyphonic crime drama, premiered
at the Barbican in May 2015. Again conceived by John La Bouchardière, this immersive theatre work
with dancers and singers was set in ‘crime scenes’ and used the unsettling music of Carlo Gesualdo.
Forthcoming projects and performances include Carnevale Veneziano (Monteverdi to Monty
Python), further performances of Betrayal and How Like An Angel, the DVD release of Draw on
Sweet Night (a film and CD about John Wilbye), three programmes celebrating Monteverdi’s 450th
anniversary, BBC broadcasts, Wigmore Hall and performances across Europe and the USA.
I Fagiolini’s next recording project for Decca, Amuse-Bouche, includes the world premiere of Jean
Françaix Ode a la Gastronomie and an arrangement for piano and voices by Roderick Williams of the
slow movement of the Adagio from Ravel Piano Concerto in G. The CD will be released in Spring
2016 and toured in Summer 2016.
The name I Fagiolini continues to be misspelt and mispronounced wherever it goes from Africa to
Australia. It has recorded 20 CDs and four DVDs and is delighted to be Ensemble-in-Residence at the
University of York. I Fagiolini is managed worldwide by Percius. www.percius.co.uk
This biography is valid for use until September 2016.
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