I Fagiolini
Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award, 2005 Founded in 1986, I Fagiolini has undertaken a host of innovative productions of Renaissance and contemporary work, all designed around the core idea of how audiences actually receive music when much of it is several hundred years out of context. With director Peter Wilson, the group explored Italian Renaissance comedies and short French and Spanish pieces from the period, producing a masked version of Handel’s Acis & Galatea and a puppet version of Purcell’s The Indian Queen. In 2005, with The Opera Group, I Fagiolini performed Ed Hughes’ The Birds for 10 singers, actor, two instrumentalists and no conductor.

Hailed by The Times as “A compelling but upsetting piece of theatre… A bleak but brilliant evening,” and The Guardian as “an unforgettable experience”, The Full Monteverdi, directed by John La Bouchardière, ran for 88 performances, finishing with a run at the Lincoln Center, New York.

The name I Fagiolini has been misspelt and mispronounced throughout the world: the group has visited some of its most interesting countries, including Hong Kong, China, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, the Ukraine and the USA, often as ambassadors for the British Council. In April 1997 the singers spent two weeks in South Africa working with a choir from Soweto on a partly improvised album, Simunye. This original and moving project was released by Erato on its crossover label Detour, and toured to Europe, South Africa and Bermuda, returning in May 2006 for an acclaimed UK tour.

Other collaborations have always been a pleasure: Bach with the Orchestra of the Age Enlightenment, Barokksolistene, Feinstein Ensemble and Academy of Ancient Music, Christmas Vespers in Venice with the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Byrd with the viol consorts Fretwork and Concordia, and Warlock and Anne Dudley with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Robert Hollingworth.

I Fagiolini’s work on Monteverdi now appears on CD with Sweet Torment, the third in their Monteverdi series for Chandos. The group has released 14 other CDs including English Renaissance works and a focus on Venice with Carnevale Veneziano, Andrea Gabrieli – The Madrigal in Venice, and a DVD of Vecchi’s masked comedy L’Amfiparnaso with actor Simon Callow. This was the first DVD of a staged Renaissance work and described as “a silk purse [turned] into one beaded in gold… we end up with the best of all worlds” (Gramophone) and “a triumph for I Fagiolini and Chandos and a benchmark for the DVD industry as a whole” (International Record Review). Mind you, a French reviewer absolutely loathed it.

Robert Hollingworth
Monteverdi specialist Robert Hollingworth founded I Fagiolini in 1986. Directing this group has taken up most of his time since but he has directed other ensembles at home and abroad, most recently the BBC Singers, NDR Chor, the Academy of Ancient Music and St James’ Baroque. In 2004 he directed the Nederlands Kamerkoor in a ground-breaking new music-theatre project, Faust, which he created with Henk Schut. Acclaimed by the Dutch press, it was set in startling venues: a vast Amsterdam ship-building yard, a disused station, and Bremen Cathedral. He directed Opera Zuid’s underground production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. He has conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra in a project with The Full Monty composer, Anne Dudley, and the BBC Singers in programmes of Jakob Gallus, Giovanni Croce and Vivaldi. He writes and presents programmes for BBC Radio, notably The Early Music Show and Discovering Music, and has worked on a number of films including Quills. In 2006 he was appointed as one of the artistic advisors to the York Early Music Festival and for 2009 to the Trigonale Festival in Austria; he founded the spectacular Islington Winter Music Festival. He regularly leads choral courses and is once again directing at Dartington International Summer School in 2010.