The premiere of Monteverdi’s "L’Orfeo" ("The fable of Orpheus") on the 19th of October 2001 in Duesseldorf marked the beginning of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein’s (Rhine Opera) Monteverdi cycle, a project, which will also include the ensuing Monteverdi productions over the next few years. It was already during the rehearsals, that the idea was born to capture the results of this "intensive and artistically extraordinarily strong approach to Monteverdi’s work" in an audio- and video document. The big success of Loy’s production both with the audience as well as with the critics further initiated the idea and it is thus, that director Christof Loy and Claudia Holthausen set up the label SPERANZA CLASSICS and the product was launched in spring, 2002. The classic music online service OMM maintains: "The video manages to capture Loy’s intensive and touching production in an impressive way. The sensitive pictures highlight clearly the - besides Orfeo (Ludwig Grabmeier) – central part of La Musica or La Speranza (Carol Wilson). Close ups alternating with shots of the whole scenery, pan shots and fades carefully emphasise the subtle direction of the personae and some details, perhaps unrecognised during the live performance, are visually focused on." Besides the track information, the audio CD not only offers a detailed listing of the production’s singers and instrumental accompaniment, but also the Libretto in four languages (Italian, German, English, French) and two texts on this production of "L’Orfeo". Thus, those responsible produced an article worth seeing and listening to, which also deserves international appreciation."  Visit "La Speranza" on the Internet