DVD and Blu-Ray Release: May 2015 br Filmed at the Chapelle Royale du Château de Versailles br br Vespro della beata vergine br Monteverdi Choir br English Baroque Soloists br Choeur d’enfants de la Maîtrise du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles br Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor br br In 1610, Monteverdi gave his Vespers for the Virgin in Mantua before conquering the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice. This was the first great sacred masterpiece of the Baroque. Following the brilliant Orfeo (1607), the Vespers borrow its opening fanfare and positioned Monteverdi as the leading composer of his time. br br J. E. Gardiner founded the Monteverdi Choir, one of the world’s finest choruses, specifically for this work, which he conducted for the first time in 1964 and subsequently recorded twice. br br With the present recording, where the image ideally accompanies the music, J. E. Gardiner wanted to make more perceptible the spatialisation that characterized Venetian music, by using the specific architecture and different levels of the Chapelle Royale at Versailles.