Magdalena Kozena, Andrea Marcon and Le Cetra, Wigmore Hall

Across her residency in Wigmore Hall’s 2015/16 season, the Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena (Carmen) has performed a repertoire that spans several centuries and styles. None of them, though, could prepare you for this – a night that shifts between the beginning of the baroque and the cusp of the contemporary. She will be joined on harpsichord by Andrea Marcon, the Venice Baroque Orchestra founder, and his Basel-based ensemble La Cetra (D’Orfeo).

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The cornerstone of their programme is Claudio Monteverdi, the pioneering genius of the early baroque. The first half contains two selections from his L’incoronazione di Poppea, while the concert closes with Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, a near half-hour long dramatic madrigal from his unsurpassed eighth book. The seventeenth century line-up will be completed by works from four lesser-known but deserving Italian masters – Uccellini, Merula, Castello and Marini, whose Passacaglio remains one of the most startling examples of the form.
Alongside this period feast, Kozena will tackle one of the defining vocal works of the twentieth century – Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III. Scored for a single voice alone, it is an attempt to take the trivial aspects of life and use them to craft a sort of dramatic essay. Requiring a flexible yet firm technique, it should be a thrilling showpiece. The line-up is completed by the UK premiere of Ariana has a problem by the contemporary Czech composer Vit Zouhar, which will be directed by Ondrej Havelka.