VESPRO,
A JUBILANT SOUND EXPERIENCE

La Tempête is a vocal and instrumental company founded in 2015 by Simon-Pierre Bestion. It sets out to express the links and influences among artists, cultures and epochs, exploring with great liberty the points of contact and the musical patrimony.
The group establishes an intuitive, sensorial relationship with the music, and has been widely praised by national and international critics.
In La Tempête’s interpretation of Claudio Monteverdi’s sacred opera Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the listener is immersed in powerful music. The vocal part still predominates while the orchestra presents an experience that must be listened to and lived – in tribute to Venetian polychoral traditions.
To focus on the intimate song of prayer, La Tempête alternates Monteverdi’s psalms with some in faux-bourdon, taken from a manuscript in the library at Carpentras. These anonymous chants have been around for centuries and throughout the Mediterrean. They trace out a vast oral tradition, with harmonies from Italy, Sardinia, and Corsica, and all their popular polyphony.   
From the rich history of multicultural Venice, whose vast range of economic and cultural exchange in the Middle Ages has formed its identity, Simon-Pierre Bestion draws inspiration and selects his ornamentation, the characteristic vocality, and a lively orchestra.