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Reviews

“Any opera house in the world would long to present L’Orfeo with such a level of interpretative excellence. This concert alone would have justified the trip to Utrecht. The greatest merit of Pasotti’s version […] is that it has captured the investigative spirit of the courtly performance that premiered in Mantua in 1607. Even more challenging, he has conveyed that the true protagonist of the story […] is the transformative power of music. It’s difficult to single out any particular detail or performer, because everything was delivered just right: the choirs, the dances, the lyrical outpourings, the madrigal references, or the purely instrumental sections.”

El País, 4/9/2025

“In their late medieval concerts, the smallest gesture counts, and conductor Michele Pasotti approached this ambitious Monteverdi with the same finesse. La Fonte Musica shines new light on this monument of the history of music.” 

Trouw (NL), 1/9/2025

“I can’t get over their sense of ensemble, which opens up the music so marvellously. [They] cover the most intricate difficulties with effortless aplomb and needle-sharp precision …and the gorgeously free lute-playing of Michele Pasotti helps us to understand how the remaining musicians combine stunning accuracy with flexibility and resource. An absolute must!”

(Gramophone, 2021)

“Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria was a great performance. And it was especially so for the musicality. The precision. The strength. The adherence to the Monteverdian spirit of Michele Pasotti, director of the La Fonte Musica Orchestra. It was, to say the least, a magnificent performance in every respect. Pasotti and the instrumentalists managed to handle with the same expressive intensity from the first to the last note, a work that presents no small complexity. Starting, for example, with the accompaniment of the voices. A meticulous, painstaking work. […] Captivating. Imperious and engaging.”

(Cremona Sera, 2025)

“These performances, characterful, pure-toned, immediate, are exemplary”

(The Guardian, 2021)

“[…] freshness, vitality, a fully up-to-date breath, enough to keep the writer glued to the chair without ever suffering a lapse in attention: moreover, the music sounded compelling, tense, pulsating, at times even unprecedented. […] the meticulous orchestration of Michele Pasotti at the head of his Orchestra La Fonte Musica”

(Rivista Musica, 2025)

“Under the direction of Michele Pasotti, La Fonte Musica makes music with an enthusiasm that borders on fanaticism.”

(Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, 2021)

“la fonte musica has a force that echoes that of the pioneer interpreters of medieval music”

(Diapason, 2018)

“A rigorous and measured reading, capable of exalting, with the right effectiveness, the characteristic canons of Monteverdi’s style. An approach that balances tradition and expressiveness, ensuring the right tension for the complex unfolding of the story. Not a mere accompaniment to the voices on stage, but a continuous development of narrative solutions aimed at characterizing, with equal incisiveness, each character and each segment of the story. A reading that thus also embraces the theatrical demands of the show.”

(Opera Oggi, 2025)

“an absolute mastery of all aspects of these repertoires […] a phenomenal research on medieval sources, on the theory and musical languages of the time”

(Diapason, 2017)

“Leading la fonte musica, Michele Pasotti chooses the path of eloquent simplicity. His conducting is a perfect example of balance: rhythmically tense, but never rigid; historically aware, but not dogmatic. The continuous dialogue between vocals and instruments is supported by a sober and dynamic orchestration, in which the word is always at the center and the tempo choices follow the dramatic curve. His sound control is excellent.”

(Opera Click, 2025)

“Metamorfosi Trecento is among the 100 recordings that every music lover should know”