Lamento (Raumkonzept)

January 2024-present
installation in progress

Lamento (Raumkonzept) is based on a madrigal called Lamento della Ninfa that was composed in 1638 by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). By extracting and singing only the soprano line from the vocal work, I want to enhance the power and evoke a sense of isolation of an individual voice as an evidence of its presence and existence.
In order to depict the sensation of abandonment present in the madrigal and a heightened intimacy of the human voice, the recording is accompanied by visuals made in response to the architecture and atmosphere of the place, imagining the voice floating within the walls of the tranquil town.
This feeling of the finitude of both lives and universal things alongside the melancholic beauty of the lament from Monteverdi’s madrigal works as a reminder that in the end nothing is fixed.

︎ Listen to Lamento

Martyna Benedyka
Krems an der Donau

(24-01-2024)

Amor
Amor
Amor
Dove, dov’è la fè
Ch’el traditor giurò?
Fa che ritorni il mio
Amor com’ei pur fu,
O tu m’ancidi, ch’io
Non mi tormenti più.
Non vo’ più ch’ei sospiri
se lontan da me,
No, no che i martiri
Più non dirammi affè.
Perché di lui mi struggo,
Tutt’orgoglioso sta,
Che sí, che sí se’l fuggo
Ancor mi pregherà?

Se ciglio ha più sereno
Colei, che’l mio non è,
Già non rinchiude in seno
Amor sí bella fè.
Ne mai sí dolci baci
Da quella bocca havrai,
Ne più soavi, ah taci,
Taci, che troppo il sai.