TENET by night
Lucrezia A Noblewoman’s Tale of Despair
Helen Karloski, mezzo-soprano Matt Zucker, cello Jeffrey Grossman, harpsichord
NOVEMBER 12, 2020
PROGRAM
Lucrezia, George Frideric Handel, (1685-1759)
NOTES
Before Handel earned musical fame after settling in London, he spent several years composing in Italy. At the invitation of the Medicis, he left his native Germany in 1706 and concentrated his attention on writing sacred music as well as operas for the Italian stage. Handel thrived during his time in Italy, getting to know the country which in the early 1700’s was the leading center of music in Europe. During these years he received countless commissions and produced at least forty solo cantatas. Unlike Germany, where the sacred cantata reigned, the secular cantata held sway in Italy and it was there that Handel composed one of his most praised cantatas, La Lucrezia.
In the Baroque era, history and myth were generally interwoven, often with works focusing on heroes and gods of antiquity. Handel however chose to feature female characters in many of his cantatas and operas. Though it is categorized as a solo cantata, La Lucrezia is more or less a miniature operatic scene. It is based on the legendary heroine Lucrezia, told primarily by the Roman historian Livy. Lucrezia was the beautiful and virtuous wife of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus in the 6th century BC. A son of the king of Rome, Sextus Tarquinius, arrives at their house and is given hospitality. Lucrezia is hailed as a model of virtue and arouses interest in the eyes of the king’s son. When everyone else is asleep, Sextus Tarquinius silently goes to Lucrezia’s bedroom and begs that she submit to his advances. Being the dedicated and steadfast woman that she is, Lucrezia rejects him and he in turn rapes her. In the morning, she calls for her husband and father and tells them that she has lost her honor and demands that they avenge her rape. Though the men attempt to convince her that she bears the family no dishonor, Lucrezia disagrees and takes her own life. Appalled at her rape by the king's son and her consequent suicide, the prominent families of Rome rebels against the tyrannical rule of the last king of Rome. They effectively expel the entire Tarquin family and form the Roman Republic.
La Lucrezia, with music by Handel and a libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, focuses on the inner turmoil with which Lucrezia wrestles. Though the cantata is scored for only a few musicians, a soprano soloist and continuo, Handel has succeeded in writing a highly dramatic work that is rich in musical nuances. The piece is structured as a series of recitatives and arias beginning with a plea to the gods, “O Numi eterni!” The incident has already occurred and Lucrezia begs the gods to strike down Sextus Tarquinius for defiling her body. Lucrezia’s sorrow and sense of injustice elicits sympathy from the text in the lamenting aria, “The wicked and faithless betrayer of my honor already rejoices in my anguish.” She barrels quickly towards anger and despair in “Il suol che preme” as she works herself into a coloratura frenzy and calls for the ground to crack open and swallow the evil Tarquinius. She continues to appeal to hell for vengeance but receives no response to her pleas. Alone and helpless, Lucrezia resigns herself to the knowledge that the only choice she has is to take her own life in the stark aria “Alla salma infidel porga la pena.” The cantata concludes with a recitative that culminates in a hateful suicidal fury as Lucrezia vows to take her vengeance after death. Handel’s La Lucrezia is a masterpiece of characterization that tackles difficult and contemporary topics while taking the audience on a harrowing journey of grief and rage.
-Helen Karloski
TRANSLATIONS
Lucrezia RECITATIVE Oh eternal deities! Oh stars! who evil tyrants strike down by lightning, take up your horrible darts at my prayers, with thundering fires incinerate the wicked Tarquinius and Rome; from his proud head, may the unsteady laurel now fall, may abysses open up in the earth, and, as a memorable example, swallow up his unworthy and wicked one in its bowels.
ARIA Already rejoicing in my anguish, the wicked, disloyal betrayer of my honor, departs. You punish the cruel deception of this criminal, just heaven, punish this evil monster with death.
RECITATIVE But you, perhaps in heaven, if for the greater chastisement of my sin, remain idle, provoked deities of heaven; if the stars are deaf, if the spheres do not heed me, then I will turn to you, terrible deity of the abyss, I will wait for you to avenge my betrayed honor.
ARIA May the ground which he treads open up: may the air which the evil Roman breathes become befouled. If he walks, if he glances about, may he meet specters, may he expect to see ruins.
RECITATIVE Alas! in the abyss sleep the furies, the wraths and the vengeance. Has Jupiter no arrows for me then, and hell no pity? Ah! Am I now hated by heaven, ah! tell me: if punishment does not fall upon my head at my remorse, does remorse have the power to punish me?
FURIOSO May it then punish my desperate soul, yes.
ADAGIO But may the sword which I now fearlessly clasp
LARGHETTO give punishment to my disloyal body.
RECITATIVE To you, father, husband, to Rome, to the world I offer my death; may I be forgiven for the abominable crime by which I unintentionally stained our honor, and for the other more detestable sin of not having killed myself before committing the crime, may I be forgiven.
ARIOSO Already, in my breast, this sword begins to complete its harsh duties; I feel that the heart is shaken more from sorrow of this unavenged downfall, than from the fury of my approaching death.
FURIOSO But if I am not allowed to punish the tyrant here, to crush the wicked one with a more barbaric example, so that he may die, to cause his ruin, I will take up the fatal arrow, and, raging and cruel, in hell I will take my vengeance.
PERFORMER BIOS
Mezzo-soprano Helen Karloski has been praised for her “genuine mezzo timbre” (Opera News) and a voice “beautifully suited for oratorio” (Santa Fe New Mexican). Ms. Karloski made her Lincoln Center debut in Mozart’s S olemn Vespers with the Mostly Mozart Festival and her Carnegie Hall debut performing Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Oratorio Society of New York. Recent appearances include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, (Harry Bicket), Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (Omaha Symphony), Der Tag des Gerichts and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (American Classical Orchestra), Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (St. Andrew Music Society), and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New York City Ballet). Ms. Karloski was featured on the 2014 GRAMMY-winning recording T he Sacred Spirit of Russia. In 2015, she was the First-Place recipient in the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition.
Keyboardist and conductor Jeffrey Grossman specializes in vital, engaging performances of music of the past, through processes that are intensely collaborative and historically informed. As the artistic director of the acclaimed baroque ensemble the Sebastians, Jeffrey has directed from the keyboard Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions and Handel’s Messiah in collaboration with TENET Vocal Artists. Last season, he led Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with the Green Mountain Project in New York and Venice. For over a decade, he also toured portions of the United States with artists of the Piatigorsky Foundation, performing outreach concerts to underserved communities. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he holds degrees from Harvard, Juilliard, and Carnegie Mellon University; he teaches performance practice at Yale University. w ww.jeffreygrossman.com
Matt Zucker appears internationally as a collaborator and soloist specializing in historical cellos and viola da gamba. Recent engagements include performances with Les Arts Florissants, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, House of Time, Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, The Sebastians, New York Baroque Incorporated, Variant 6, and Opera Lafayette. Matt has spent his summers performing at the Boston Early Music Festival, Dans les Jardins de William Christie in Thiré, France, and Teatro Nuovo, a festival dedicated to historically-informed performances of 19th-century opera. Matt graduated from the Historical Performance program at the Juilliard School and was awarded a Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant. He holds additional degrees in cello performance and music theory from the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Matt can be heard on Brillance Indéniable, a Swineshead Productions recording of Louis-Gabriel Guillemain violin works with Alana Youssefian and Le Bien-Aimé.