Orlando Amore
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Orlando amore. gelosia. follia. With the support of: Filippo Mineccia countertenor The New Baroque Times Instituto Cervantes Brussels resident ensemble and the generous contributions of : Diego Fernández Rodríguez, Juan Laguarda Vidal & Mercedes Sanjosé Palop, Pablo García Joaquín García Cebriá, Natividad Sanjosé Palop, Antonio Martinazzo, Bernard Schreuders, artistic director María del Castillo Campos, Gilles Thomas, Halit Halimani & Thomas Elskens, Adolfo Jiménez Reguillo, Susana Morales Olmos, Anita Bertoncini, Alessandro Gori, Emmanuel Resche (concertmaster & direction), Juan Gorraiz, Isabel Garzón Blanco, Antonio Alcaide Ocaña & Emilio José Gómez Rodríguez, Daniel Boothe, Katalin Hrivnák, Izana Soria violin I Javier Martín Fuentes, Habib Rahmé and Carlo Vistoli. Pablo García (leader), Rafael Núñez, Maia Silberstein, Jorlen Vega violin II Alaia Ferrán, Hilla Heller viola Elena Andreyev (solo), Michel Boulanger violoncello Pasquale Massaro double bass Recorded at Dada Studios (Brussels, Belgium), 27th & 28th November 2019 Carlota Ingrid García (solo), Matteo Gemolo traverso Sound engineer & artistic direction: Aude-Marie Piloz Dymphna Vandenabeele, Griet Cornelis oboe Editing: Marion Bénet Transcriptions & critical edition of the scores: Pablo García & Filippo Mineccia José Rodrigues bassoon Executive producer: Michael Sawall Jean-Pierre Dassonville, Pieter D’Hoe horn Booklet editor & layout: Joachim Berenbold Translations of the essay: note 1 music (Deutsch), Mark Wiggins (English) Giulio Quirici theorbo Cover photograph: Miguel Andrés Diego Fernández Rodríguez harpsichord Photos of the recording session: Naya Kuu Artist photo (The New Baroque Times): Andrea Zanovello & © 2020 note 1 music gmbh, Heidelberg, Germany Emmanuel Resche plays a 1670 violin by Francesco Ruggeri CD manufactured in The Netherlands kindly provided by the Jumpstart Jr. Foundation in Amsterdam Orlando amore. gelosia. follia. Agostino Steffani 1654-1728 George Frideric Handel Orlando Generoso Hanover 1691 Orlando London 1733 1 Sinfonia 2:27 11 Ah, Stigie larve! (Orlando) 7:34 2 Non ha’l mar calma sincera (Ruggiero) 1:59 3 Fa che cessi in questo petto (Ruggiero) 1:10 Giovanni Battista Mele 1693 or 1701 - after 1752 Angelica e Medoro Madrid 1747 Nicola Antonio Porpora 1686-1768 12 Non cerchi innamorarsi (Ergasto) 4:59 L’Angelica Naples 1720 4 Ombre amene (Licori) 4:47 Georg Christoph Wagenseil 1715-1777 5 Ove son ? Chi mi guida ? 7:11 Ariodante Venice 1745 Da me chè volete? – Ma qual astro benigno – 13 Ombra cara (Lurcanio) 3:23 Aurette leggiere – Da me chè volete? (Orlando) Giuseppe Millico? 1737–1802 Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741 Angelica e Medoro Vienna? Naples? 1783 Orlando furioso Venice 1727 14 Sinfonia 3:46 6 Sol da te, mio dolce amore (Ruggiero) 9:08 15 Oh, dell’anima mia (Medoro) 4:56 7 Nel profondo cieco mondo (Orlando) 4:23 16 Giusti Numi (Medoro) 3:51 George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 Ariodante London 1735 8 Ouverture 3:02 9 Spero per voi (Polinesso) 4:02 10 Dover, giustizia, amor (Polinesso) 3:15 from Marco da Gagliano and Jacopo Peri (Lo Orlando amore, gelosia, follia Orlando amore. gelosia. follia. sposalizio di Medoro e Angelica, 1619), Francesca Caccini (La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Al- Orlando generoso by Agostino Steffani (1654- cina, 1625), Sigismondo d’India (L’Isola di Alcina, 1728) received its first performance in 1691 at the 1626 – a lost tragedia), Luigi Rossi (Il Palazzo in- opera house in Hannover, to whose court the cantato, 1642), Jean-Baptiste Lully (Roland, 1685) composer had been appointed Hofkapellmeister Orlando furioso and music tures. The sense of vitality and wonderment and Alessandro Scarlatti (Olimpia, 1685). in 1688. Operas put on in this city also included pervading its 46 canti – recounting the amorous Starting in the 1620s, the characterization of the cream of the dramatic output of his contem- The immense and sweeping epic poem of Lu- encounters sometimes reciprocated, at other anger and madness became the mainspring for porary Alessandro Scarlatti. From Hannover, dovico Ariosto (1474-1533), Orlando furioso, pub- times unshared, variously involving Orlando- drama which, thanks to the efforts particularly Steffani’s influence spread all across the German lished in 1516 (with further editions appearing in Angelica-Medoro, Alcina-Ruggiero-Bradaman- of Claudio Monteverdi, supplied music with musical world and his music dramas were to ex- 1521 and 1532) was conceived at the Ferrara court te, Ariodante-Ginevra (Guinevere)-Polinesso new expressive possibilities. The circumstances ert an important effect on the musical taste of – then, one of the most sophisticated European and Olympia and Bireno – amounts to an indis- surrounding Orlando’s anger – and the conse- the generation of Telemann and Handel. courts of its age. The saga by this defender of putable contribution to the evolution of Euro- quences of it – are superbly narrated by Ariosto, Over 1678 and 1679, Steffani was engaged in a poetic renewal appeared at the same time as In pean thought. in a way which serves to recall that wisdom period of study at the court of Louis XIV and praise of Folly by Erasmus, The Prince by Machi- The poem’s numerous episodes act out the con- only flows from experience: both poetical and the overture to his Orlando generoso bears clear avelli and Thomas More’s Utopia. flict between warrior spirit and amorous desire musical experiences are thus signs of this. Love evidence of his stay there and his familiarity The paladin Orlando, nephew of Charlemagne, and for thematic material make use of the un- conceived in this manner – the offspring of phi- with the style of Lully. falls in love with the beautiful Angelica, a Chi- foreseen, the marvellous, liberation, compas- losophy and of poetry – transforms into image In contrast, the expressive influence of Vene- nese (Cathayan) princess during the course of sion and the wildness of outbursts of anger. A everything that it touches. tian opera, from Cavalli to Legrenzi is visible in one of his journeys in the East. This is a love “récit en zigzags” (a rollercoaster of a poem, in The strength and power of the imagination of the aria, Non ha il mar calma sincera, sung by which drives him raging (mad) when he discov- modern parlance), in the words of the poet Yves this book lie behind its colossal success, with the valiant Ruggiero. Identifiable also is how the ers that she, however, loves the Saracen soldier Bonnefoy: a dramatic series of elements which that imagination continuing to inspire compos- perfectly regulated melodic line fits within the Medoro. Other canti from the poem relate the have provided composers with plentiful inspira- ers of the following century. Composers who contrapuntal frame. enchantment of Ruggiero (Orlando’s cousin) tion since their first appearance. succumbed to the lure of this great poem’s dra- Another, shorter, aria of Ruggiero, Fa che cessi, by the sorceress Alcina and his liberation from Early composers to be thus inspired to set ex- matico-musical dynamism included Domenico precedes the scene where he mounts a flying the island where she has had him incarcerated, tracts of this heroic epic number Bartolomeo Scarlatti (Orlando, ovvero La gelosa pazzia, 1711), steed in order to come to the aid of Angelica as well as the extravagant wedding celebrations Tromboncino (1517) and Orlando Lasso (1555). Johann Adolph Hasse (Il Ruggiero, 1771), Franz (Canto X). The dramatic nature of the sung of Ruggiero with the female Christian knight, By the time that fully-sung musical drama was Joseph Haydn (Orlando paladino, 1782), Christoph text is reinforced by the ritornelli played by two Bradamante. asserting itself across Europe in the seven- Willibald Gluck (Ruggiero nell’isola di Alcina, 1792) oboes and a bassoon accompanying the vocal And indeed, Orlando furioso consists of a tan- teenth century the most attractive sections and Étienne Nicolas Méhul (Ariodant, 1799). melody and by expressive instrumental chro- gled succession of interrelated heroic adven- from Ariosto’s saga were receiving attention maticisms as well. 6 7 The serenata L’Angelica by the Neapolitan com- natural and the tragedic) which, at the begin- The ouverture “à la française” (of the Adagio- European music dominated by opera seria. The poser Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) was first ning of the eighteenth century, had led to mem- Allegro-Adagio variety) of this dramma per mu- dramaturgic model of Metastasio – the writer given in Naples in 1720. It was in this dramatic bers of the Academy of Arcadia developing new sica not only displays the mastery of the French of the libretto set to music by Porpora in 1720 piece that one of the most able of Porpora’s pu- structures for opera seria. Vivaldi was addition- style by the Halle-born composer, but also dem- – established the structure of this musical gen- pils made his debut: the singer Carlo Broschi, ally endeavouring to come up with a Venetian onstrates the manner in which national styles eral as a succession of codified “passions” which better known by the name of Farinelli, then all counter-proposition to the Neapolitan opera were circulating and being transformed across excluded comic elements and progressed in a of fifteen years of age. The text of this work was model – geared entirely towards vocal display – Europe during the Enlightenment. systematic alternation of aria and recitative. written by Pietro Metastasio in his first libretto which had become established in Venice in the In two of the arias allocated to the evil schemer destined for the stage, as well as being his initial 1720s; his was one in which music and theatre Polinesso, Spero per voi and Dover, giustizia, The première of Ariodante by the Viennese collaboration with this composer. were combined through more varied musical amor, their vocal line, their prideful nature as composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715- The gentleness of dotted rhythms from the vio- means and in which dramatic expression took well as the rhythmic forces of the orchestral 1777) took place in Venice in 1745, making use lins accompanying a touching vocal line charac- precedence.