Bella Dama 1

bella dama baroque cantatas Raffaele Pé countertenor Spiritato! RES10115 Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Cessate, omai cessate, RV 684 Bella dama 1. Cessate, omai cessate [1:58] Baroque cantatas 2. Ah ch’infelice sempre [5:51] 3. A voi dunque ricorro [1:20] 4. Nell’orrido albergo ricetto di pene [3:34] Raffaele Pé countertenor Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) Salve Regina Spiritato! 5. Salve Regina [4:34] 6. Ad te clamamus [1:58] 7. Ad te suspiramus [2:42] violin 1 8. Eia ergo, advocata nostra [1:24] Kinga Ujszászi 9. Illos tuos misericordes [3:16] James Toll violin 2 10. O clemens, o pia [2:33] Joanne Miller viola Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) Alice Manthorpe Saunders cello Bella dama di nome Santa 11. Introduttione [3:30] Kate Aldridge bass 12. Tu sei quella, che al nome sembri giusta [1:01] László Rózsa recorder 13. Dal nome tuo credei [3:22] 14. Fedeltade, ne pur ottien ricetto [1:36] Jadran Duncumb theorbo 15. Il nome non vanta di santa colei [3:56] harpsichord/organ Nicolás Mendoza Alessandro Scarlatti Infirmata vulnerata 16. Infirmata vulnerata puro deficit amore [5:23] About Raffaele Pé: 17. O care, o dulcis amor [0:46] 18. Vulnera percute, transfige cor [4:05] ‘[…] glorious sound, intense and dramatic eloquence’ 19. Cur, quaeso, crudelis es factus? [2:42] Il Corriere 20. Vicisti, amor, et cor meum [0:43] 21. Semper gratus desiderabilis [2:01] ‘[…] stand-out vocal talent was on display in young countertenor Raffaele Pé’ The Irish World Total playing time [58:29] Bella dama: Baroque cantatas could act as hostesses. Forming a tribute to the image of the Lady Changes were considerable and highly (the bella dama), as represented in Italian visible; e.g. in Italy the death penalty was eighteenth-century music between Naples abolished while the powers of the Church and Venice, the four solo cantatas contained began to retract noticeably. The aristocratic in this recording exemplify the representation or otherwise wealthy grand tourists, travelling of women in both sacred and secular texts through southern Europe on their lengthy through this chamber medium. cultural finishing school recorded, albeit sometimes exaggerated and romanticised, The role of women in Italy had changed images of an Italian society that was substantially during a campaign of increasingly involved with the secular and considerable reform that began in the latter displaying inflated vanity and pomp. These half of the seventeenth century and, same grand tourists along with other travellers growing out of the Renaissance period, the often expressed admiration at the liberties – Age of Enlightenment was central to this both intellectual and social – granted to transformation. A movement that was women in Italy. While women were allowed particularly prominent in France, the Age of to become more liberal – the movement Enlightenment had grown rapidly becoming abandoned some ideas of tradition where the increasingly widespread. Begun mainly by fairer sex was concerned – they were still philosophers it contributed enormously to inextricably tied to their domestic roles as reforms in society – including the position of mothers, wives, keepers of the home and women, who were to take on new levels of upholders of the family reputation. And importance. The movement’s main purpose while women were to become increasingly though was to promote science and other vilified as objects of desire and curiosity, men intellectual exchange while being generally were, perhaps inevitably, still the greater opposed to superstitious beliefs, discrimination recipients overall of any benefits from the and the general dominance of the Church movement. and state. Alongside huge advances in science and society, ideas about arts and All forms of the arts were to undergo philosophy were discussed and developed, momentous changes under the Age of Raffaele Pé often consisting of regular meetings in Enlightenment, with architecture, paintings salons or coffee-houses, where women (both religious and secular), literature and – perhaps most importantly – musical works and were presented in the vernacular perfecting the already established cantata Infirmata vulnerata in which the singer tells undergoing prodigious evolution. Women Italian, while those works with sacred texts form, writing close to 600 works in the genre of unrequited love, also a text by an unknown generally become more prominent in works occasionally used the more traditional Latin, spread over his lifetime as a composer, in author. However, as the cantata unfolds, the of art, with a greater use of the nude in sometimes designated as cantata de addition to over 100 operas – a medium for grim complexion of the work gradually lifts a paintings and an increasingly prolific number chiesa (church cantata) or solo antiphons. which he was in huge demand. Even though little as the singer allows himself to feel hope of secular musical works including opera and The solo cantata was perhaps the leading form these works were popular with both amateur that his wishes may eventually be fulfilled. As the solo cantata (or cantata da camera). The of chamber music in Italy in the early part of and professional musicians, the quality of in Bella dama frustrations are, perhaps genre of opera – where all forms of the arts the eighteenth century and, significantly, they the music and some of the texts employed surprisingly, controlled throughout with no united into one medium, often framed by were written for, and equally popular with, were prone to being quite variable but, sense of chaos or fervent anger. Here though, spectacular architecture of the buildings both professional and amateur musicians, nevertheless, were never written in a the mood of desolation is expertly portrayed, where they were produced – experienced often used in domestic situations. compromising or simplistic style. as is the infatuation and compelling worship rapid growth, with the city of Venice of the fabled woman. possessing no fewer than seventeen opera Central to these leaps forward in Italian The decorated, florid and almost constantly houses at its height. music was the eldest of the three composers lyrical style that typifies the peak of the While Antonio Vivaldi’s output of cantatas represented here, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660- Baroque cantata is much in evidence was not as prolific as that of Scarlatti – he is It was alongside these developments in the 1725). His contribution as a composer, and throughout the two cantatas by Scarlatti more widely remembered for composing Baroque opera genre that its close relation also as a teacher of younger generations, featured here. In Belle dama di nome Santa concertos, of which he wrote over 500 – his the solo cantata also began to emerge. was nothing less than considerable. the deceptively sweet sounding introduction, contribution to the genre is nonetheless Elements of the solo chamber cantata and Surprisingly little scholarship has been featuring the recorder, belies the mood of significant, and particularly known for its its structure and development can be traced undertaken about his life and output, with what follows, as the singer states his disgust high quality. With a number of questionable back to late madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi, some of the limelight being shared by his with his former lover, the Bella dama, who attributions, the exact total of Vivaldi’s solo with various contributions to the cantata son and composer Domenico as well as, has spurned him, stating how she is not cantatas is not entirely definitive, with certain also coming from such names as Giacomo latterly, living in the considerable shadow deserving of her name, Santa (literally extant works thought to number in the Carissimi, Francesco Cavalli and Alessandro of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). meaning sainted). With typical use of the region of thirty-six, while his operas number Stradella, particularly in the lyrical recitative and the da capo aria, the slightly closer to fifty. Famed for spending much of development and style that dominated the Sicilian by birth, Scarlatti’s career was centred unusual character of the music masks the his career working in Venice, Vivaldi’s music peak of the genre in the early-eighteenth around Rome and Naples, and he is often level of vitriol and anger contained in the was influential and popular during his century. Many cantatas were composed for regarded as the spearhead of Neapolitan text, while Scarlatti treats us to a glimpse lifetime, but was largely neglected until its continuo and voice only, while others were opera, pioneering the construction and the of humour with the occasional musical joke, rediscovery, with new discoveries of lost accompanied by larger groups including use of the aria and recitative as well as such as the sudden jolt into the minor at works still occurring today. violins, sometimes joined by viola and one developing the use of the orchestra. A the word ‘l’error’. or more wind instruments. A significant much celebrated figure in his own lifetime; Vivaldi’s favoured structure for the solo number of chamber cantatas were secular Scarlatti’s contribution was pivotal in A darker mood prevails from the opening of cantata was Recitative – Aria – Recitative – Aria, and Cessate, omai cessate, RV 684, is no Marian antiphon text of the Salve Regina, the exception to this particular pattern. The text, structure and also the overall quality of the by an unknown author, returns to the work is largely different from its secular theme of love lost. The opening introduction equivalent. There is particular calm and sense gives way to an accompanied recitative of adoration in this hymn that reveres the providing a somewhat torn denunciation of Blessed Virgin Mary. Of unknown certain the former lover. The first aria sees a lament origin, this comparatively short text was for the lost love from the singer before a traditionally sung at Compline between mournful recitative precedes the angry Trinity Sunday and Advent and is considerably closing aria, in which the passionate emotions stretched by Porpora to form a relatively of the singer come to the fore.

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