Venere Notes Booklet
Transcript
Venere Notes Booklet
476 6170 Venere, Adone e Amore S erenatas and Cantatas by ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI ANTIPODES is a sub-label of ABC Classics devoted to the historically informed performance of music from the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods. Alessandro Scarlatti 1660-1725 CD1 Venere, Adone e Amore (Venus, Adonis and Cupid) Serenata for two sopranos and alto, with instruments Text by Francesco Maria Paglia [53’19] £ Sinfonia e Aria con trombe (Amore): Senti le trombe altere $ Jane Edwards Venere Tessa Miller Adone James Sanderson Amore % 1 Sinfonia: Largo – Presto – Tremolo e grave – Corrente 2 Recitativo (Venere): Dal giardin del Piacere 3’32 0’53 From the garden of Pleasure 3 Aria (Venere): Onde belle dall’aure agitate (Adagio) ^ & 3’00 * Beautiful waves, tossed by breezes 4 Recitativo (Amore, Venere): Madre!... Figlio! 1’24 ( Mother!... My son! 5 Aria (Venere): Vanne, vola, alato arciero 1’32 ) Go, fly, winged archer 6 Recitativo (Amore, Adone, Venere): Taci, ch’egli già viene 1’10 ¡ Hush, he’s coming now 7 Aria (Adone): Se tu muovi alle mie pene 2’48 ™ If my pain moves you 8 Recitativo (Venere, Adone, Amore): Adone, io son gelosa 0’39 Adonis, I am jealous # 9 Aria (Amore): Credigli, o Dea severa 1’52 Believe him, O severe Goddess ¢ 0 Recitativo (Venere, Adone, Amore): Perché dunque mi lascia? 0’44 Then why does he leave me? ∞ ! Aria (Adone): Io d’altra non m’accendo 2’48 My heart does not burn for another § @ Recitativo (Adone): S’io rimiro un bel ciglio 1’05 If I admire a fair brow 2 Hear the proud trumpets Recitativo (Adone, Amore, Venere): Cupido che m’intende Cupid understands me Trio (Adone, Amore, Venere): Amore è solo ardore ma non è fedeltà (1706) Love is all passion but he is not faithfulness Recitativo (Venere, Adone, Amore): Quante beltà tradite vidde Amor per ferire How many betrayed beauties did Cupid see and wound Aria (Venere): D’elemento ch’è instabile e infido, io son figlia (Allegrissimo) Of an unstable and faithless element am I the daughter Recitativo (Amore, Venere, Adone): Della mia genitrice io la cuna difendo I defend the cradle of my mother Aria (Amore): Adone ha ragione Adonis is right Recitativo (Venere, Adone): Ben mio, sì ch’hai ragione My love, of course you are right Duetto (Venere, Adone): M’amerai?... T’adorerò (Adagio) Will you love me?... I shall adore you Aria (Adone): Ch’io mai ti lasci, o bella (Stretto) If ever I should leave you, O my fair one Recitativo (Venere): Non mi mancar di fede Do not be unfaithful to me Aria (Venere): Non v’è maggior vendetta che dar la libertà There is no greater vengeance than to grant freedom Recitativo (Adone, Venere): Quando piace il legame When the bond brings pleasure Aria (Adone): A dispetto del cordoglio In spite of the heartache 3 3’22 0’38 1’23 1’28 1’09 1’50 2’13 0’59 1’49 1’34 0’34 2’10 1’06 3’09 Appendix ¶ Aria (Amore): Adone ha ragione (1706) 2’43 Filli e Clori (Phyllis and Chloe): Amica, ora che Aprile Duet for two sopranos with violins 1’41 Jane Edwards Filli Miriam Allan Clori Adonis is right • Recitativo (Trio): Amore insegn’ ardore ma non la fedeltà (1696) Love teaches passion but not faithfulness ª Recitativo – Aria (Venere): Non v’è maggior vendetta che dar la libertà (1706) 3’33 8 Recitativo (Filli): Amica, ora che Aprile 2’56 1’01 Perdono, Amor (Forgive me, Love) Cantata for alto solo 9 Total Playing Time 53’19 0 CD2 [14’38] Lidio e Clori (Lydio and Chloe) Duet for soprano and alto with violins ! @ Jane Edwards Clori James Sanderson Lidio £ 1 Duetto: Dove fuggi, o bella Clori? 3’17 Where are you fleeing, beautiful Chloe? $ 2 Recitativo (Clori): Io quando amar volessi 0’38 % Even if I wanted to love 3 Aria (Clori): Da quel dì ch’Amor pretese (Spiritoso) 2’40 ^ From the day that Love presumed 4 Recitativo (Lidio): Di sì lieta ventura non andar sì festosa 0’20 & Do not be so exultant at such happy fortune 5 Aria (Lidio): Quando Amore schernito si vede (Spiritoso) When Love sees himself scorned 6 Recitativo (Lidio, Clori): Dunque fermati, o Clori So stay awhile, Chloe 7 Duetto: Ah! sì, purtroppo è vero (Allegro) 3’46 Ah! It’s true, alas 4 0’39 My friend, now that April Aria with ritornello (Filli): Vieni, vedrem di Flora la fronte verdeggiar Come! We will see Flora crowned in green leaves Recitativo (Filli, Clori): Fra le mure di Roma Within the walls of Rome Aria with ritornello (Clori): Libertà, libertà Liberty, liberty Recitativo – Aria (Filli): Ma se Amor non ti punge…Vieni, potrai col dardo But if Love does not pierce you…Come, you can shoot your darts Recitativo (Filli, Clori): Sara’, s’io ben conosco If I’m not mistaken Aria with ritornello (Clori): Gemme che mi cingete il sen Jewels that adorn my breast Recitativo – Aria (Filli): Andiam, che più se tarda…Di te mai più bella arciera Let’s go, it’s getting late…No archeress fairer than you Recitativo (Clori): Innocente bellezza, se medita rigori If innocent beauty is planning cruel sports Duetto: Si prepari la destra a ferire Let hands be prepared for the hunt There is no greater vengeance than to grant freedom [17’29] 1’38 0’52 3’23 1’49 0’43 3’47 2’43 0’31 1’25 [10’03] James Sanderson countertenor * Introduzione – Recitativo: Perdono, Amor! 1’17 Forgive me, Love! ( Aria: Non è vero, che tu sia quel mensogniero (Allegro) It’s not true that you are the liar 2’56 5 ) Recitativo: Io vidi un vago oggetto 0’36 I saw a beautiful creature ¡ Aria: Il pensar, ch’il mio ben m’ha tradito (Allegro – Adagio – Allegro) The thought that my beloved has betrayed me ™ Recitativo: Torna, Idol mio Come back, my love! # Aria: Pur m’alletti e pur mi piaci (Allegro) And yet you enchant and delight me Cantata Pastorale Pastoral Cantata for voice with violins ⁄ Aria with ritornello: Sì, sì, non dormite (Allegro) 2’23 ¤ 0’38 ‹ 2’11 › [15’59] fi 2’04 Yes, yes, sleep not Recitativo – Arioso: Quindi da’ vostri sguardi However, your glances Aria: Vago fior, ch’in notte algente (Andante grave) A lovely flower, which in the chilly night Recitativo: Ma no, riposa, o bella But no, sleep, O lovely one Aria: Dormite, posate, pupille adorate (Adagio) Sleep, rest, beloved eyes 1’15 2’12 0’36 2’21 Total Playing Time James Sanderson countertenor ¢, ∞, § Miriam Allan soprano §, ¶ 74’15 CD3 ¢ Introduzione – Recitativo: Non so qual più m’ingombra (Allegro) I know not what troubles me more ∞ Aria: Che sarà? Chi a me lo dice? (Moderato) What will happen? Who will tell me? § Recitativo: È nato! alfin mi dice He is born! ¶ Aria Pastorale: Nacque, col Gran Messia, la pace (Moderato) With the great Messiah, peace was born Orché di Febo ascosi (Now that the splendid rays of Phoebus) Serenata for soprano solo with violins Olimpia (Olympia) Chamber cantata for soprano solo and instruments 2’40 4’57 1’11 7’12 [15’35] Jane Edwards soprano 1 Introduzione (Allegro – Adagio – Allegro) 2 Recitativo: Su la sponda del mare • Introduzione (Largo – Andante) – Recitativo: Orché di Febo ascosi Now that the splendid rays of Phoebus ª Aria: Cara Notte (Grave e piano) Dear Night º Recitativo: Ma chi m’addita, o Dio But who shows me, O God 2’45 3’46 0’36 6 2’40 1’44 On the seashore 3 Aria: Agiutatemi a morire (Largo assai) 4 5 Jane Edwards soprano [16’22] 6 7 4’31 Help me to die Recitativo [stromentato]: O Mare, o Stelle, o Venti O sea, O stars, O winds Aria with ritornello: Le procelle si fan calma (Adagio) The storms are calmed Recitativo: Or così tra se parla Thus she talks to herself Aria: Quanto è simile il mio core a quel scoglio (Spiritoso) How like my heart is to that rock 7 1’03 3’16 0’41 2’28 Del Tirreno sul lido (On the shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea) Cantata for alto solo [7’13] James Sanderson countertenor 8 Recitativo: Del Tirreno sul Lido 0’31 3’41 The sighing of the fair lady 0 Recitativo: Era il bel crine Her lovely hair ! Aria: Venere bella, non lagrimar (Allegro) Beautiful Venus, leave your weeping 1’11 1’50 Silenzio, aure volanti (Be silent, fleeting breezes) Cantata for soprano solo with violins [18’17] Vivien Hamilton soprano @ Introduzione – Recitativo: Silenzio, aure volanti…Venti, quietatevi 4’17 2’30 Blind shadows, shadows of the night $ Largo: E mentre il cor del mio ben sol si duole & * ( James Sanderson countertenor Hans-Dieter Michatz treble recorder Recitativo: Tu sei quella, che al nome sembri giusta, pietosa You are she who in name seemed just and merciful ¡ Aria: Dal nome tuo credei che fosse in te pietà (Andante) From your name, I believed that you would be merciful ™ Recitativo: Fedeltade, ne pur ottien ricetto Nor does Constancy find refuge # Aria: Il nome non vanta di Santa colei (Vivace) She cannot glory in the name of Grace E come, o Dio (And how is it, O God) Cantata for soprano solo 3’23 3’32 1’21 4’05 [7’09] Jane Edwards soprano Be silent, fleeting breezes…Winds, be calm £ Aria with ritornello: Ombre cieche, ombre notturne ^ [12’21] ) Introduzione (Adagio – Lento alla Francese) – On the shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea 9 Aria: Della bella il sospirare (Adagio) % Bella dama di nome Santa (Fair lady called Grace) Chamber cantata for alto solo with recorder and violins 0’53 And while my heart grieves for my Love alone Aria with ritornello: Adoro un’ ingrata I adore an ungrateful woman Recitativo: Dunque così schernita Will you be thus scorned Aria: Piangerò (Largo) I will weep Recitativo: Sì, sì, piangete pure, occhi dolenti Yes, keep weeping, my sorrowing eyes Aria: Si placa una crudel A cruel woman is appeased by death alone 3’35 1’16 ¢ Recitativo: E come, o Dio, lontana dal mio Cor, viva son io? And how is it, O God, that away from my beloved, I yet live? ∞ Aria: Tutta mi sciolgo in pianto I dissolve utterly in weeping § Recitativo: Quando sarà quel giorno When will come the day ¶ Aria: Cagion di mille pene Source of a thousand miseries 1’19 3’02 1’14 1’35 2’40 • Toccata da cimbalo (Toccata for harpsichord) – attrib. A. Scarlatti 1’18 [Adagio] – Allegro – Adagio – Allegro – Adagio – Spiritoso – Allegro Rosalind Halton harpsichord 1’47 8 9 5’45 Lontan dall’Idol mio (Parted from my beloved) Cantata for soprano solo [6’56] Vivien Hamilton soprano ª Recitativo: Lontan dall’Idol mio 1’42 Parted from my beloved º Aria: Egro che langue (Adagio) A sick man will languish ⁄ Recitativo: E come di te privo Deprived of you ¤ Aria: Quanto contento ancor godrebbe questo cor How happy would be this heart of mine 2’10 0’44 2’21 Total Playing Time chacona Rosalind Halton director Lucinda Moon principal violin Sarah Dunn, Alice Evans, David Irving violins (CD1) Stephen Freeman violin II (CD2 & 3) Nicole Forsyth viola, violin (CD2 1, 3, 7, ∞, CD3 ¡, #) Hans-Dieter Michatz treble recorder ¡, # Jamie Hey cello Rosemary Webber violone (CD2 & 3) Elizabeth Harré double bass (CD1) Leanne Sullivan, Helen Gill trumpets (CD1 £) Tommie Andersson theorbo, lute and Baroque guitar (CD2 & 3) Rosalind Halton harpsichord 74’53 Within the repertoire of the Italian cantata, no composer produced more vivid or varied music than Alessandro Scarlatti. Noted in every music history textbook as the founding figure of the da capo aria, Scarlatti was prolific even in the context of his times. A compulsive worker, driven perhaps by the poverty of his childhood in famine-stricken Sicily, he made an early success as an opera composer in Rome, under the protection of the eccentric but highly cultured Queen Cristina of Sweden. of 1704-05, with its many solo works dedicated to Adami. The favourite of Cardinal Ottoboni (who was also Scarlatti’s patron) and Maestro of the Sistine choir from 1701 to 1714, Adami had been noted as a fine performer of Stradella’s cantatas. We may imagine Adami as an important link between these two generations of cantata composers – a singer normally excluded from opera but ideally suited to the subtle and expressive art of the cantata. Singing was also cultivated in the Scarlatti home – both Domenico (otherwise renowned for his keyboard mastery) and Flaminia, the daughter who remained with Alessandro through his old age, were noted for their fine singing. The cantata was presumably a genre for domestic as well as regal and aristocratic recreation. Scarlatti never ceased to cultivate his aristocratic and ecclesiastical contacts in Rome, though it was in Naples that he secured his most enduring periods of employment. Above all, Rome offered Scarlatti the opportunity to develop the cantata and serenata genres, while the operas into which he poured his finest inspiration were composed for Ferdinando de’ Medici in Florence. Opera was banned altogether by Papal ordinance during much of the period that he worked in Rome, but the existence of the Accademia Arcadiana, and the academies of the Roman artistic patrons Cardinals Ottoboni and Pamphili and Prince Ruspoli, brought poets and musicians into regular contact with a sophisticated audience. Several types of cantata appear in Scarlatti’s work and examples of each are found on this recording. The Cantata da camera (e.g. Olimpia) is one of the principal types, in which a solo singer may be accompanied by various instrumental combinations – typically two violin parts and basso continuo, or more rarely, two violins, ‘violetta’ (viola) and basso continuo. The Duetto da camera is usually a playful dialogue between two characters with basso continuo, or more rarely (as in Lidio e Clori ) with violins. In the exclusive environment of the Accademia Arcadiana the castrato Andrea Adami was clearly a leading performer as well as a close friend of Scarlatti – as seen in the so-called ‘cantata diary’ 10 The serenata in the output of Scarlatti, and Stradella before him, was a semi-dramatic work composed for a evening’s entertainment; but the 11 onto the page with few revisions; arias that occasionally contain second thoughts about metre or proportions, but with the melodic line almost invariably established before pen went to paper. The neatness and clarity of the hand itself is striking, the detail of punctuation, bass figuring and performance indications unusually specific for the period. term ‘serenata’ was also applied by Scarlatti to solo compositions for voice and continuo, or with violins, such as Orché di Febo ascosi. Designed for performance outdoors or on a balcony in the evening, these works often have a theme of night and dreams, soloistic instrumental writing, and an atmosphere of mystery. The unaccompanied vocal ending is a favourite effect employed by Scarlatti, as in Orché di Febo ascosi. The solo vocal ending also occurs in several of his dramatic serenatas, including Venere, Adone e Amore, where it has been seen as a possible cue for the fireworks display that would follow such festive entertainment. Scarlatti’s decisive approach to poetry is matched by an entirely original approach to musical imagery and declamation. Interruptions, hesitations, doubts, illusions built up only to be dashed, are all part of this expressive language. The repetition of individual words or short phrases is a recurrent feature of Scarlatti’s recitative style, creating animation and emphasis by breaking into the regularity of the poetic metre. By far the most numerous category in the Italian cantata repertory is the solo cantata with basso continuo (e.g. Del Tirreno sul lido). Having only two composed lines of music, it is realised in performance by a singer declaiming impassioned poetry, accompanied by harpsichord, cello and/or other chordal instruments such as archlute. Many of Scarlatti’s solo cantatas feature active bass lines, suggesting they were destined for virtuoso cellists such as Giovannino Lulier, Giovanni Bononcini and Filippo Amadei. The aria with continuo is the principal type used in Scarlatti’s earlier operas and other vocal works, figuring prominently in the 1696 version of Venere, Adone e Amore. The exploration of unexpected and remote key areas is always significant in Scarlatti’s compositional designs: sharp keys portray a character in intense agitation, or a situation of deceit or illusion; keys tending towards the flat side (E-flat major, C minor) are chosen to express resignation or sadness. Both contrast with the stability and confidence of those who sing in keys based on the natural hexachord – C, G and F major. Scarlatti was a pioneer of formal design in the cantata, but he never abandoned some features inherited from the 17th century – such as the merging of recitative into arioso. The master of the da capo aria, he reserved some of his finest inventions for through-composed arias, as in Orché di Febo ascosi. Though only a small proportion of Scarlatti’s cantatas survive in autograph, these manuscripts give insight into an exceptionally lucid compositional process. The autographs indicate a fluent and decisive composer: recitative written 12 Rome, from which he ‘brought with him…a passion for opera and the kind of pastoral poetry associated with the Arcadians. His appointment promised to be the occasion for a reinvigoration of the cultural life of Naples.’ CD1 Venere, Adone e Amore : Serenata, 1696 It was a highly delightful sight to see the sea covered with ships filled with an infinite crowd, just as all the banks were, to feast their ears on the symphony of instruments and three of the choicest voices, who sang this most highly acclaimed Serenata of Sig. Abbate Francesco Maria Paglia, and the Maestro of the Royal Cappella, Sig. Alessandro Scarlatti, who had most wonderfully set it to music. – Gazzetta di Napoli, 17 July 1696 For Alessandro Scarlatti, maestro di cappella of Naples, it was an auspicious turn of events: with the Viceroy came the librettist Francesco Maria Paglia, whose poetry had inspired some of Scarlatti’s most innovative cantatas of the early 1690s. It was not long before the two were working together in Naples on some larger projects, starting with the opera La Didone Delirante (Dido Delirious). The serenata performed on this idyllic occasion was Venere, Adone e Amore, recorded here for the first time. Dinko Fabris describes in his book Music in Seventeenth Century Naples the Neapolitan custom, dating back to the 16th century, of the Spassi di Posillipo, ‘great festivals by the sea’ which took place in July and August. Thus when in July 1696 Scarlatti and Paglia presented their ‘most noble Serenata on the water, late in the day, and dedicated to the ladies of Naples who flocked to it’, with many of the aristocratic audience arriving in splendidly decked out gondolas, they were continuing a well-established tradition in the bay of Posillipo. The collaboration between Scarlatti and Paglia peaked in the next six months. July saw the production of at least two serenatas, with operas to come in November 1696 and February 1697. Venere, Adone e Amore was presumably a more modest affair than the extravagant Trionfo delle Stagioni (The Triumph of the Seasons), given a mere ten days later, but its marine setting of Posillipo was equally spectacular. The choice of Venus, Adonis and Cupid was well calculated for a serenata ‘dedicated to the ladies’, with its skirmishing between all three characters, climaxing in a triumph for Venus over her lover Adonis and son Cupid. Women played an important role in Naples’ intellectual and cultural communities: the Arcadian Academy of Patron of the proceedings was the new Viceroy of Spain, the Duca di Medina Coeli, son of Caterina d’Aragona. On 3 April 1696, Medina Coeli officially took over the reins of government in Naples, having spent the previous six years in 13 Naples was open to women including poets, painters and patrons – the most influential being Aurora Sanseverino, the ‘queen of the salon’. Sigra. Vittoria Bombace; Sigr. Dom.o L’Aquilano’ – the same singers who created the parts of Venere, Adone and Amore. Like many serenatas, this was a commedia in musica consisting of a debate between lovers: Whose infidelity is the most conspicuous – Venus or Adonis – and who should wear the blame? The role of Amore (Cupid) is to fuel the debate, until he points out that theirs is the strife of lovers, and that what they are hearing are the trumpets of love, not war £. It is a scenario that leads to quick fiery exchanges in recitative, short vivid musical numbers, and Venus’s grand declaration, ‘I am no woman, I am Goddess’ ^. The realisation that even Venus can be wounded by Cupid’s arrow of human love lifts both drama and music to a dénouement in which forgiveness and reconciliation lead (for the time being) to a renewal of the bonds of love, in an atmosphere of dream and enchantment hinted at already by the music of the Sinfonia. Matteo Sassano (1667-1737), known as Matteuccio and ‘the nightingale of Naples’ was one of the most enduring castrati in the Naples opera, his name appearing up till 1724 in the Gazzetta, and always in glowing terms. In 1696, aged 29, he was at the peak of his powers. Returning from Vienna only two days before the performance at Posillipo, Sassano’s late arrival is acted out in the drama: Adone is the last character to be introduced, after an exasperated exchange between Venere and Amore. He is immediately berated for staying away dallying with nymphs – or maybe, with the audience of Vienna. As for Venere, played by Vittoria Tarquini, known as ‘La Bombace’: ‘Her singing is irregular, not from lack of art, but of breath,’ noted an opera goer in 1694; and in 1696, ‘La Bombace, who received all the applause in the best roles in years gone by, now seems very inferior.’ Merely malicious criticism? In December of the same year, Tarquini created the title role in Bononcini’s wildly successful opera Il trionfo di Camilla. Scarlatti tested her in the character of Venus – she has two patter arias with barely any rests 5, &. The names of the singers who played the parts of Venus, Adonis and Cupid coincide with those named on the title page of yet another serenata dated 1696, Il genio di Partenope (The Genius of Parthenope), which is bound together with a copy of Venere, Adone e Amore in a manuscript of Neapolitan provenance found in the library of Montecassino. Both are headed ‘Serenata à 3 con Stromenti’; and the title page of Partenope goes on to list the cast: ‘il Sig. Matteo Sassani; Of the contralto who played Amore, nothing seems to be known beyond his nickname, ‘L’Aquilano’. In terms of arias his part is the smallest, as he leaves the two lovers to kiss and 14 make up about two-thirds of the way through the work. But it’s a far from insignificant part – Cupid is the catalyst of the debate between the lovers, and provides the turning point of their quarrel and reconciliation. He leaves them to it with a sublime aria accompanied by violin solo, a menuet of five-bar phrases: ‘Adone is right if he has a faithful soul’ (, ¶. preserved almost intact with only some small differences for emphasis, which have been adopted in this recording – possibly improvised by singers of the time. With its intriguing mixture of 17th-century tunes and 18th-century textures, Venere, Adone e Amore is a work of pivotal significance in Scarlatti’s move from one century to another, and from the musical traditions of one famed musical centre to another. We have no performance details regarding the revised version of the serenata headed ‘Roma Agosto 1706’. But the score was extensively reworked in terms of orchestration, recomposition of many arias, and addition of new ones: all this suggests that Scarlatti was commissioned to revise the piece to make a longer and more impressive entertainment tailored to Roman orchestral resources. The two versions of Venere, Adone e Amore – 1696 and 1706 Apart from numbers £-%, of which the 1706 version has been chosen, this recording presents the 1696 version intact. The 1706 version of the Sinfonia con trombe £ was chosen because the trumpet parts of 1696 (unaltered from the violin parts) contain passages unplayable on the natural trumpet. It is likely that the players adapted their parts at the first performance. The 1706 version not only gives new and practicable trumpet parts, but introduces Amore’s following aria Senti le trombe altere with a fanfare and punctuating chords throughout the aria: the trumpets of love, not of war, as Amore says. The 1706 Trio % was chosen for its new approach to composing for vocal ensemble: instead of singing one after the other, as in the 1696 Trio, the characters interact vocally and bring their contrasting points of view together in a thrilling climax. The 1696 version of the Trio is given in an Appendix •. Possibly it was the revised Venere, Adone e Amore that was given in August 1706, in Rome’s Piazza Navona under the patronage of the Marchese Ruspoli, in an aquatic setting maybe designed to recapture the marine environment of Posillipo. Scarlatti was inducted into the Arcadian Academy in April 1706, so it is hardly surprising that his output of works with an Arcadian theme should increase sharply in this year: six serenatas are dated 1706. For the new version, the fully scored arias were retained, while the arias with continuo were largely replaced with new arias with violins. The recitative was adapted to replace Neapolitan references with Roman, but was otherwise 15 A Sinfonia with trumpets marks the midway point of the drama, and in the expanded Rome version, it opens the Second Part of the serenata, leading straight into Cupid’s aria, ‘Hear the proud trumpets inviting us to pleasure’ £. The debate nears its crux as the character of Cupid is called into question $. Here follows the only Trio of the work (1706 version), in which each character contributes his or her angle on Cupid, fidelity and beauty %. The accusations fly, until Venus reminds Adonis, ‘I am no woman, I am Goddess.’ Cupid revels in their quarrel ^. Venus declares that although she was born of that fickle element water, carried aloft on the sea’s wave, she is also the Goddess of Love &. Cupid starts to take pity on his mother as she expresses pain that he should wound her, of all people *. The Appendix also includes two arias from 1706: Amore’s aria Adone ha ragione rescored (¶, cf (), and the new setting, with violin solo, of Venere’s final aria (ª, cf ¢). Synopsis Venus is found in the ‘garden of Pleasure’ lonely and lamenting 2, 3. She scolds Cupid for not realising that it is the absence of her lover Adonis that is causing her pain: he admits that he knows where Adonis is 4. ‘Go, fly, winged archer, tell my love that my thoughts will find no happiness without him,’ sings Venus 5. Upon Adonis’ entrance, Venus makes him feel her annoyance at being abandoned for a crowd of nymphs 6. In his first aria, Adonis tries to persuade her that he is faithful 7. But she insists she is jealous – Cupid delights in the lovers’ quarrel. Adonis begs him to speak on his behalf 8, which he does in a persuasive aria – though in the ‘deceitful’ key of E major 9. Venus is on the attack again: ‘Then why does he leave me?’ to which Adonis responds with the weak argument, ‘I seek in other places that which may resemble you,’ with Cupid noting quietly that the lovers do not suspect the power of blind love 0. Adonis’ next aria is a defence of his position, that he burns only for Venus, and that her beauty is present in all other beauties !. He continues, in a recitative, to portray himself as the eloquent lover, captured by all the charms of Venus @. Cupid sings a tender aria designed to make the lovers kiss and make up – and leaves them to it (. The lovers admit they have been hasty and over-critical ). They find reconciliation in a duet: ‘Will you love me?’ ‘I shall adore you!’ ¡. Adonis swears in a forthright aria that he would rather be struck down by lightning bolts than waver in his love for Venus ™. Venus warns Adonis not to trifle with the daughter of Jove: ‘There is no greater vengeance than to grant freedom’ #, ¢. The lovers consider their new commitment to the chains of love, which both now embrace ∞. Adonis’ final aria refers to the ‘sea of hope’ in which he will follow Venus, through an elaborate play of coloratura to 16 Apartments [of the Cancelleria]’ for Cardinal Ottoboni gives the date 13 July 1694. All copies show the unusual absence of any sort of instrumental Introduzione or Sinfonia, opening with Phyllis’ invitation to her friend Chloe to go and breathe the sweeter air of the countryside, now that the spring is here 8, 9. She taunts Chloe that it must be Love that is making her so unsociable 0 – Chloe denies it, but sings a melancholy aria about the chains of love !. convince her that he is a rock of fidelity. The serenata ends with Adonis’ unaccompanied notes ‘[My soul] will follow you’ §. CD2 Lidio e Clori (Dove fuggi, o bella Clori?) is found in a single source in the Santini Collection, Münster. Headed ‘Duetto di Camera a soprano e contralto con Violini del Sigr. Aless˚. Scarlatti’ (Chamber Duet for soprano and contralto with violins, by Mr Alessandro Scarlatti), it is the only surviving work by Scarlatti for this scoring. Throughout, the solo arias have two stanzas with an instrumental ritornello which often overlaps the end of the singing, as indicated specifically in several of the manuscripts. One ingenious means of varying this scheme occurs Phyllis’ first aria, since its second strophe is separated in the music by the first dialogue between the two girls, and Chloe’s first aria. The scene is of two lovers quarrelling. Lydio is in pursuit, Chloe in flight. ‘My heart scorns Love,’ she says, protesting in her recitative and solo aria that Love has already made a fool of her; from now on she will resist his advances 2, 3. Lydio replies that Amor is not to be despised: sooner or later he takes his revenge on those who scorn him 4, 5. A more intense recitative 6 with rapid exchanges culminates in Chloe’s melisma: ‘Who lives afar from Love is always happy’ – suggesting with her swift passagework that this time she has escaped. In the powerful concluding duet 7 they agree: ‘It’s true, alas: he who follows the archer god lives but to suffer.’ Phyllis urges Chloe to come hunting with her; Chloe, worn down by Phyllis’ repeated invitations, declares that she will try this rustic life @, £. Phyllis raises her invitation to a more tempting level in the second strophe of her first aria, depicting the joys of the hunt. Chloe anticipates the life of simplicity in which she will throw away her city finery for ‘the poverty of a flower’ $. Phyllis’ next aria looks forward to her friend’s new conquests as Diana, goddess of the hunt %. Chloe protests she will adopt an innocent strategy that will ‘make beasts her prey, and not the hearts of men’ ^. The cantata finishes with an exquisite short duet in 3/8 Filli e Clori (Amica, ora che Aprile) is the work for two sopranos and violins most often found in manuscripts of Alessandro Scarlatti’s duet cantatas, indicating its popularity. Documentation of a performance ‘in the loggietta of the noble 17 dance metre &, in which the girls look forward to dancing, banishing their cares, and some new victories in love. Library, is dated December 1716. A version of the poem appears with it – a rare example of the text from which the composer presumably worked, revealing a few differences from the words used by Scarlatti. Perdono, Amor (June 1701/02?) comes from an autograph manuscript in the Santini Collection dating from Scarlatti’s last year in Naples before he embarked upon a freelance career in Rome. The text is bitter and ironic, as the singer seeks forgiveness for having blamed on Love the troubles which he now admits are his own fault. The centrepiece is the second aria ¡, a 3/8 Allegro in a warlike C major contrasted with a central Adagio in the ‘pathetic’ style. Finally comes an aria of invective against the sins of infidelity and betrayal #, with motivic cells of obsessive, repetitive quality. The virtuosity of the cello part throughout and the dramatic scope of the vocal part make this cantata one of Scarlatti’s most satisfying works for solo alto with basso continuo. The Introduzione for solo harpsichord which opens this performance is found in a Roman manuscript containing Scarlatti’s basso continuo handbook, Regole per principianti (Instructions for beginners). The introductory accompanied recitative ¢ is based on imagery of spring and the renewal of hope. The antithesis of light and darkness and the melting of winter’s ice find expression in musical textures diverse in orchestral invention and harmonic colour. The two arias cover a wide stylistic range to reflect the search for resonance between head and heart. The first aria ∞ (‘What will happen? Who will tell me?’) is a masterpiece of modern galant style; the second aria, entitled Aria Pastorale, epitomises the ‘old’ pastoral style, popularised in England by Handel in pieces such as ‘He shall feed his flock’ in Messiah. The duality between head and heart (il pensiero and il cor ) comes to the fore in the Aria Pastorale ¶ with its insistent phrases (‘my reason tells me’) resolving in the line ‘and my heart confirms it’. The image of renewal returns in the final bars of the B section, with Christ portrayed as the flower in the midst of the ice – a remarkable moment, in which the voice has a long sustained note clearly notated to contrast with the short chord and rests of the accompanying instruments. The Cantata Pastorale ‘Non so qual più m’ingombra’ represents Scarlatti’s art at its height in the perfect fusion of poetic image and musical idea. It belongs to the tradition of music composed on the subject of the Christmas revelation, probably for performance on Christmas Eve. The autograph manuscript, held in the Music Department of the Berlin State 18 The only two keys featured in the work are one semitone apart – F major and E major – a clearly symbolic contrast of key colour. While the ‘strained’ key of E major is chosen for the first aria, to signify perhaps the questioning of the intellect, F major returns for the second aria, with its theme of revelation and intuitive belief. The designation of the voice part as ‘canto’, as well as the contrasting vocal styles, suggested the idea of portraying them as two different allegorical characters, as in an oratorio. ‘Reason’ (Recitative and Aria I) is sung here by countertenor, with ‘Intuition’ (end of Recitative II and Aria II) represented by soprano. in the icy ground ‹. As in the Cantata Pastorale, the image is of the sun warming the ground so that the flower – of love – bursts into life. In the aria’s short phrase repetitions, we find Alessandro forging a style that would be taken up by his son Domenico. The final aria, one of Alessandro’s most delectable, puts to rest all the tensions of the work with its dreamy string texture and vocal part in cantus firmus style: ‘Let your fury sleep for I am leaving: Farewell!’ fi. As the instrumental parts cease, the voice ascends into the night alone. Orché di Febo ascosi is a serenata for high soprano solo and strings, believed to date from 1704, according to a source now lost. A Corellilike Sinfonia • sets the scene for the lover who aims to steal a glimpse of his beloved, with the conspiratorial help of ‘dear Night’ and Amphitrite, goddess of risqué situations ª. A succession of innovative forms and textures follows: first an aria, ‘Sleep not, lovely eyes’ ⁄, constructed over a repetitive bass figure which moves through a wide range of keys, with following ritornello, leading into a Largo: ‘Your glances bring to my suffering sweet relief in the midst of my sighs’ ¤. The plight of abandoned or betrayed heroines makes up a strong group of cantata subjects in Scarlatti’s output. This cantata setting of Olimpia for soprano solo and strings is undated but, unusually, the autograph survives, held in the Austrian National Library, Vienna. Olimpia is one of the abandoned heroines of Renaissance literature. Her story appears in Ariosto’s great epic Orlando furioso, the poem that provided plots for some of the best-known Baroque operas on the subject of Armida and Rinaldo. Olimpia’s situation is comparable to that of Arianna (Ariadne), the subject of Monteverdi’s famous lament ‘Lasciatemi morire’. Brought to an island by Bireno as a young bride, Olimpia awakes to find herself alone. From the shore she calls down curses upon him as she watches his boats disappear. CD3 Next is an extraordinary (non da capo) aria in C minor, with darting violin scales around the vocal line portraying the shivering of the flower 19 The overture of the cantata 1 sets a scene of storm-tossed waves and desperation. The first aria 2 is a lament with full accompaniment; at the centre of the work is an invocation to the waves 4, an example of the recitativo stromentato or instrumental recitative which Scarlatti pioneered in his opera Olimpia vendicata (1686). The final aria, with its octave doublings between violin and viola parts, has a furious energy depicting the image of Olimpia as a rock in the ocean, constantly pounded by waves 7. In the poem, Olimpia’s plea for vengeance is answered: Bireno is struck down by the King of Ireland, who rescues Olimpia from her island, and marries her. Del Tirreno sul lido, for alto and basso continuo, is dated 1697 in the only source, Santini MS 3909, thus belonging to the first Neapolitan period of Scarlatti’s work. It expresses the sympathy of an onlooker for a lady in distress – the King of Ireland as he gazes on the abandoned Olimpia? Though there is no actual connection between the two pieces, apart from the key of E minor, the sentiments of this work seem to make a counterpart to the outrage of Olimpia. In contrast to her cry, ‘For me fate cannot change,’ the onlooker says, ‘Beautiful Venus, leave your weeping, for your cruel fate will change.’ The piece shows that lyrical simplicity which marks Scarlatti’s composition from the late 1690s, a period in which he turned away from the semi- improvisatory forms and chromatic complexity of his work earlier in that decade. for the most part in 8-foot range, but using the bass range to GG. The combination of unrequited love and nighttime is a common theme in the Italian cantata, and one that Scarlatti often chose, as it offered scope for his favourite musical imagery of mystery and solitude. ‘Do not wander in lonely places at night,’ Ovid declared in the Ars amatoria: ‘It encourages melancholy in the unrequited lover.’ The portrayal of melancholy came easily to Scarlatti. (He once denied in a letter to Ferdinando de’ Medici that it was the predominant colour of his music!) The introduction to Silenzio, aure volanti is based on the opening of his early opera, Olimpia vendicata (1686), complete with the memorable sound of the voice rising out of the violins – here depicting the night breezes. Recitative forms the B section of this unique opening da capo design @. Bella dama di nome Santa is one of a pair of cantatas from a Neapolitan manuscript, scored for alto, flauto (recorder) and strings. F minor and F major are the keys of the two works, with Bella dama the more outgoing of the pair. Its introduction ) is a grandly scored Adagio, Corelli-style, followed by a light menuet, Lento alla Francese. Scarlatti’s mature recitative style is combined with two arias of his most exuberant invention. The last of these is a concertino for the recorder – one of the few pieces in which Scarlatti reminds us of Vivaldi’s concerto style, though the harmonic angles with which he suggests the deceptive nature of ‘the fair lady called Grace’ are totally characteristic of the Scarlatti family style. The next two arias are accompanied by continuo and punctuated by instrumental ritornelli, indicating a date pre-1700 for the work, as does the quotation from Olimpia vendicata. Here too, we hear the voice surrounded by violins in arioso $, (. The final aria Piangerò & is a great lament with string accompaniment to compare with Dido’s Lament in Act III of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. The bass instrument used throughout this work is not the cello but the 12-foot violone, playing 20 miseries’ ¶. The tunefulness of the piece seems to leap out of the rhythm of the text – a long way from the tortured chromaticism of Scarlatti’s later style. The piece can be dated to the late 1690s on grounds of style and structure, as well as manuscript evidence. The principal source is found in a Roman manuscript of the Santini Collection, Münster. Other copies in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, appear to be the work of an English and a French copyist respectively, suggesting the widespread appeal of the work. The Toccata da cimbalo is the only keyboard work among the cantatas of manuscript 864 held in the Santini Collection. It contains evidence pointing to Alessandro’s authorship of this previously unidentified toccata (see Saraband Edition SM24, ed. R. Halton). The appearance of the manuscript strongly suggests Scarlatti’s hand with its fine, sloping small note-shapes, and the paper is identifiable as derived from the same source as that on which is copied the autograph cantata Quella pace gradita, which follows directly. The Toccata’s structure consists of the alternation of adagio chordal sections with fugal allegro sections, and finishes with a dance-like 3/8 Allegro. This contains a fingerprint of the Scarlatti father and son – the whirling semiquavers in close canonic texture appear both in the second aria of Alessandro’s solo cantata Farfalla che s’aggira (Circling butterfly), and later in Domenico Scarlatti’s haunting Sonata in E minor, K203 (Vivo non molto). The two cantatas for soprano and continuo are on the theme of lontananza (literally ‘distance’, or separation) – a theme that recurs continually in the cantata texts set by Scarlatti. Both were composed in the last years of the 1690s, while the composer was still maestro di cappella at the court of Naples. In E come, o Dio, we are in the world of the ‘frenetic lover’, whose separation from her beloved provokes an outburst of suspicion after the ‘dissolving in weeping’ of the beautiful and asymmetrically phrased first aria ∞. Resignation prevails in the final aria, which reflects ruefully on, rather than railing against, lontananza, ‘source of a thousand 21 Convegno internazionale di studi (Reggio Calabria, 16-17 maggio 2003), edited by Nicolò Maccavino, Vol. II 451-522. Reggio Calabria: Laruffa. Lontan dall’Idol mio is dated 1699 in one English manuscript. From the first bars we find Scarlatti’s vocabulary of expressive extremes – for instance, the interval of a minor ninth to express the word ‘distant’ (lontan). The illusion of Amarilli being close (in the poet’s thoughts) though far away in reality (suggesting Petrarchian influence) finds expression through key relationships: A-flat, the key of illusion, dissolving within F minor/major to return to the ‘reality’ of G minor. Roberto Pagano. 2006. Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti: Two Lives in One, translated by Frederick Hammond. Hillsdale: Pendragon Press. Chacona The ensemble chacona was formed in 1997 by Rosalind Halton, Lucinda Moon and Jamie Hey, becoming known to Australian audiences through highly praised live broadcasts on ABC Classic FM. Chacona perform a repertoire ranging from the virtuoso string music of Biber, Stradella, Lonati and Vivaldi to chamber music from the French Baroque. They have appeared in festivals in Melbourne and Sydney, including the Sydney International Spring Festival of Contemporary Music. The members of chacona have a special love of working with music that brings instruments into dialogue with the voice, making the music of Alessandro Scarlatti a particularly rich source for exploration. The first aria, Egro che langue º, is a serene piece in B-flat major, but the second in G minor is unexpectedly intense, with its high-placed cello line in the first section and abrupt chordal juxtapositions in the second section to illustrate crudo martire (‘cruel suffering’) ¤. The final line ‘How happy would be this heart of mine to turn and see you – and then to die’, seems to absorb the pain of the second section in calm resignation. Rosalind Halton © 2007 References Dinko Fabris. 2006. Music in Seventeenth Century Naples. Aldershot: Ashgate Books. Thomas E. Griffin. 1993. Musical References in the Gazzetta di Napoli, 1681-1725. Berkeley: Fallen Leaf Press. Expanded for these recordings through collaboration with some of Australia’s finest musicians in Baroque performance, chacona aim to contribute through research and performance to the rediscovery of the rich repertoire of Italian Baroque music. Nicolò Maccavino. 2007. ‘La Serenata a Filli “Tacete Aure Tacete” e le altre Serenate datate 1706 di Alessandro Scarlatti’, in La Serenata tra Seicento e Settecento: musica, poesia, scenotecnica. Atti del 22 Harpsichord (ABC Classics), winner of a Soundscapes recording award in 1997. Rosalind Halton harpsichord, musical director Rosalind Halton has been researching and performing the cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti for over twenty years – a life-long project begun while completing her DPhil at Oxford University, on the music of Haydn. Encouraged by Denis Arnold, she extended her research from performances of Scarlatti’s solo cantatas with soprano Kate Eckersley in the UK in the 1980s, to examine cantata manuscripts in libraries throughout Europe. The present recordings represent her study of cantatas and serenatas, and her research into the many performance practice issues of this repertoire. In addition to recordings and performances, she has published over 30 editions of Italian cantatas. As Research convenor in Music at the University of Newcastle, she has stimulated research activity in Baroque performance, including a collaboration with Marie-Louise Catsalis in editions of serenatas by Alessandro Scarlatti, and performances of Stradella serenatas. Lucinda Moon principal violin As concertmaster of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 1995, Lucinda Moon has toured within Australia and to Japan and Europe, working with many of the leading international performers of Baroque music. As well as numerous recordings with the ABO for ABC Classics, including Sanctuary and Il Flauto Dolce, she has performed and recorded with many prominent Baroque ensembles including Adelaide Baroque, Salut! Baroque, the Elysium Ensemble and chacona. She has appeared in the Melbourne Autumn Music, Barossa Music and Coriole Music Festivals, and at the Sydney Spring Festival of Contemporary Music. In 2004 she performed in Poland and the Netherlands with the Orchestra of the 18th Century in a production of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera Les Indes Galantes. She also travels regularly to Vancouver, Canada, to perform as guest director and soloist with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, with whom she has appeared as the soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Rosalind Halton has performed and broadcast with ensembles throughout Australia and as a soloist in Europe, Australia, Canada and in her native New Zealand, where she began her career as performer/researcher under the guidance of Peter Platt. Her harpsichord studies with Colin Tilney have been an important influence. She has recorded two CDs of French harpsichord music, including The French Jamie Hey cello A member of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 1995, Jamie Hey took up the position of Principal Cellist of the orchestra in 2002. In the same year he was the recipient of 23 II Collection. Other releases include Salut! for Walsingham, The Gentle Muse for Artworks, Down Longford Way for Tall Poppies, and on ABC Classics, Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos, Synergy’s Ethereal Eye and the song collection Love Me Sweet. the Dean’s Medal for outstanding achievement as an Honours graduate of the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music. He also undertook advanced studies in Japan and the USA with Hidemi Suzuki and Phoebe Carrai. Pursuing an active research interest in 17th- and 18th-century Italian cello music, Jamie Hey is greatly in demand as a continuo player, accompanying many leading exponents of early music including Emma Kirkby, Graham Pushee and Maria Cristina Kiehr. His broadcast solo performances include recitals for the Melbourne Autumn Music Festival, concerto performances and recordings with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and chamber recitals with chacona. Most recently she has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Elision, the Australia Ensemble, The Queensland Orchestra and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, in recital at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Melbourne Festival, Musica Viva Yarra Valley Festival and the Art Gallery of NSW, and in partnership with artists including Derek Lee Ragin, Australian String Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, Geoffrey Morris and the Goldner String Quartet. Jane Edwards soprano Jane Edwards appears regularly in concert throughout Australia, and has performed at all our major festivals. She was a long-time member of The Song Company, and prior to moving to Tasmania in 2006, was a Lecturer in Voice at the Sydney Conservatorium for many years. Career highlights include engagements with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Florilegium, Stockholm Bach Choir, Danish Radio Choir, Victoria State Opera and all the principal Australian symphony orchestras. She performs lieder and chamber repertoire with partners including Ian Munro, Marshall McGuire, Geoffrey Lancaster and David Bollard, and can be heard in the Oscar-winning film Shine and on the Swoon Tessa Miller soprano Tessa Miller’s career has encompassed a wide range of styles and great versatility, however it is in the field of Baroque music that she has attracted international accolades. As a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship in 1991, she studied intensively in the UK under the guidance of Emma Kirkby and Anthony Rooley; again in 1995 the award of a scholarship took her to the Netherlands to study basso continuo song with Thérèse de Goede. Tessa Miller is a member of Adelaide Baroque and Musica da Camera, the longest-running early music group in Australia. She sings throughout Australia and broadcasts regularly on ABC Classic FM; she has also 24 Miriam Allan soprano performed in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and China. Born in Newcastle, NSW, Miriam Allan has been based in London since 2003. In Australia, she has been a soloist with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Coro Innominata, and she continues to appear in concert and ABC broadcasts when in Australia. She appears on numerous Australian recordings including Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Rameau’s Dardanus with Pinchgut Opera (ABC Classics), Handel – Italian Cantatas (Tall Poppies) and on soundtracks, including the feature film, The Man Who Sued God. As a sought-after performer of contemporary song and music theatre, Tessa Miller has helped create many premieres, most recently the role of Jean Rhys in The Portrait by Becky Llewellyn, and she regularly performs contemporary works written for Baroque instruments with Adelaide Baroque, such as the 2007 song cycle commission The Four Seasons by Natalie Williams. James Sanderson countertenor James Sanderson has a reputation for creating dramatically convincing performances of works ranging from the 16th to the 20th centuries. He lives and works in the UK, appearing around the world in opera and concert. As General Editor of the online editing project Cantata Editions and Scarlattiproject.com, James Sanderson provides an important forum for dialogue between performers and researchers in the field of Italian Baroque vocal music. Since founding Cantata Editions, he has contributed to the catalogue over 250 works in first modern editions, mainly in the genre of the cantata da camera, as well as numerous editions of sacred 18th-century Italian vocal music. His main area of interest lies in the music of the Neapolitan masters such as Nicola Porpora, Leonardo Leo, Francesco Mancini and Alessandro Scarlatti. Since moving to London, Miriam Allan has appeared as a soloist with many European ensembles including Concerto Copenhagen, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Il Fondamento, Gewandhaus Kammerchor, London Handel Orchestra, Leipzig Chamber Orchestra and Concerto Köln. She made her German debut appearances in 2004 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus and at the Handel Festival in Halle. In 2006 she appeared with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir in the USA, France, Spain and at the BBC Proms. She has also performed with Les Arts Florissants and toured Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Michael Chance and the Israel Camerata. 25 Vivien Hamilton soprano Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan Recording Producer Ralph Lane OAM Recording Engineer Virginia Read (CD1 & 2), Allan MacLean (CD3) Editor Ralph Lane (CD1 & 3), Virginia Read (CD2) Mastering Virginia Read Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb Publications Editor Natalie Shea Product Coordinator Anna-Lisa Whiting (CD2 & 3) Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Cover Photo Pietro Fabris (fl. 1756-1792) Marine Festival in the Bay of Naples (The Procession of the Royal Ships at Posillipo) © Patrimonia Nacional, Spain Scottish-born soprano Vivien Hamilton enjoys a performing career which includes solo art song recitals, theatre and opera, oratorio, vocal ensemble performances and contemporary repertoire projects. She is however best known to Australian audiences through her broadcasts with ABC Classic FM’s Sunday Live program, recordings on various CD labels and performances at major festivals throughout Australia. In 2006, for example, she appeared in the Melbourne International Festival singing the Lyric Soprano part in Steve Reich’s Tehillim with ensemble 21; in 2007 she performed the role of Clorinda in the Castlemaine Festival production of Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Recorded 14-17 February 2002 (CD1) and 14-17 February 2000 (CD2) in the Conservatorium Hall, University of Newcastle, and 17-21 May 1999 (CD3) in the Cardinal Ceretti Memorial Chapel, St Patrick’s Estate, Manly. Vivien Hamilton is well known for her musical collaborations with Renaissance and Baroque music specialist ensembles such as chacona, Consort Eclectus, Convivio, ensemble 21, La Compañia and Ludovico’s Band, and with lutenists Rosemary Hodgson and Samantha Cohen. All the works performed on these discs have been researched and edited by Rosalind Halton from manuscript sources. Venere, Adone e Amore is in preparation for publication by A-R Editions; the cantatas on discs 2 and 3 are available online at cantataeditions.com The following libraries and their librarians are thanked for friendly and expert assistance in providing access to manuscripts: She is a committed educator who teaches for the Music Faculty of the University of Melbourne; under the umbrella of the Early Music Studio she is musical director of the Early Voices Vocal Ensemble, a group of 16-20 singing students who are passionately devoted to the performance of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music. Santini Collection, Bischöfliches Seminar, Münster. Venere, Adone e Amore, Rome 1706; autograph, Perdono, Amor ; Filli e Clori (Amica, ora che Aprile) ; Del Tirreno sul lido; E come, o Dio; Serenata Orché di Febo ascosi; Lidio e Clori; Silenzio, aure volanti; Toccata da Cimbalo (attrib. A. Scarlatti) 26 Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna: autograph, Olimpia Thanks are also due to Nathan Scott, Nigel Kentish, Philip Sketchley and Michael Kelly of the Conservatorium of Music, University of Newcastle for invaluable assistance and technical support with the recording sessions of CD 1 and 2; and to the Music Library staff of the University of Newcastle. Staatsbibliothek, Berlin: autograph, Cantata Pastorale. Christ Church College, Oxford: Serenata Venere, Adone e Amore; Lontan dall’Idol mio Financial support for the recording of CDs 1 and 2 was received from the Research Branch of the University of Newcastle. A University of New England Internal Research Grant provided funding for editions and the recording of CD 3, 1993-1999. Bodleian Library, Oxford: Filli e Clori (Amica, ora che Aprile) ; Lontan dall’Idol mio; E come, o Dio; Silenzio, aure volanti British Library, London: Filli e Clori (Amica, ora che Aprile); Lontan dall’Idol mio James Sanderson appears courtesy of Opera Australia. Biblioteca del Conservatorio, Naples: Bella dama di nome Santa; Serenata Orché di Febo ascosi Harpsichords by David Halton, Armidale 1986 and 1987, after Gregori, early 18th-century Italian. The study by Edwin Hanley, Alessandro Scarlatti’s ‘Cantate da Camera’: a Bibliographical Study, PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1963, forms the indispensable basis for all the manuscript research undertaken in this project. ABC Classics thanks Alexandra Alewood and Melissa Kennedy. 2001 CD2 & 3 2007 CD1 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited. Rosalind Halton warmly thanks Professor Nerida Newbigin (Department of Italian, University of Sydney) for invaluable advice on texts and translations; Dr Marie-Louise Catsalis, for many years of shared research on the sources and performance of Alessandro Scarlatti’s vocal music; James Sanderson, for transcription of the solo alto cantatas, Del Tirreno sul lido and Perdono, Amor, and for his work as general editor of cantataeditions.com; and Dr Steven Campbell, for technical support with editions. 27