Stefano Landi
Sant'Alessio "O morte gradita"
Act II, Sc. 7
Libretto: Giulio ROSPIGLIO
Stefano Landi
Sant'Alessio "O morte gradita"
Act II, Sc. 7
Libretto: Giulio ROSPIGLIOSI
http://www.librettidopera.it/zpdf/alessio.pdf
First performance: 8 March 1631, Rome
In this video:
Sant'Alessio: Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor.
Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie.
Director: Benjamin Lazar.
Théâtre de Caen, October 18, 2007.
While searching for more and more scores as Marc and I usually do, we came across this manuscript fragment (a copy, not an autograph) from Landi's Il Sant' Alessio. Of course the temptation was too great to resist. So I decided to work on a video project. I had one problem out of many which almost stopped me from making the video: the score I found didn't have the instrumental parts, but only the vocal part and the continuo. The other problems were: (a) only the first half of the text was shown on the manuscript, and (b) there were some pauses in the score that recording didn't have as well as some notes that were held longer than Philippe Jaroussky sings. Once I found the solution for the main problem by filling the gaps in the score with the images from the DVD, I asked Marc for his opinion on it. And he came up with the idea of writing the score in hand and making it fit the recording. This also allowed us to present the second part of the text on the score. The text and translation was also prepared by Marc. And after that, all I had to do was to use image manipulation to stylize the score captures and design the title slide and to put together all three components: the sound, the images and the score. The end result, I must say, is a bit eerie yet much more beautiful than I imagined it would be. - Eser
I made this score in the Baroque style, without trying to reach perfect authenticity. My source was an early 20th-century handwritten copy, where the voice part was written in G clef; I used a first-line C clef instead, which was used for soprano parts in the Baroque period. I adjusted the word-setting to Philippe Jaroussky's singing (namely the melisma on "vita" and "chiave", and also "o Morte" repeated), but of course his ornamentation is not indicated. I also cut two bars that were not performed, as well as the continuo realisation (right hand). - Marc D.
Text:
O Morte gradita,
ti bramo, ti aspetto;
dal duolo al diletto
tuo calle m'invita,
o Morte gradita.
Dal carcer umano
tu sola fai piano
il varco alla vita,
o Morte gradita.
O Morte soave,
de' giusti conforto,
tu guidi nel porto
d'ogni alma la nave,
o Morte soave.
Il viver secondo
tu n'apri nel mondo,
con gelida chiave,
o Morte soave.
Translation (by Marc D.):
O pleasant Death,
I want you, I await you;
your path invites me
(to go) from pain to delight,
O pleasant Death.
Only you make
beautiful the passage
from the human prison to life,
O pleasant Death.
O sweet Death,
solace of the righteous,
you lead into the harbour
the ship of every soul,
O sweet Death.
You open in this world
the (doors of the) second life
with a frozen key,
O sweet Death.
(more)
(less)
Added: 5 days ago
Views: 271
M. de Sainte Colombe
Tombeau les Regrets "Les Pleurs"
In this recording:
Jordi
M. de Sainte Colombe
Tombeau les Regrets "Les Pleurs"
In this recording:
Jordi Savall, Bass Viol
Christophe Coin, Bass Viol
Tous Les Matins Du Monde (OST)
Recorded in 1991
About the score: The score is a transposed version for harpsichord. I found it too tempting not to make the video. So I went for it.
I worked with Marc D. (MehdiCaps) on the title slide. Idea and the design of it is his. I only made some slight editing on colors. Thanks a lot, my dear Marc, for your constant help :-*
"Sainte-Colombe's music was only rediscovered in 1966, when a manuscript of his 67 Concerts a deux violes esgales was discovered in the library of the famed pianist Alfred Cortot. His music (and a fictionalized account of his relations with his more famous student Marin Marais) was brought to wide attention in Tous les matins du monde, a film that opened the ears of many to the glories of the viola da gamba. Sainte-Colombe's Tombeau les regrets is exemplary for its passionate and lyrical rhetoric. This extended work does not memorialize anyone in particular, but is rather a general meditation on loss. It includes vivid movements depicting the funeral bells (the carillon, or quarrillon), the call of Charon (the boatman of the Styx), the weeping (les pleurs) of those left behind, and finally the joys of the blessed souls in the Elysian Fields."
(more)
(less)
Added: 1 week ago
Views: 182
George Frideric Handel
Rinaldo, HWV 7
"Cara sposa"
Rinaldo's aria from act I, sc.7
George Frideric Handel
Rinaldo, HWV 7
"Cara sposa"
Rinaldo's aria from act I, sc.7
Premiere Cast, February 24, 1711:
Rinaldo: Nicolo Grimaldi, castrato
Eustazio: Valentino Urbani, castrato
Armida: Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti, soprano
Almirena: Isabella Girardeau, soprano
Goffredo: Francesca Vanini-Boschi, contralto
Argante: Giuseppe Boschi, bass
In this video:
Andreas Scholl, countertenor
Accademia Bizantina
Direction: Ottavio Dantone
Live performance from Festival de Musique de Dresde, 12 May, 2008
"Rinaldo was first produced at the Queen's (later King's) Theatre in the Haymarket on 24 February 1711. It was Handel's first opera for London, and also the first Italian opera specifically composed for the London stage. The concept of opera as a wholly sung musical drama was still new in Britain, and through the first successful production was an English version of Giovanni Bononcini's Camilla in 1706, the popularity of Italian singers — especially the sensational castrati — swiftly established opera in the Italian language as the standard form.
...
Rinaldo's own aria of lament in Act One, 'Cara sposa', is even more intense, its brooding power sustained by the fully worked and occasionally chromatic counterpoint of the string accompaniment. " - Anthony Hicks
"Like Handel's other operas, Rinaldo fell into oblivion for two hundred years. However, starting in the 1970s, it has been revived regularly and has become part of the standard operatic repertoire. Several arias from this opera, such as 'Lascia ch'io pianga' and 'Cara sposa', have become recitalists' favorites." -Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Original text:
Cara sposa, amante cara,
dove sei?
Deh! Ritorna a' pianti miei.
Del vostro Erebo sull'ara
colla face del mio sdegno
io vi sfido o spirti rei!
Translation: (by Kenneth Chalmers)
My dear betrothed, my dear one,
where are you?
Come back at my tears!
Evil spirits, I defy you
with the fire of my wrath
on your infernal altar.
(more)
(less)
Added: 1 week ago
Views: 508
|
Gabriel Fauré
Après un rêve
Op. 7, No. 1
Véronique Gens - Nuits d'étoiles (Mélodies f
Gabriel Fauré
Après un rêve
Op. 7, No. 1
Véronique Gens - Nuits d'étoiles (Mélodies françaises)
Roger Vignoles, piano
This is Fauré's most popular song, and one of his earliest (Op. 7, No. 1, 1865). Romain Bussine's text is a French adaptation of an anonymous Italian poem "Levati sol que luna è levata".
Text:
Après un rêve
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image
Je rêvais le bonheur, ardent mirage;
Tes yeux étaient plus doux, ta voix pure et sonore,
Tu rayonnais comme un ciel éclairé par l'aurore.
Tu m'appelais et je quittais la terre
Pour m'enfuir avec toi vers la lumière;
Les cieux pour nous, entr'ouvraient leurs nues,
Splendeurs inconnues, lueurs divines entrevues...
Hélas! Hélas, triste réveil des songes!
Je t'appelle, ô nuit, rends-moi tes mensonges;
Reviens, reviens radieuse,
Reviens, ô nuit mystérieuse!
Translation:
After a dream
In a sleep which your image charmed
I dreamed of happiness, ardent mirage;
your eyes were sweeter, your voice pure and ringing,
you shone like a sky lit up by the dawn.
You were calling me and I was leaving the earth
to flee with you towards the light;
the skies parted their clouds for us,
unknown splendours, divine half-seen gleams...
Alas! Alas! Sad awakening from dreams!
I call on you, O night, give me back your deceits;
come back, come back resplendent,
come back, O mysterious night!
(more)
(less)
Added: 2 weeks ago
Views: 470
George Frideric Handel
Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17
"Al lampo dell'armi"
Cesare's ar
George Frideric Handel
Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17
"Al lampo dell'armi"
Cesare's aria from Act II, Scene 3
Libretto: by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Giacamo Francesco Bussani.
Premiere Cast, February 20, 1724
Cleopatra: Francesca Cuzzoni, soprano
Sesto: Margherita Durastanti, mezzo-soprano
Giulio Cesare: Senesino, alto castrato
Tolomeo: Gaetano Berenstadt, alto castrato
Nireno: Giuseppe Bigonzi, alto castrato
Cornelia: Anastasia Robinson, contralto
Achilla: Giuseppe Maria Boschi, bass
Curio: John Lagarde, bass
In this video:
Andreas Scholl, countertenor
Accademia Bizantina
Direction: Ottavio Dantone
Live performance from Festival de Musique de Dresde, 12 May, 2008
I had uploaded this aria by Scholl from his "Arias for Senesino" album. But due to the technical inefficiencies the sound was very poor. I meant to redo it but never did because of all the other projects I lost myself in. But when I listened to this recent performance of Scholl on radio, I had to get back to my original idea. The sound is still not the top quality one. But it is remarkable, even more so than the recording, the precision he sings with. Sung at the very end of the program, live performance of this aria clearly shows his extraordinary control and precise coloratura without falling behind the tempo or losing his projection. As an added value, his variations in the da capo are impressive yet not exaggerated. This should be a good answer to all the sceptics out there who insist that he sang this in 30-40 takes and the technicians put it together like a jigsaw puzzle, lol :))
"Opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto was first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, London, on 20th of February 1724 with legendary alto castrato Senesino (Francesco Bernardi) performing the title role, Francesca Cuzzoni as Cleopatra. The opera was an immediate success. Handel revived it (with changes) in 1725, 1730, and 1732; it was also performed in Paris, Hamburg, and Brunswick. Like Handel's other works in the opera seria genre, Giulio Cesare fell into oblivion in the 19th century. In the 20th century, it was revived (in heavily altered form - reorchestrated and revamped with the male castrato roles transposed down for a baritone, tenor or bass) in Göttingen in 1922 by the Handel enthusiast Oskar Hagen. Hans Knappertsbusch and Karl Bohm both conducted it in Munich in 1923 and its first American performance took place at the Smith College of Music in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1927. The first British revival of a Handel opera was the staging of Giulio Cesare at the Scala Theatre in London in 1930, by the London Festival Opera Company, singing in English. The young Herbert Von Karajan conducted a production in Ulm in 1933. In modern times, it has proven to be by far the most popular of Handel's operas, with more than two hundred productions in many countries. The title role and the roles Ptolemy and Nirenus were written for castrati, and in modern productions, Giulio is either transposed for baritone or sung by a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or, more frequently in recent years, a countertenor. The characters of both Nirenus and Ptolemy are sung by countertenors.
The work is considered by many to be Handel's finest Italian opera, possibly even the best in the history of opera seria. It is admired for its superb vocal writing, its dramatic impact, and its deft orchestral arrangements."
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Original text:
Al lampo dell'armi
quest'alma guerriera
vendetta farà.
Non fia che disarmi
la destra guerriera
che forza le dà.
Translation:
In the flash of an arm
this warrior's soul
will have its revenge.
Let not my warlike arm
be weakened
by the one who gives it strength.
(more)
(less)
Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 394
Henry Purcell
Come, ye sons of art, Z 323
Birthday Ode for Queen Mary, 1694
"Sound the
Henry Purcell
Come, ye sons of art, Z 323
Birthday Ode for Queen Mary, 1694
"Sound the trumpet"
Text: Probably by Nahum Tate
In this video:
Countertenor 1: James Bowman
Countertenor 2: Andreas Scholl
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
From the live performance at Royal Festival Hall
Wednesday 11 June 2008
James Bowman, who was the presenter of the concert, and Andreas Scholl singing the duet "Sound the trumpet" from Purcell's ode "Come, ye sons of art" as an encore. Note that James Bowman is 66 years old here and Scholl is 40. What makes the audience laugh in the beginning is a mystery. Bowman did make a joke in the beginning of the program saying "Don't worry, I'm not going to sing". It may be due to this that it came as a surprise to the audience when he started singing. Maybe someone who was in the audience that day could tell us what it actually was :)
"In the time of Purcell, odes were composed by the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal. Although Purcell was never appointed to head the Chapel Royal, he was a favorite composer of the king, so it fell to him to compose odes for the birthday of Queen Mary II in 1694. Come, Ye Sons of Art, Away was the final birthday ode Purcell composed for Queen Mary; by the end of 1695 both she and Purcell had passed away.
'Sound the Trumpet' is a striking duet for two countertenors. The melody dances over a ground bass as the singers imitate the sound of trumpets." All Music Guide
Text:
Sound the trumpet till around
You make the list'ning shores rebound.
On the sprightly hautboy
play all the instruments of joy
that skillful numbers can employ
to celebrate the glories of this day.
(more)
(less)
Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 924
|
Nicola Porpora
Polifemo "Alto Giove"
Aci's aria from the act III, sc. 5
Text: Paolo Rol
Nicola Porpora
Polifemo "Alto Giove"
Aci's aria from the act III, sc. 5
Text: Paolo Rolli
Forces: Soprano, strings & continuo
In part from the website 'Cantata Editions' (www.cantataeditions.com):
''The aria made famous through the film 'Farinelli: il castrato' Beautiful and virtuosic, it concerns Acis thanking Jupiter for making him immortal. In two sections, the beautiful lento with its slowly moving harmony and sinuous vocal line, and an unexpected andantino middle section."
Austrian sopranist (formerly a Vienna Boy's Choir member) Arno Raunig's recording is the only version I could find that shows the piece in its original 'da capo' form, complete with the andantino part. It is also interesting to hear the aria with only piano accompaniment.
In this recording:
Arno Raunig, sopranist
Paul Weigold, piano
Original Text:
Alto Giove, è tua grazia,
è tuo vanto il gran dono
di vita immortale
che il tuo cenno sovrano mi fa.
Ma il rendermi poi quella
già sospirata tanto
diva amorosa e bella
è un dono senza uguale,
come la tua beltà.
Translation (by Marc D.):
Almighty Jupiter, your grace
and your fame are the great gift
of immortality
that you give me in a sovereign gesture.
(...)
(more)
(less)
Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 757
Nicola Porpora
Polifemo "Alto Giove"
Aci's aria from the act III, sc. 5
Text: Paolo Rol
Nicola Porpora
Polifemo "Alto Giove"
Aci's aria from the act III, sc. 5
Text: Paolo Rolli
Forces: Soprano, strings & continuo
In part from the website 'Cantata Editions' (www.cantataeditions.com):
''The aria made famous through the film 'Farinelli: il castrato' Beautiful and virtuosic, it concerns Acis thanking Jupiter for making him immortal.
In two sections, the beautiful lento with its slowly moving harmony and sinuous vocal line, and an unexpected andantino middle section."
This recording is only the lento part as it appears in the soundtrack of the movie Farinelli.
In this recording:
Ewa Malas-Godlewska
Derek Lee Ragin, countertenor
Les Talens Lyriques
Christophe Rousset
(From the Soundtrack of the movie 'Farinelli, il castrato')
Original Text:
Alto Giove, è tua grazia,
è tuo vanto il gran dono
di vita immortale
che il tuo cenno sovrano mi fa.
Translation (by Marc D.):
Almighty Jupiter, your grace
and your fame are the great gift
of immortality
that you give me in a sovereign gesture.
(more)
(less)
Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 470
Nicola Porpora
Polifemo "Alto Giove"
Aci's aria from the act III, sc. 5
Text: Paolo Rol
Nicola Porpora
Polifemo "Alto Giove"
Aci's aria from the act III, sc. 5
Text: Paolo Rolli
Forces: Soprano, strings & continuo
In part from the website 'Cantata Editions' (www.cantataeditions.com):
''The aria made famous through the film 'Farinelli: il castrato' Beautiful and virtuosic, it concerns Acis thanking Jupiter for making him immortal.
In two sections, the beautiful lento with its slowly moving harmony and sinuous vocal line, and an unexpected andantino middle section."
Philippe Jarroussky is only singing the lento part.
In this recording:
Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
Paul Dyer, harpsichord/director
(Recorded live in the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney, July 2007)
Original Text:
Alto Giove, è tua grazia,
è tuo vanto il gran dono
di vita immortale
che il tuo cenno sovrano mi fa.
Translation (by Marc D.):
Almighty Jupiter, your grace
and your fame are the great gift
of immortality
that you give me in a sovereign gesture.
(more)
(less)
Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 906
|
|
See All 138 Videos
|
