Giovanni Antonio Rigatti

by Jeffrey Kurtzman

Giovanni Antonio Rigatti is a name that until recent times was virtually unknown to music history. Living in Venice in the first half of the 17th-century, he has been overshadowed by his famous contemporaries, the chapel masters and vice chapel masters of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice: Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli. Thanks to the research and publications of an international coterie of scholars, Jerome Roche (England), Linda Maria Koldau (Germany), Metoda Kokole (Slovenia) and Gianluca Viglizzo (Italy), both the biography and music of this fascinating composer of the mid-17th century are at long last coming to light. I am especially grateful to Gianluca Viglizzo for sharing with me his as-yet-unpublished article on Rigatti containing new biographical data. Much of the information below is derived from this article and an earlier one by the late Jerome Roche.

Baptized on October 15, 1613 in the Church of San Severo in Venice, Rigatti became a boy singer in the chapel of St. Mark’s under Monteverdi’s direction on September 25, 1621. As with many such boy choristers, his early training led to a musical career as a singer, organist and composer. It is unknown how long he remained at St. Mark’s, but he must have been composing from at least his late teenage years, for his first book of motets for 2, 3 and 4 voices and ripieno choir was published in 1634, and the dedication of his first published collection of madrigals for 2, 3 and 4 voices, issued in 1636, refers to pieces composed “in the spring of my youth.” Also in his teenage years he entered the Patriarchal Seminary in Venice, finally attaining the rank of deacon in 1637. Even before becoming a deacon, Rigatti served for eighteen months (1635-1637) as chapel master at the cathedral in Udine in the Friuli region north of Venice, being cited at his installation as “one of the best musicians of Venice,” certainly a distinction for someone barely 22 years old!

In March of 1637 Rigatti left his post in Udine to return to Venice, where in August of 1639 he was appointed organist, master of the choir and music teacher to the girls at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti (beggar’s refuge), one of the Venetian orphanages for girls where music was such an important factor in their education (in the 18th century Vivaldi was for many years director of music at the Ospedale della Pietà, which attracted many Venetian and foreign visitors because of the quality of its concerts). Rigatti, however, was released from his post at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in the late summer of 1642 because of moonlighting at other Venetian Ospedali. While retaining a relationship with the Ospedale degli Incurabili (refuge of the incurables), he went to work before the year was out for Monsignor Gian Francesco Morosini, a member of one of the most distinguished patrician families of Venice, who became the Patriarch of Venice in 1644 and a Procurator (one of three ruling officers) of St. Mark’s in 1645.

As Patriarch, Morosini was in charge of the church of San Pietro in Castello, the cathedral of Venice (St. Mark’s was the ducal basilica, and of much greater importance than the official cathedral). San Pietro did not have its own professional choir, but rather a group of canons who sang under the direction of the organist. Once Morosini became a Procurator of St. Mark’s, Rigatti was named “Sottocanonico” of the basilica in 1646, a position he assumed in July 1647. This was an administrative post, so that Rigatti’s musical activity was mostly limited to his ongoing association with the Ospedale degli Incurabili. At the height of his career, and having survived the terrible Venetian plague of 1630-31, Rigatti suddenly took sick with a fever on October 18, 1648 and died six days later at the young age of 35.

During his short career, Rigatti was very active as a composer. In addition to the motet and madrigal prints of 1634 and 1636 mentioned above, a truly monumental collection was published in 1640, comprising a mass and many psalms for different combinations of voices, two violins and other instruments, dedicated to the Hapsburg emperor Ferdinand III in Vienna. This is the primary source, in a modern edition by Linda Maria Koldau, of the music of Magnificat’s December concerts. In the next few years Rigatti published even further music: in 1641 a set of secular monodies; in 1643 a collection of psalms and a mass for three solo voices and ripieno choir as well as a separate collection of motets for solo voice; in 1646 psalms and other pieces for the Office of Compline; in 1647 motets for solo voice and a mass and motets for two and three voices; and in 1648, the year of his death, another collection of psalms and a mass for three voices, two violins and ripieno choir.

Rigatti’s music, published by the most prominent publishing houses in Venice, circulated widely. Copies can still be found not only in Italy, but also in England, Poland, Germany and France. His 1647 motets are even found in the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, though obviously not acquired at the time of their publication! But the research of Metoda Kokole in the archives of the cathedral in Capo d’Istria (Koper in Slovenian), down the Istrian peninsula from Trieste, has turned up not only copies of some of Rigatti’s publications, but also a number of compositions in manuscript that are not found in his published works. Rigatti’s music was obviously much prized in Koper, for his repertoire constitutes a major part of the cathedral’s musical archive, far more than any other Venetian composer, and may have arrived there through personal connections with Rigatti’s publishers and other Venetian acquaintances.

Today, only a small number of Rigatti’s compositions have been recorded on CD. Indeed, Magnificat’s December concerts may well represent the largest assemblage of Rigatti’s music performed at one time since the 17th century. The style of his music, especially the concertato psalms to be heard in these concerts, is akin to Monteverdi’s concertato psalms, performed on many occasions by Magnificat, but with a particular emphasis on passages for small numbers of voices, often in parallel thirds; a prominent role for the violins and other strings, who sometimes take the lead in introducing new motives and frequently play in counterpoint to the voices; a simpler harmonic language; longer passages of rapid text declamation; more repetitive patterning of melodies through such means as sequences and four-square rhythms in ornamental passages, as well as more emphasis on triple meter with graceful melodies; and systematic construction of overall form by such devices as ostinato basses, “walking” basses and other repetitive bass patterns. At times Rigatti’s music reveals weaknesses in contrapuntal technique, but its attractiveness overcomes any such faults.

The Office of Vespers

by Jeffrey Kurtzman

When St. Benedict established the first monastic order in Western Christendom in the sixth century A.D., he prescribed round-the-clock prayers for his monks consisting of eight separate services, one every three hours. These services, the primary texts of which were the Old Testament Psalms of David, comprised the Office Hours, and the most prominent became the evening Office, Vespers, from the Latin word for evening.
All of these Offices were sung throughout to music commonly known as Gregorian Chant—a large repertoire of single-line melodies that dates back to the earliest years of the Catholic Church.

At some unknown point in history it became a frequent practice to perform the Vespers service not only in monasteries and monastic churches, but also in public, so-called “secular” churches as well as in the private chapels of nobles and high clerics. Moreover, Vespers services came, in the 15th century, to be occasionally performed at least partly in polyphony rather than exclusively Gregorian Chant. The 15th century was a period of rapid expansion in the quantity of polyphony used in the central public service of the Catholic Church, the Mass, and by the end of the century, polyphony had become more prominent in Vespers services as well.

The advent of music printing in 1501 in Venice led by the middle of the century to Italian published collections of music for Vespers, which now could circulate widely to monasteries, churches and chapels. Indeed, the interest in polyphonic music for Vespers expanded so rapidly in the late 16th century that by the early 17th century more music was being published in Italy for Vespers than for the Mass itself. That trend continued throughout the century until the publishing of sacred music in Italy gradually died out in the early 18th century.

The liturgy of Vespers is somewhat complicated (see the Table below). The very first item in the service is an unchanging versicle and response asking for the help of the Lord. But the primary elements are five psalms, a hymn and the Magnificat—a song (canticle) from the Gospel according to Luke in which the Virgin Mary rejoices in the news that she will bear the Christ Child. The Magnificat is sung as the last major element in every Vespers service, but the five psalms and the hymn vary according to the category of feast (feasts of the Virgin, feasts of Martyrs, etc.) or the specific feast (Christmas, Feast of St. John the Baptist, etc.).

Early in the history of the Office Hours, the practice developed of singing a separate short text and melody in conjunction with each psalm, both before and after the psalm, and sometimes interpolated between psalm verses as well. These short chants are called antiphons, and each psalm and the Magnificat has its own antiphon, which like the psalms themselves, vary according to the category of feast or specific feast.

Main Elements of a Vespers Service

1. Versicle and Response: Deus in adiutorium meum invariable
2. First Psalm with Antiphon both variable
3. Second Psalm with Antiphon both variable
4. Third Psalm with Antiphon both variable
5. Fourth Psalm with Antiphon both variable
6. Fifth Psalm with Antiphon both variable
7. Hymn variable
8. Magnificat with Antiphon Magnificat invariable, Antiphon variable

Some of these main texts of the Vespers service were often still sung in Gregorian Chant in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially the versicle and response and the antiphons. In addition, there are a few other minor elements in the Vespers service that are either spoken or sung: the New Testament Chapter reading, which precedes the hymn, and a few further short versicles and responses, including a closing series after the Magnificat. Vespers is the penultimate Office Hour of the daily Hours, with Compline following three hours later. But if Compline is not sung and Vespers is the last Office performed in the day, then one of four seasonal prayers to the Virgin Mary, called Marian Antiphons, which normally follow Compline, is sung at the conclusion of Vespers.

By the 17th century antiphons were no longer sung between verses of the psalm and Magnificat, but only before and after. Moreover, it also became common practice to substitute a vocal motet or even an instrumental piece for the official antiphon text either before or after the psalm or Magnificat.

From its humble beginnings, the Vespers service had grown by the 17th century into a concert of polyphony, sometimes very elaborate polyphony with soloists, multiple choirs, instruments and the organ. It is such elaborate Vespers services that have been reconstructed and performed on numerous occasions by Warren Stewart and Magnificat.

San Francisco Classical Voice: Royal Delights

by Joseph Sargent in the October 7, 2008 issue of San Francisco Classical Voice.

For several years now, the Baroque ensemble Magnificat has made seventeenth-century French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier into something of a cottage industry. A regular fixture on the ensemble’s season calendars, this composer embodies Magnificat’s stated mission of uncovering the “‘new music’ of the early Baroque” — masters of the era who have yet to receive their due. Few composers indeed may fit the description of “hidden treasure” more aptly than Charpentier, who is often upstaged in performances today by Jean-Baptiste Lully but was highly regarded in his lifetime by such giants as King Louis XIV and Molière.

With Saturday’s brief concert of two divertissements (short operatic entertainments) at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, Magnificat Music Director Warren Stewart and company took another decisive step toward reclaiming Charpentier’s reputation. Delivering a crystalline performance marked by luscious vocal purity and elegant instrumental support, Magnificat captured the vitality and freshness of these charming works, turning the evening into an impeccably refined affair.

Les Plaisirs de Versailles (The pleasures of Versailles; 1682) is house music in the literal sense, originally performed for Louis’ thrice-weekly “fêtes of the apartments” in the main rooms of the Great Apartment of Versailles. Its dramatis personae comprise various pleasures that the Sun King evidently enjoyed in these digs: music, conversation, gambling, and that perennial favorite chocolate. Striking contrasts in instrumentation and style — lyrical airs for La Musique, prattling recitative for La Conversation, solemn tones for the temptations of Comus, the god of festivities — accentuate the central debate over which of these elements best satisfies the king’s pleasures.

Both vocally and in their gestures, sopranos Laura Heimes (as Musique) and Jennifer Paulino (as Conversation) nicely captured the comedic aspects of their characters’ arguments. Finely matched tone colors, keen attention to melodic shape, and vivid stage presence accentuated the elegance of even their most stinging put-downs. Both singers deserve credit for creating vivid personifications of Musique’s campy haughtiness and Conversation’s irksome blabbering. As the purveyor of chocolates, wines, and other delectables, bass Hugh Davies added an appealingly robust and seductive quality to the mix.

Considerably less resounding was the evening’s vocal projection, the one flaw marring an otherwise finely polished gem. Many singers (Heimes and Davies excepted) had difficulty carrying over the orchestra, a crackerjack group of eight players whose superlative accompaniment should not have posed particular problems. St. Mark’s acoustic didn’t help matters, but placement of the vocalists in front of rather than behind the orchestra might have alleviated the problem.
Pastoral Pleasures

Also with a connection to royalty was the evening’s other divertissement, La Couronne des fleurs (The crown of flowers; 1685), a work likely composed for the singers of Marie de Lorraine, Duchesse de Guise and cousin to Louis. Freely adapted from the prologue of Charpentier’s comedy-ballet Le Malade imaginaire (The imaginary invalid; 1673, with text by Molière), this work emphasizes the pastoral over the allegorical. A cast of gods and shepherds celebrates the arrival of springtime with a contest to see who can extol the king’s virtues most beautifully, the winner receiving a crown of flowers.

A graceful orchestral introduction, establishing the pastoral mood, segued into the spring goddess Flora’s declamation of that season’s arrival and the rules of the contest, delightfully captured in Haimes’ pitch-perfect performance. Four characters then made their cases to win the crown, with fine contributions from sopranos Paulino and Ruth Escher and tenors Paul Elliott and Daniel Hutchings. Especially appealing were the alternating trios between women and men, the airtight ensemble singing flawless in intonation and blend. The divertissement concludes with Flora declaring all participants to be equally worthy of the crown and dividing its flowers among them, a judgment also well suited to the evening’s performances as a whole.

Du chocolat! Dieu nous en garde!

In Charpentier's delightful divertissement Les plaisirs de Versailles, Comus, the “God of Feasting” seeks to calm a dispute between the haughty diva Music and the loquacious Conversation by offering the delights of marzipan, fine wine, and above all, Chocolate. Music is aghast, but Conversation is quite eager to sample the delicacy.

Comus: Let your disputes not cause commotion here! Let us play. To both of you beauties I shall give chocolates.

La Musique: Chocolate! God forbid that he give any to this chatterbox. As for me, I tell you, I do not wish to taste any. She would never cease her hot-air chatter.

La Conversation: Chocolate is good, dear Comus. By your influence I long to taste a little.

La Musique: No, Comus!

La Conversation: Comus, to listen to her is to waste good time. Chocolate!

Music’s concern about the effect of chocolate on the “babbling divitnity” Conversation, is understandable to anyone who has spent Halloweeen in the company of a 5-year-old.

Columbus brought cacao to Europe when he returned in 1502, but it was not until the 1615 wedding of Louis XIII to Anne of Austria (the daughter of Phillip II of Spain) that the French court discovered the strange brew known for its revitalizing and aphrodisiacal properties and declared chocolate as the drink of the French court. In France, as elsewhere in Europe, chocolate was met with skepticism and was considered a "barbarous product and noxious drug". As with coffee, not everyone was eager to accept the mysterious new drink.

Initially, Chocolate was seen as having largely medicinal properties. In the first official statement about chocolate is made by Bonavontura Di Aragon, brother of Cardinal Richelieu, described the use of chocolate as stimulating the healthy functioning of the spleen and other digestive functions. 1659
Louis XIV gives the chocolate monopolies of the Paris chocolate drink trade and the French Royal Court to David Chaillou, a baker who made costly biscuits and cakes with chocolate—France’s first “chocolatier.”

Charpentier's Music for the Grand Dauphin

Notes by John Powell. Magnificat will perform to of Charpentier's divertissements for the Dauphin, Les Plaisirs de Versailles and La Couronne de Fleurs on the weekend of October 3-5, 2008.

From late 1679 until mid-1683, Charpentier composed music for the establishment of the eldest son of Louis XIV and Queen Marie-Thérèse. Also named Louis, he was popularly known as the Grand Dauphin and referred-to at court as “Monseigneur”. Monseigneur had been given a musical establishment of his own a few months prior to his wedding (on 7 March 1680) to Maria Anna of Bavaria, and for several years he remained loyal to Charpentier and his musicians—who would provide music throughout the 1680s.

“The Dauphin’s Music” consisted of three vocalists: Magdaleine Pièche, a high soprano (haut-dessus); Marguerite Pièche, a soprano (dessus); and Antoine Frison, a bass (basse). They were accompanied by two treble instruments—usually flutes, played by Antoine and Pierre Pièche—and basso continuo. Charpentier had known the singers from his collaborations with Molière in the early 1670s, when the Pièche sisters (then ages 7 and 9) had danced in, and Monsieur Frison had sung in, Le Malade imaginaire (1673).

So taken was Monseigneur with his Music, and so eager was he to please his new bride (who had a fine voice and extensive vocal training), that he began taking singing lessons himself. The Dauphin, “in his extreme youth, where the generosity and the kindness of his heart were continually appearing, thought only of his pleasures and left the cares of the Crown to the King his father.” By contrast, the Dauphine was proving to be “a princess with a great deal of wit, but she did not permit its breadth to be seen in all sorts of situations. She kept her eyes on the King, wanting to let his wishes entirely rule hers, and to do nothing that would appear disagreeable to him.” (Sourches, I, 11)

The Dauphin’s education was all but over by the final months of 1682, and his Bavarian bride was becoming quite outspoken about her musical and theatrical tastes. Mirroring this change in focus, Madame de Guise ordered some entertainments for the coming winter season, when she would be in residence at Versailles. One of these court events was the “Fête of the Apartments”, an innovation by Louis XIV himself that began in November of that year and continued well into January. Three times a week, from 6 until 10 in the evening, a variety of entertainments were held in the principal rooms of the Great Apartment of Versailles: billiards, cards, games of chance, refreshments (including fruits, sorbets, wine and liqueurs, and hot coffee and chocolate), plus “symphonies” and “dancing”. Throughout the fête, only a few guards were present, and the King, the Queen, and all the royal family stepped down from their grandeur, to gamble with some of those present, who have never before been so honored…[The King] goes to one game or another. He allows no one to rise or stop the game when he approaches. (Mercure, Dec. 1682)

During this fête, an “opera” was performed every Saturday (Mercure, Jan. 1683). Les Plaisirs de Versailles and La Couronne des Fleurs were most probably performed on these occasions. In an annotated list of the manuscripts that Charpentier bequeathed to him, the composer’s nephew Jacques Edouard claimed that Les Plaisirs de Versailles was a “piece for the King’s apartments”—for those evening entertainments in the royal palace at Versailles hosted by the King (and referred to generally as “the apartments”). Indeed, on his manuscript title page Charpetier includes the rubric: “la scène est dans les app[artements] ”.

These two works are examples of the operatic divertissement: a short entertainment that is sung throughout in the manner of an opera, but has only one act and lasts a mere half-hour. As common in the divertissements of French opera, the main characters of Les Plaisirs de Versailles are all allegorical—La Musique, La Conversation, Le Jeu, a “Choeur des Plaisirs”—and one mythological figure, Momus, the god of festivities. The singing of La Musique is interrupted by La Conversation, who cannot stop prattling. They argue at length and with increasing heat: which of them is more essential to pleasure…expecially the King’s pleasure? Fearful that they both will leave the château of Versailles in anger, the Chorus of Pleasures calls upon Comus to mediate. He offeres them chocolate, fine wine, exquisite pastries. No use. He then pleads for help from Le Jeu, who is equally unsuccessful, for La Musique and La Conversation continue their bickering. Finally, however, they are reconciled, and the Chorus of Pleasures sigh with relief: Music, Conversation, “our flutes and our voices” can continue to help distract the great King from his military pursuits.

The most striking thing about this lightweight mini-opera, besides its witty and sparkling text, is the sharpness with which Charpentier portrays each character musically. La Musique is languid, tender, sensuous. La Conversation has to admit that she is a “sociable siren”. La Conversation is a nonstop chatterbox, and something of an idiot: she cannot tell a minuet from a courante. La Musique confesses, however, that she is a “babillarde divinité”. Comus, a bass, is a gourmand of small sensibility and Falstaffian bluster. Le Jeu (perhaps played by Charpentier himself) is a wheedling card-sharp.

La Couronne de Fleurs was most probably also performed at Versailles for such an occasion. Names of singers from the musical establishment of the king’s cousin, Marie de Lorraine, Duchess of Guise, known as “Mademoiselle de Guise”—which she shared with her cousin/aunt Isabelle d’Orléans, Duchess of Alençon, known as “Madame de Guise”—appear in the margins of Charpentier’s manuscript. We will recall that Madame de Guise had arranged for musical events to coincide with her winter residence at Versailles; given the flatteries paid to the King in La Couronne des fleurs, it seems likely that Louis XIV was present for the performances.

The text is a free adaptation of the original 1673 Prologue to Molière’s final comedy-ballet, Le Malade imaginaire (1673). In fact, the unknown librettist (perhaps Charpentier himself?) retained only the skeletal outlines of the Prologue. Flora, goddess of spring, calls upon the flowers to repopulate the desolate winter fields, and summons the shepherds and shepherdesses to return. “Louis has banished from them the dire sounds that the cries of the dying and the clash of arms had once allowed to reign there.” She then calls for a contest to see who can best sing of the valiant deeds of Louis. Four brave shepherds (Amaranthe, Forestan, Hyacinte, and Mirtil) try their best, and compare Louis’s warlike prowess to that of a devastating spring torrent, to a bolt of lightning, to the great deeds of ancient Greece, and lament that future generations will scarcely believe the least of his exploits…as they will have nothing with which to compare. Pan then appears to call a halt to the contest, and Flora renders her decision: although they all lack the strength and ability to do justice in song to Louis’s immortal glory, it was enough that they attempted it. So she divides the flowers among the four contestants. In a final ensemble, they wish that just as Louis is the master of the world, may he become the master of time and live a hundred years.

Two New Magnificat Board Members

by Dominique Pelletey, Managing Director, Magnificat

As we enter our 17th Season, Magnificat is pleased to welcome two new Board members. Nicholas Elsishans will be taking over for John Golenski as president and Shane Gasbarra has been installed as our new treasurer. Both joined the Board of Directors of Magnificat on July 19, 2008.

Nicholas, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Executive Board member of Grace Cathedral of San Francisco . Nicholas assumes the position of President of the Board and brings to this position a long history of Board and Executive level leadership experience in major organizations throughout the Bay Area. Nicholas’ passion for the music of Magnificat stems from his own extensive training as a keyboard performer and scholar at the Juilliard School in New York and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

For the past three seasons, Shane was Director of Artistic and Music Administration for the San Francisco Opera. He held a similar position with the Houston Opera before moving to San Francisco. Shane studied Classics at Yale, where he also studied oboe and piano. He received his Ph.D. in Renaissance studies from Yale and subsequently held teaching posts there as well as at Princeton and the University of Michigan, where his academic areas included Renaissance comparative literature, intellectual history, and visual arts; poetic theory; and the classical tradition.

"We are extremely pleased to have Nicholas and Shane on board for the upcoming season," said Magnifict Artistic Director Warren Stewart. "Each brings a blend of artistic, academic, and business perspective to Magnificat at a very exciting time in our development."

Magnificat Announces 2008-2009 Season

Magnificat proudly announces its 17th Season of concerts in the Bay Area, and invites you to explore the “new music” of the Early Baroque. Continuing its tradition of innovative programs and expressive interpretations that have made Magnificat a Bay Area treasure, this season’s programs feature music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Heinrich Schütz, and Alessandro Scarlatti.

The season begins on the weekend of October 3-5, 2008 with performances of two delightful divertissements by Charpentier (1643-1704) –“Les plaisirs de Versailles” and “La couronne de fleurs.” Unjustly over-shadowed by Lully during his lifetime, Charpentier is now recognized as one of the finest musicians of his time and Magnificat has become the premiere interpreter of Charpentier’s music in the Bay Area, exploring new gems from the composer’s notebooks almost every season. Both works on the program were composed for the ensemble of Mademoiselle de Guise, in whose household Charpentier lived and worked after returning from his studies in Rome with Carissimi.

“Les plaisirs de Versailles” was inspired by the soirées that Louis XIV held at Versailles in 1682 and its four scenes celebrate the pleasures of the royal residence with charm and humor. The singers, taking on the roles of “Music”, “Conversation”, “Games” and “Festivities”, contribute to the amusement of the Sun King.

The pastorale “La couronne de fleurs” is an adaptation of the original Prologue to “Le Malade imaginaire” (1673), which Charpentier arranged for the singers of Mlle de Guise in the mid-1680s. In fact, of the 19 movements only 2 are borrowed (and are extensively recomposed); the rest of the opera is entirely original (though the text is wholly by Molière). Magnificat will perform from editions prepared by Charpentier scholar and Magnificat Artistic Advisory Board member John Powell.

For tickets or more information please call 800-853-5188 or visit our website order form at www.magnificatbaroque.org


Friday, October 3, 2008 - 8:00 pm - First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto
Saturday, October 4, 2008 - 8:00 pm - St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley
Sunday, October 5 - 4:00 pm - St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco

Pre-concert Lecture 45 minutes before each performance

Magnificat Names New Managing Director

Magnificat is pleased to announce that Dominique Pelletey has joined Magnificat's staff as managing director. Mr. Pelletey will coordinate all administrative aspects of the organization. Mr. Pelletey was born in France, and completed his studies cum laude in Holland. On graduating from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Mr. Pelletey embarked on a career that included international exhibitions, a nomination to the Dutch Prix de Rome and many publications. Parallel to his artistic work, he pursued work as museum curator/director. After two years as independent curator with one of Holland's leading artist run spaces W139, he was named both executive and artistic director of the organization. Under his leadership, a structure for the organization was created, bringing it to the attention of the main federal funding arm of the government, allowing the overall budget to double.

In 1992 Mr. Pelletey co-founded and directed an arts space, protonICA Amsterdam, which specializes in producing multi-media works and collaborative projects. This unique organization achieved international acclaim within its first year of operation. Concurrently, Mr. Pelletey was a founding member and chairman of the Association of Dutch Art Centers, publishing a successful arts newspaper, HTV de Ijsberg (Apex of the Iceberg) which was distributed nationally, bringing a partnership amongst art spaces and the arts community.

Mr. Pelletey was a respected authority on the arts in Holland, his knowledge recognized with his appointment by the Queen of the Netherlands to the Raad voor de Kunst (Dutch national arts foundation), serving a three-year term as one of four national advisors on art and art policy. He also was a member of the jury for the Fonds voor de beeldende kunsten, design en architectuur (Foundation for Art, Design and Architecture), one of Holland's major granting organizations for several years.

On relocation to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999, Mr. Pelletey became PR and Marketing Director at the San Francisco Community Music Center, where he remained until 2004. For the next two years, he worked with the Del Sol String Quartet, as Managing Director, until taking up the post of Executive Director of the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music in mid-2005.

Berkeley Festival Triumph

Congratulations to the Berkeley Festival and to Maestro Davitt Moroney for two magnficent performances of Alessandro Striggio's monumental Missa sopra ‘Ecco sì beato giorno’, in cinque corri divisa, in 40 and 60 parts.

All those participating - The Philharmonia Baroque Chorale, American Bach Soloists Choir, Schola Cantorum San Francisco, The Perfect Fifth, and His Majesties Sagbutts and Cornetts and the other instrumentalists - performed beautifully, though I was, of course, most aware of Magnificat. It was an unusual experience for me to sit idly in the audience while my colleagues participated in this glorious production. But at the same time it gave me the opportunity to appreciate what a tremendous honor and privilege it is to have worked with these friends - in some cases for over a decade - and to look forward to many more concerts together.

So, to Ruth Escher, Kristen Dubenion-Smith, Christopher LeCluyse, Hugh Davies, Jennifer Paulino, Elizabeth Anker, Daniel Hutchings, and Peter Becker: Bravo Tutti!

Magnificat Ad for Berkeley Festival Program

Here's a peek at the "new look" for next season.

Magnificat Performs Striggio Mass at Berkeley Early Music Festival

Magnificat will appear at the Berkeley Early Music Festival this June in performances of Striggios's Missa sopra ‘Ecco sì beato giorno’, in cinque corri divisa, in 40 and 60 parts. The concerts will be directed by Davitt Moroney of the Univeristy of California at Berkeley Music Department. The concerts will be on June 7 at 8:00 pm and June 8 at 7:00 at First Congregational Church. Tickets are available here.

Professor Moroney (pictured at right) prepared the following notes for performances of Striggio's Mass at the BBC Proms in September, 2007. They have been slightly adapted for posting here. More information about this performance can be found here.

It has been known for over 25 years that in December 1566 Alessandro Striggio (pictured at left) travelled from Florence, where he was the chief musician at the Medici court, to Vienna, the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II. He crossed the Alps in mid-winter, on horseback with a servant and a baggage mule. (The mule died.) This harrowing journey seems to have been timed to enable him to make an exceptional musical gift to the emperor, a gigantic setting of the ‘Ordinary’ of the Catholic Mass (the parts that do not change from service to service: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei), composed in 40 parts divided into five eight-part choirs.

Striggio’s work was based on a now lost piece of secular music entitled Ecco sì beato giorno. The Mass was thought to be lost, but a manuscript survives in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, in Paris, having been donated to Louis XV in 1726. The work escaped identification because in the library’s catalogue, printed in 1914, it occurs without a title, is listed as being for ‘4 voices’ instead of 40, and is described as being by a non-existent composer, ‘A. Strusco’. With these three strikes against it, Striggio’s magnum opus became invisible.

This is one of the major artworks of the Italian Renaissance, a symbol of all that is magnificent in Florentine art of the 16th century. It should come as no surprise to anyone that Florentine music at that time was as spectacular as Florentine painting, sculpture, literature and architecture. The full title of the work is ‘Mass on Ecco sì beato giorno divided into five choirs’.

The Mass’s importance derives not only from its overwhelming musical power, but also from the innovative ways it uses space, with the different choirs answering each other back and forth. This polychoral technique is used with consummate skill and with greater complexity and assurance than any Venetian music of the period.

The Mass is also unique for the unprecedented political role it played at a time when the Medici family had just (in December 1565) concluded a matrimonial alliance with the imperial Habsburg family in Vienna. Cosimo de’ Medici, Duke of Florence and Siena, was hoping that the emperor would now grant him a more important title. The musical work was a clever gift. By its choice of the Latin Mass text, it explicitly underscored that the Medici could be relied on to uphold unwavering Catholicism during the turmoils of the Reformation. In addition, by its musical sonorities of unrivalled complexity and richness, it implicitly demonstrated the regal splendour of the Medici, as well as their worthiness of a higher royal title. However, the work failed to convince Maximilian of the political matters involved and he declined to grant the new royal title. Cosimo’s ambitions were only answered two years later by the Pope, who in 1569 unilaterally named him Grand Duke of Tuscany. This title was ratified by the emperor seven years later, but only after a very large donation of Medici money helped him at last make up his mind.

In January 1567, Striggio’s journey took him to Vienna, where he presented the Mass in person to the emperor, and then to Munich, where in early February it was performed liturgically at High Mass in front of the Duke of Bavaria. The Duke’s musicians were normally directed by Lassus, who one year later conducted three performances of another 40-part work by Striggio, an unidentified motet that might have been Ecce beatam lucem. This link explains the presence in tonight’s programme not only of Striggio’s motet but also of polychoral works by Lassus. The two composers were certainly colleagues and probably friends.

After Munich, Striggio travelled to Paris where on 11 May 1567 the Mass was performed non-liturgically, in a concert performance at the Château de Saint-Maur, in front of King Charles IX and his mother, Catherine de’ Medici. While in Paris Striggio wrote to his Medici employers asking for an extension to his leave of absence in order to visit England ‘and the virtuosos in the profession of music in that country’. It seems almost impossible that during his two-week trip to London in June 1567 he didn’t meet the composer who was unquestionably the leading virtuoso in England: Thomas Tallis. There is strong evidence that Tallis wrote his own Spem in alium as a direct result of the younger man’s visit. If Tallis’s masterpiece shows the strengths of his great maturity (he was in his sixties at the time), the quite different work by Striggio (who was about 30 in 1567) shows no less forcefully the strengths of his ambitious and energetic youth.

Performing the Mass

For the Berkeley Festival performance, I am including a wide variety of instruments. A full double choir of sackbuts and cornetts adds immeasurably to the sonorities, like gold leaf on a fine picture frame. But unlike a frame surrounding the picture, I have chosen to have these instruments double the third choir, in the very centre. I also chose to use a substantial group of different instruments to support the Bassus ad organum line, the general bass line that accompanies the whole work. Evidence from Striggio’s time implies that this line was performed by a double-bass trombone, and we are very fortunate to have been able to include such a rare instrument tonight. This also suggested the use of a stringed instrument at double-bass pitch.

I have included a wide range of instruments capable of providing chordal accompaniment to play the fundamental bass. It would be anachronistic to call this a continuo group since such terminology did not emerge until some 40 years after Striggio wrote his Mass; but that’s nevertheless what it is. Florence was well in advance of other cities in this respect and by the 1550s Florentine musicians were already regularly using such fundamental instruments to accompany chordally. The instruments I have chosen for Striggio’s bass line range from the ubiquitous organ (whose suave sustained sonorities can bind the sounds together), to the harpsichord (whose rhythmic precision, by contrast, can help hold the disparate choirs together); also included are the theorbo and the harp, which offer a different range of expressive nuance from the keyboards. On the manuscript of Ecce beatam lucem all these instruments are mentioned as forming the accompanying group. The result is only one of many instrumental possibilities that would be appropriate. Our use of instruments tonight is conservative, not extravagant. A performance paid for by the Medici or the Habsburg families would have had access to vastly richer resources.

I have added the Our Father (Pater noster) sung in plainsong to provide a moment of repose before the two settings of the Agnus Dei. The text of the various plainsongs heard tonight is derived from the Roman Missal printed in 1563. As a closing gesture, we have also included the short Ite missa est/Deo gratias, the closing words of the Roman Mass signifying that the Mass is ended. This text was usually considered part of the Ordinary of the Mass, but was almost never set to polyphony.

Forty singers is not in itself an exceptional number. The effect of Striggio’s 40-part writing, at least for modern audiences, is not so much one of astonishing volume, especially since for many sections of the Mass only one or two choirs are singing simultaneously.

(Striggio saves the first moment in full 40-part sonority for the seventh phrase of the Gloria: ‘we give you thanks for your great glory’.) Rather than sheer volume, the richly woven musical texture is a key characteristic. The 40 voices create luscious, luxuriant sonorities, comparable to the rich brocades, fine furniture and other opulent ornaments that were considered appropriate for a royal or imperial chapel.

In the second setting of the Agnus Dei, Striggio subdivides each of his five double choirs even further, requiring an extra set of four voices in each choir, a third sub-choir. The result is a piece for five 12-voice choirs, a tour de force in 60 real parts unique in the history of Western music. It alone should surely earn Striggio a place in all musical history books. This remarkable appeal for peace, dona nobis pacem, begins much like Tallis’s Spem in alium, with the voices coming in one by one (heard tonight as a wave of sound, from left to right). Whether Tallis borrowed this idea from Striggio or not is hardly important. What the two composers have in common is less significant than what makes each one of them unique. Striggio has usually been labelled by music historians as a rather unexceptional musical conservative, but historians don’t always get things right. The listeners to tonight’s concert have a chance to decide for themselves, discovering this music along with everyone else.

Magnificat Announces 2008-2009 Season

Magnificat is proud to announce our 17th Season of concerts in the Bay Area. Once again, Magnificat offers our audiences the opportunity to experience rarely-heard masterpieces of the Early Baroque with programs that feature music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Heinrich Schütz, and Alessandro Scarlatti.

The season begins on the weekend of October 3-5, 2008 with performances of two divertissements by Charpentier: Les Plaisirs de Versailles and La Couronne des Fleurs. Magnificat has become the premiere interpreter of Charpentier’s music in the Bay Area, exploring new gems from the composer’s notebooks almost every season.

Both works on the program were composed for the ensemble of Mlle de Guise, in whose household Charpentier lived and worked after returning from his studies in Rome with Carissimi. Les Plaisirs de Versailles was inspired by the soirées that Louis XIV held at Versailles in 1682, and it's four scenes celbrates the pleasures of the royal residence with charm and humor. The singers, taking on the roles of “Music”, “Conversation”, “Games, and “Festivities”, contribute to the amusement of the Sun King.

The pastorale La Couronne des Fleurs is an adaptation of the original Prologue to La Malade Imaginaire (1673), which Charpentier arranged for the singers of Mlle de Guise in the mid-1680s. In fact, of the 19 movements only 2 are borrowed (and are extensively recomposed); the rest of the opera is entirely original (though the text is wholly by Molière). Magnificat will perform from editions prepared by Charpentier scholar John Powell.��

The concerts will be Friday, October 3 at 8:00 pm, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Saturday October 4 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday October 5 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.

Magnificat’s season continues with a program of Vespers music for Christmas by Rigatti on the weekend on December 5-7, 2008. Before his untimely death in 1648, Rigatti was already regarded as one of the most talented Italian composers to emerge from the generation after Monteverdi. Rigatti was choirmaster at Udine Cathedral in 1635-7, and later a priest in Venice, singing at St Mark's and teaching singing at one of the Venetian conservatories; in 1646 he directed music for the Patriarch of Venice.

In 1640 and 1641, the Venetian printer Bartolomeo Magni published two magnificent collections of music for Mass and Vespers: Selva morale e spirituale by the venerable Monteverdi and Messa e Salmi by the 23 year old Rigatti. Both collections were dedicated to Hapsburg royalty and both embodied the concertato style, most favored at the time, in which large musical structures are built from a variety of vocal/instrumental combinations. Rigatti’s music is characterized by frequent changes of meter and tempo, virtuso passages for voices and instruments alike, and a striking sensitivity to text and emotion.

The concerts will be Friday, December 5 at 8:00 pm, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Saturday December 6 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday December 7 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.

On the weekend of February 6-8, 2009, Magnificat will return to the music of Heinrich Schütz with a performance of his masterpiece the Musikalisches Exequien. During the bleakest years of the Thirty Years War, Schütz received a commission from a wealthy nobleman to set texts that had been carved onto the patron’s pewter casket. The work was to be performed at the nobleman’s funeral. Schütz the disparate texts, drawn from Scripture and Lutheran chorales, and formed them into a extraordinary three part Requiem.

Recognizing the occasional nature of the composition, Schütz suggested that the work could be used a a paraphrase for the Kyrie and Gloria in a Lutheran Mass for the Feast of Purification. It is in this context that Magnificat will perform Schütz’s work, incorporating chorales, and elements of the liturgy of the Dresden chapel.

The concerts will be Friday, February 6 at 8:00 pm, All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; Saturday February 7 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday February 8 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.

The season will conclude with performances of Scarlatti’s Venere, Amore, e Ragione, an allegorical serenata written for the entertainment of the Roman nobility at the turn of the 18th Century. The libretto, written by the Roman poet Silvio Stampiglia, features Cupid, who mediates a timeless debate between Venus and Reason. A showcase for Scarlatti’s unparalleled mastery of melody and lyricism, Venere, Amore, e Ragione is a delightful and colorful masterpiece.

The concerts will be Friday, April 3 at 8:00 pm, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Saturday April 4 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday April 5 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.

Pre-concert lectures will begin 45 minutes before each performance and are open to all ticket-holders. Subscriptions and single tickets can be purchased here.

San Francisco Classical Voice Review: Funny, Even in Translation

by Thomas Busse

The crack early-music ensemble Magnificat attempted the difficult challenge of performing a Baroque comic opera in concert over the weekend. The form is unlike serious opera or slighter genres such as intermezzos or serenatas, which readily lend themselves to unstaged presentation. Comic opera, with its typically recitative-heavy, slighter music, depends on stage action, comic timing, and the conveyance of complicated and farcical plots, much of which gets lost by singers in dress clothes standing in place.

I am happy to report that Magnificat, under Warren Stewart’s direction, pulled off the challenge magnificently on Saturday in Berkeley’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

The evening’s dusted-off museum piece was Alessandro Stradella’s penultimate stage work, Il Trespolo Tutore, a charming work from 1679, for which modern performing material was prepared by Michael Burden for performance at New College, Oxford, in 2004, with translations of the recitatives by Simon Dees and of the arias by Dorothy Manly.

The entire era of 17th-century opera is perhaps the largest unexplored territory in both modern performance and modern musicology. Unlike in later time periods, the delineation between aria and recitative was much less strict — “aria” was truer to its original meaning of “song” than were the extravagant da capo productions of, say, Handel. The recitatives tended to be more tuneful, yet they were built on functional harmony much more than the borderline-repertory works we hear now and then from Monteverdi and Cavalli.

Read the Entire Review at The San Francisco Classical Voice

“Un’ opera ridicola, ma bellissima”

“Monday or Tuesday, I will put on stage the third opera, also mine, which is for amusement, because it is a comic opera, but most beautiful, and it is called Il Trespolo; and because here they delight in comic things, I believe it will be an infallible hit.”

So Alessandro Stradella described his opera Il Tespolo Tutore in a letter to one of his patrons in 1679 before performances at the Teatro Falcone in Genoa. Featuring the bumbling character Trespolo from the popular stories of Ricciardi, Stradella’s opera is indeed “ridicola” bordering on slapstick and replete with vulgar language, cross dressing, and sexual innuendo - as popular in the early days of comic opera as today.

The main character, and the butt of endless jokes, is the foolish tutor Trespolo (sung in Magnificat's performances by Peter Becker). “Trespolo” is not a real name – it’s rough meaning is “tripod” – and it was used at the time to mean something rickety that can barely stand up – an apt description of the main protagonist. The remainder of the cast includes Trespolo’s ward Artemisia (Catherine Webster) who is in love with him but too shy to tell him, Nino (José Lemos) who is in love with her and later goes mad, Ciro (Jennifer Ellis-Kampani) his initially crazy brother who also loves Artemisia, Simona (Paul Elliott) their old, foolish nurse, and Despina (Laura Heimes), her shrewd daughter. The instrumental ensemble, typically small as in all of Stradella’s operas, consists of two violins (Rob Diggins and Jolianne von Einem), violoncello (me), theorbo (David Tayler), and harpsichord (Katherine Heater).

Comic opera was still relatively new to Italy at the end of the 1670s. Stradella had composed a comic prologue for O di Cocito oscure deità in 1668, which then traveled with Jacopo Melani’s Il Girello, which Magnificat performed in 1998. He had also composed other comic prologues and intermezzi for the Teatro Tordinona in Rome in the early 70s, so he was quite familiar with the emerging genre of comic opera by the time he wrote Il Trespolo.

Amid the silliness, there are several moments of more serious music, when characters express emotions of despair and rejection over love unrequited. Indeed Villifranchi’s alternate tile for Il Trespolo “Amore è veleno e medicina degl’intelletti” - roughly “Love as medicine and poison for the intellect” - suggests a far more profound subtext within the general inanity of mistaken identity and mis-delivered love letters. Nino’s despair at Artemisia’s rejection provides an opportunity for two mad scenes, which had become a staple of Italian drama by the last quarter of the 17th century. Stradella had already composed such scenes for his earlier opera La forza dell’ amor paterno. The mad scenes were not derived from Ricciardi’s original, but were inserted by the librettist Villifranchi, no doubt to the delight of the Genoese audiences.

The success of Il Trespolo is evidenced by the interest shown by several noblemen in a repeat performance, though it is unclear if any of these proposals came to fruition. In any case Stradella completed only one more opera before his untimely death in 1682.

Magnificat will perform Il Trespolo Tutore on the weekend on April 11-13. For tickets and more information call 800-853-5188 or visit our website order form at www.magnificatbaroque.org.

Magnificat to Perform at Berkeley Early Music Festival

Magnificat will join with the Philharmonia Chorale, American Bach Soloists, Schola Cantorum
San Francisco, The Perfect Fifth, and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts in the American premiere of Alessandro Striggio's Missa sopra Ecco Sì Beato Giorno under the direction of Davitt Moroney.

Striggio's Mass in 40 and 60 parts is the largest known contrapuntal choral work in Western music. Written under the auspices of the 16th-century Medici court and recently discovered in the Bibliotèque Nationale de France by UC Berkeley musicologist Moroney, this example of Florentine art at its most spectacular is "a masterpiece...not just the choral event of the year but possibly of the decade," said London's The Guardian of the work's modern day premiere at the BBC Proms in 2007.

The performances will be on June 7th and 8th. For tickets and information call (510) 642-9988 or visit http://bfx.berkeley.edu.

Countertenor José Lemos to Sing with Magnificat

Brazilian counter tenor José Lemos will make his Magnificat debut in our upcoming performances of Stradella's comic opera Il Trespolo tutore.

Lemos is the First Prize winner and the Audience Prize winner of the 2003 International Baroque Singing Competition of Chimay, Belgium. Having recently completed his Masters Degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston, he has appeared in opera roles and in concert with companies such as Boston Baroque, Boston Cecilia, Harvard Early Music Society, Les Parlement de Musique, Piccolo Spoleto Festival Early Music Series, and the Aldeburgh Snape Proms in England.

In the summer of 2003 he made his USA opera debut at The Tanglewood Music Festival in Robert Zuidam's Rage D'Amours, and returned for their 2004 production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream as Oberon. He has also joined the Tanglewood Music Center in the Los Angeles premiere of the opera Ainadamar by composer Osvaldo Golijov at the new Disney Center with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

José Lemos is the main guest artist with the renowned Baltimore Consort with whom he tours the United States in concert and educational outreach. A versatile performer, he has charmed audiences in recitals with his exuberant renditions of native Brazilian songs. He has also delved deeply into the medieval and renaissance repertory in his performances with the Charleston Pro Musica and Quartetto Brio.

In April 2005 he made his European opera debut in a production of the Zürich Opera House of Handel's Giulio Cesare under the batton of Marc Minkowski. In June of the same year he performed at the famous Aldeburgh Festival in a production of Purcell's Faery Queen under the batton of Harry Bicket, receiving raving reviews by the London Times. He has made frequent appearances in places such as Jordan Hall, Chimay Theater, Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood Theater, The Cloisters Museum in New York, and the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Some of the highlights for the 2007 and 2008 seasons include the release of his first recording with the Quartetto Brio, entitled "Romance", featuring the incredibly beautiful songs of the Sephardic Jews. He has made his debut as Ottone in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea with the Seattle Early Music Guild directed by Stephen Stubbs, sang the role of Tolomeo in Handel's Giulio Cesare at the Göttingen Handel Festival directed by Nicholas McGegan, and the role of Silène in a new production of Lully's Psyche with the Boston Early Music Festival. And for the second part of the season, he will be touring with William Christie's Les Arts Florissants in their new production of Stefano Landi's Il Sant'Alessio which will also be released on DVD by Virgin/EMI this coming spring.

Synopsis of Il Trespolo Tutore

The following Synopsis was prepared by Dr. Michael Burden of New College Oxford and is reposted here with permission of the author.

The story centres on Signor Trespolo's attempts to find a husband for his ward, Artemisia; if she is satisfied, then they will both inherit money under her father's will.

At the beginning of Act I, Simona is trying to get Despina to agree to a marriage with Trespolo, saying that a husband is like medicine, but Despina says that Trespolo is like a hairy bear, and has no brain. Simona welcomes Nino, who has been away, business unspecified. He inquires the reason for the argument, and, when told that Despina does not want to get married, says that that is only natural, since she is young. Nino then mentions his brother Ciro, who has been driven crazy by love. He sends Simona away with the comment that he will find a way to marry off Despina without shouting. With Simona out of the way, Nino wants to know if Artemisia has 'relaxed'? Nino is deeply in love with Artemisia who refuses to marry him. Despina says, well, if Artemisia won't marry him, she won't, and why is Nino wasting his time on it? Nino asks Despina to be Artemisia's 'tutor in love'; she agrees. But as he leaves, Despina tells us that it is Nino she really wants to marry. Artemisia arrives, repressed by her love for Trespolo; she lies down and sleeps. Ciro, quite mad from love, now enters and in his madness, lies down to sleep along side her. Trespolo finds them both asleep. He wakes them, and when the raving Ciro tells them that his name means dog in Persian, Artemisia orders him to leave. Trespolo then broaches the subject of Artemisia's marriage;the subject is important to him, because under her father's will, he has to give his permission for the nuptials, but Artemisia has to be satisfied; if she is, then he benefits financially. However, Artemisia will only agree to marry someone she loves, but finds it impossible to utter the name of the one she wishes for her husband, so she passes him a cryptic note before going into the house. Trespolo cannot understand the note at all; it says 'the one who is here', and he, Trespolo, is the only one there! However, at that moment, Ciro, the 'crazy one', arrives on the scene, and Trespolo leaps to the conclusion that it is Ciro who Artemisia loves. Trespolo is shocked that Artemisia's beautiful face should be wasted on someone like him. Trespolo asks Ciro if he has thought marrying Artemisia; he is delighted at the idea. Artemisia does not come out to them, so they knock on the door. Trespolo tells Artemisia that he is there with her 'husband'. When Artemisia realises that it is Ciro who Trespolo means, she is appalled; she rejects him, and departs, followed by Trespolo, leaving Ciro disappointed. In desperation to get her message across, Artemisia now dictates Trespolo a note which repeatedly says 'It's you'; he still does not get the message, and when Nino arrives declaring his love, Artemisia makes her escape. Her flight misleads Trespolo; he decides that it is Nino with whom Artemisia is in love, and hands him Artemisia's note.

Act II starts with Simona trying to teach Ciro proper behaviour and how to court a lady; she persuades him that Artemisia will love him if he makes himself attractive. Trespolo is still in love with Despina; she, however, sarcastically rejects him. They revert to discussing Nino and Artemisia. Despina has brought an open note from Nino to Artemisia (this is a reply to the love letter Artemisia wrote to Trespolo, but which he mistakenly gave to Nino at the end of Act 1). They both criticise the grammar (Nino is clearly a vulgarian) but Trespolo has no glasses and cannot see the text clearly; he reads that Despina has embraced Nino, and bursts into a jealous rage. When Despina gets hold of the letter, it says something quite different, of course. Trespolo apologises, and asks Despina to tell Nino that he now awaits him. As she leaves, Trespolo inquires after Simona; Despina tells him that he is teaching 'seriousness' to the crazy one. When Nino appears, Trespolo says he has Nino's reply to Artemisia's note, but can't understand it. Trespolo states that, as he understands it, Nino wants to marry Artemisia. However, as she is Trespolo's ward, his consent is required for the wedding, and Trespolo will only give it if Nino 'gives' him his true love, Despina. Artemisia overhears Trespolo speaking of another love, and hears the discussion on the exchange of 'wives to be'. She withdraws in shock and distress. Trespolo, knocking on the window, gives Artemisia Nino's reply. Nino makes love to her, but Artemisia rejects him and tears up the note; she is a lady, and will not be bought as though she were merchandise; she retreats into the house. Nino muses: what has he done to have the fates work against him so? Ciro enters; neither appear to see each other. Both sing of Artemisia, Nino dwelling resentfully on her rejection of his love for her, swearing to hate her, while Ciro sings of her beauty, but how he must say goodbye for a while. [Interval] Artemisia is still unable to utter the name of her beloved; she tells him that the one she loves is the same height as Trespolo, and that he has three syllables to his name. Trespolo agrees to look at a picture of him; she comes back with a mirror, and then leaves to spare her blushes! Trespolo, looking into it, cannot work out of whom the 'picture' is, but at that moment, Simona arrives on the scene, and as her image is reflected briefly in the mirror, Trespolo decides that it must be Simona that Artemisia loves. But, he muses, although the number syllables is right - Si-mo-na - why would one woman want to marry another? But it will have to happen, otherwise he will not get Despina; Artemisia must be satisfied.

As Act III opens, Trespolo cannot understand why Simona does not want to marry Artemisia. Simona eventually agrees, scheming to put Ciro in her place. Artemisia arrives, to be greeted by Simona; she tells Artemisia that Trespolo has told her to spare Artemisia's blushes; he KNOWS - but about Artemisia's supposed desire for Simona. Believing that Trespolo has AT LAST realised that her love is for him, Artemisia gives Simona a ring for him as a token of affection, and asks her to return with him; she disappears into the house. Simona muses that she never thought she would have to take a wife in her old age, but sees Artemisia's sterling qualities. Ciro arrives, mad with love; he concludes that love is our medicine, and not our poison. Nino enters, also mad with love. Despina has been talking to Simona; and has discovered the plot to marry her to Trespolo. Trespolo is attempting to persuade Despina to marry him clandestinely; Despina agrees, reluctantly, to meet him there at two o'clock. Simona tells Trespolo that she finds Artemisia so beautiful that she wants to marry her herself, and produces the ring that Artemisia gave her. Ciro arrives in time to overhear the end of the conversation, which arrouses his curiosity. Now sane, he does not know whether to feel sorriest for himself, or his brother, Nino. Despina tells Ciro of the secret plan for her to go to Trespolo at 2am. Ciro is mystified; why all the secrecy? Despina replies that Artemisia does not want them to marry. Artemisia enters to find Trespolo alone; where is Simona, she asks? Artemisia speaks of her love for Trespolo, but is very tired; Trespolo is fed up with waiting, and they go to dinner. Nino and Ciro sing of love; Nino is now completely mad, Ciro now completely sane. Ciro realises that Nino is beyond help, and concentrates on his quest to protect Despina from Trespolo's advances. Nino sings to himself of the hell of love; he is still obsessed with Artemisia. Artemisia and Trespolo are disturbed by Ciro, banging about; however, they cannot see who it is. Ciro tells Artemisia the truth about Trespolo and his pursuit of Despina; she sees that Trespolo has misled her. In her fury at these revelations, Artemisia accidentally puts out Trespolo's candle, and he sneaks out to re-light it. In the darkness, Artemisia does not notice that he has left, and continues talking of love as if to Trespolo, but it is Ciro who hears her, and when, much to Artemisia's surprise, the voice in the dark says that he wants to marry her, she agrees at once. Simona is very confused; Nino is crazy, Ciro is sane, and Despina is not married! She will just have to stay at home and spin. To be loved, you need to be young; but the appetite grows when your teeth fall out. Ciro tells the noisy Trespolo to keep quiet; Artemisia is now his wife. Trespolo is shocked; surely people should not choose their own husbands? Ciro says Artemisia offered to marry him, and he knew a good thing when he saw it! Simona comments that if Artemisia is Ciro's wife, then she will have a bisexual wife. Artemisia says that her school-girl love for her tutor will now be silent, and she will let her heart change its destiny; thus honour and virtue will be satisfied. Simona reports that Nino is now completely mad; Ciro, recognising that it is only man's ordered thoughts that separate him from animals, moralises that it is love that is able to make men crazy or wise.

A Historical Note on Il Trespolo Tutore

by Samuel Dwinell

January of 1679 saw the premiere of Alessandro Stradella's Il Trespolo tutore in the Teatro Falcone in Genoa, a city well suited to the plot of this opera; as Stradella himself noted, the Genoese had a penchant for 'comic things'. By the time he wrote Trespolo, the recent genre of Italian comic opera was becoming well established, and Stradella had already written comic prologues and intermezzos for the Teatro Tordinona. However, with this opera, Stradella invented the operatic buffo bass (something which would become a defining characteristic of later comic opera), and placed him in the title role as Trespolo, the foolish guardian.

The libretto is Giovanni Cosimo Villifranchi's reworking of a popular comic play by Giovanni Battista Ricciardi. With just the same emphasis on intrigue, misunderstandings, and farce as Villifranchi's adaptation, Ricciardi's play contains a light comedy, often bordering on slap-stick in a language which resembles the everyday, colloquial Italian suitable to the narrative. Yet more serious moments punctuate the opera's comedy in a way so indicative of Stradella's expert handling of text, music, and plot.

If the colourful nature of the plot tends in places towards the absurd, it is positively mundane in comparison with Stradella's extraordinary life, particularly as he lived it in the 1670s. He indulged himself in the carefree life of the leisured classes, spending his time as he pleased and frequently moving around Italy. But while on a sojourn in Rome in 1677, he incurred the wrath of Cardinal Alderan Cibo, and was forced to flee to Venice. Here, in his new position of musical pedagogue to the mistress of Alvise Contarini, a powerful nobleman, he became more amorous towards his pupil than his aristocratic employer found appropriate. Much to the anger of the Contarini family, the couple fled to Turin as fugitives pursued by a 40-strong band of men headed by Alvise Contarini himself hoping to capture the girl and to kill Stradella. Thankfully for us, their efforts were unsuccessful, but Contraini did not give up. He sent two more would-be assassins to the composer's hiding place, but again the attempts on his life led only to more cunning on Stradella's part. Unlike any self-respecting action-movie hero, he fled Turin without the girl and ended up in Genoa, just in time to oversee the production of his new opera, Il Trespolo tutore.

See Synopsis here