Emilio de CAVALIERI (c1550 - 1602)
Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo
Christina Roterberg (soprano) - Angelo Custode; Marie-Claude Chappuis - Anima; Luciana Mancini (mezzo) - Vita mondana; Kyungho Kim - Primo Compagno di Piacere; Mark Milhofer (tenor) - Intelletto, Piacere; Marcos Fink - Anima dannata, Mondo, Secondo Compagno di Piacere; Guyla Orendt - Consiglio, Tempo; Johannes Weisser (baritone) - Corpo
Choir of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Concerto Vocale
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/René Jacobs
rec. 2014, Teldex Studio, Berlin, Germany. DDD
Texts and translations included
HARMONIA MUNDI HMC 902200.01 [38:17 + 54:35]
The present production brings us to the year 1600. It had
been declared a Holy Year and many religious and artistic activities took
place in Rome to express the ideals of the Counter-Reformation. It was also
the year Emilio de Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo
was first performed. This event took place in February in the Oratorio della
Vallicella, the headquarters of the Congregazione dell'Oratorio. This
order had been founded in 1575 by Filippo Neri and was one of the main supporters
of the ideals of the Counter-Reformation.
The Rappresentatione fits into the tradition of the morality play
which goes back to the Middle Ages. It is about an allegorical character who
has to choose which path in life to follow. During the 17th and 18th centuries
many works of this kind were written. Among the best-known is Handel's
oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. A late example is
Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots whose first act was composed by
Mozart.
The Rappresentatione is divided into three acts. The first is devoted
to a dialogue between Soul and Body, which represent two sides of the same
character. In the second act several allegorical figures enter the deliberations.
The Body is especially attracted to the exposition of the delights of worldly
life by Piacere (Pleasure) and two companions. Soul turns to Cielo (Heaven)
who answers in form of an echo that the wise man should fly worldly pleasures;
he who doesn't will die. Then Mondo (World) and Vita Mondana (Worldly
Life) present themselves as glittering figures until Angelo Custode (the Guardian
Angel) undresses them and reveals that they are skeletons, symbols of death.
Intelletto (Intellect) and Consiglio (Counsel) recommend choosing the path
to heaven. In the third act life in Hell is described in drastic pictures
through the testimonies of the Damned Souls. Their fate is juxtaposed with
that of the Blessed Souls in Heaven. As Soul decides to follow the path to
Heaven the choir sings a song of praise: "Let every tongue, every heart
sing praises to my Lord". The work ends with a festa, a celebration
in which all people are urged to rejoice with voices and instruments: "With
songs and smiles give answer to Paradise!"
One of the objectives of Neri's congregation was to make the message
of the gospel understandable for uneducated people, meaning anyone who did
not understand Latin, the language of the Church. This objective finds its
expression in the character of the Rappresentatione. The libretto
was written by Agostino Manni, who maintained close relations with the congregation
and was a student of Neri. The latter had taught him the principles of classical
rhetoric. One of these was docere, to teach. This comes especially
to the fore in the use of the vernacular. Another principle was movere:
the orator should stir the emotions of his audience. To that end Manni chose
the form of a dialogue, and a sharp contrast between opposing characters:
Good vs Evil, Body vs Soul, the Blessed Souls in Heaven vs the Damned Souls
in Hell. The tenor of a work like this explains why these characters are black
and white; there is no place for shades within the individual characters.
Cavalieri concurs with these principles in the way he set the libretto to
music and in his performance instructions. The dialogues take the form of
recitatives which are required to be sung according to the principle of recitar
cantando, speechlike singing. This guaranteed that the text was communicated
to the audience as clearly as possible. Cavalieri also urged the singers not
to add any ornamentation. That could damage the delivery, and also could be
misused by singers to draw attention to themselves and their skills. There
is one exception: Cavalieri has written out coloratura for the Blessed Souls
in Heaven. That can be interpreted as another token of the use of rhetoric:
this way these characters are singled out as they represent what the Rappresentatione
is all about.
The dialogues between the characters are interrupted by choruses which reflect
on the thoughts of the various protagonists, very much in the style of the
chorus in classical theatre. These choruses are all homophonic, again in order
to make the text clearly audible. In order to maximize the impact of the message
Cavalieri wanted his work to be staged, as was the case in the performance
of 1600. In his preface the composer gives detailed instructions as to what
a staging should look like. This aspect has been the reason some musicologists
have labelled this work as the first opera in history. However, considering
its spiritual content it is probably more correct to call it a 'sacred
drama'.
The score leaves the interpreters considerable freedom. That goes in particular
for the use of instruments. Cavalieri urges that the ritornelli and sinfonias
are performed with a large number of instruments, but doesn't specify
which. René Jacobs was guided mainly by a treatise by the composer Agostino
Agazzari of 1607, whereas Christina Pluhar in her recording (Alpha, 2004)
turned to the orchestration of La pellegrina, a play with music which
Cavalieri had put together in Florence in 1589 on the occasion of the wedding
of Ferdinando de' Medici and Christine of Lorraine. There is not much
difference as far as the basso continuo groups are concerned. This is in contrast
to the ensemble of melody instruments, where the present recording includes
recorders which don't appear in Pluhar's recording. Jacobs uses
four violins and four violas; Pluhar has just one violin and no violas.
Another issue is the number of singers involved. Cavalieri recommends one
voice per part for the choruses, or - if the stage is large enough - two per
part. The latter seems to suggest that he wanted the choruses to have a strong
presence. As he wanted the work to be staged it seems impossible for the soloists
also to sing the choruses. Jacobs uses a vocal ensemble, the Staatsopernchor
Berlin, of thirteen voices; Pluhar's ensemble is slightly smaller with
ten singers.
Jacobs is known for taking considerable liberties in his treatment of scores.
He often suggests that his decisions are in line with what the sources say
but they often seem rather inspired by his personal preferences. Fortunately
he behaves very well here. His choices in the vocal and instrumental scoring
are certainly legitimate from a historical point of view. He often works with
singers whose singing is at odds with performance practice of the baroque
era. That is not the case here. There is a bit too much vibrato here and there
but all in all from a dramatic point of view and stylistically the cast is
outstanding. The Staatsopernchor does not specialise in early music, and it
is especially here that the vibrato makes itself felt in that the choruses
are not as transparent as one would wish.
There are a couple of points where Jacobs takes decisions which seem hardly
justifiable. The Rappresentatione opens with a chorus; it has no
overture. In this recording the chorus is preceded by a sinfonia, and here
Jacobs turned to a collection of music by the German composer Johann Hermann
Schein from 1617. Elsewhere another instrumental piece from the same collection
is used as well as pieces by Alfonso Ferrabosco. Cavalieri suggests the inclusion
of sinfonias, but I wonder whether they can be added at random, even in the
middle of an act, such as here in act 3. However, the use of music which is
younger than the date of the original performance is quite odd. The festa
comprises six stanzas; only four of them are printed in the booklet. The score
says that these should be sung by all performers together. However, that is
only the case here with the first and the last; the others are sung by either
five solo voices and some lines by a single voice with instruments. The strangest
decision is that the closing stanza is followed by an instrumental improvisation
over a pedal point which takes about two minutes. The impact of the last stanza
- followed in the score by the word "Laus Deo" - is seriously damaged
by this decision.
It is not easy to translate music for the stage to CD. Obviously many aspects
of a staged performance are lost. That said, Jacobs, his singers and players
and, not to forget, the recording team have done an admirable job bringing
this piece to life in this production. Christine Pluhar's recording
is fine; so is Jacobs', and I don't want to declare one of them
the winner. You can hardly go wrong with either of them.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
Previous review:
Brian Wilson
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