95159
Porpora Alle Figlie
del
Coro
FEMALE CHOIRS IN BAROQUE VENICE
Sung texts available at www.brilliantclassics.com
Paola Crema soprano 路 Maria Zalloni mezzo-soprano Coro Femminile Harm貌nia 路 Nicola Ardolino chorus master Ensemble Barocca I Musicali Affetti 路 Michele Peguri conductor
Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686-1768) Alle Figlie del Coro 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Confitebor (Venezia, Ospedaletto,1745) for soprano, choir and orchestra* Ut det illis Fidelia omnia Sanctum et terribile Gloria Patri Sicut erat
4’36 1’56 2’11 2’44 1’00 2’00
7.
Crimen Adae quantum constat (Vienna, 1754), for choir and b.c.
9’08
8. Credidi propter (Venezia, Ospedaletto, 1745), for choir and orchestra 9. Gloria 10. Sicut erat
3’00 0’41 1’23
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Nunc dimittis (Venezia, Ospedaletto, 1744/45), for choir and orchestra Quia viderunt oculi mei Lumen ad revelationem ad revelationem gentium Gloria Patri et Filio Sicut erat in principio
16. Qui habitat in adiutorium altissimi (Venezia, Ospedaletto, 1745), for choir and orchestra 17. Gloria 18. Sicut erat 19. 20. 21. 22. 2
Vigilate, oculi mei (Roma, 1712), for soprano and b.c. Cavete, oculi mei Aer, tellus, mare Non longe abest aurora
1’15 3’24 2’02 0’51 1’25 6’14 0’32 1’07 3’24 0’43 3’16 0’36
23. Non expectabo 24. Alleluja
3’51 1’40
25. Domine probasti me (Venezia, Ospedaletto,1745), for choir and orchestra 5’41 26. Gloria 0’35 Paola Crema soprano Maria Zalloni mezzo-soprano Coro Femminile Harmònia Maria Chiara Ardolino, Lorenza Rossato, Raquel Ugarte soprano I Maria Angela De Battisti, Elisabetta Fausto, Silvia Alice Gianolla, Paola Gueli Alletti soprano II Francesca Ballarin, Elisa Danesin, Maria Carla Olivari contralto I Irene Barat, Agnese Moreschini, Arianna Saltarel contralto II Nicola Ardolino chorus master Ensemble Barocca I Musicali Affetti Fabio Missaggia, Matteo Zanatto, Alessia Turri violin Monica Pelliciari viola Carlo Zanardi cello Mattia Corso violone Francesca Bacchetta organ Michele Peguri conductor *First recording 3
Nicola Porpora Alle Figlie del Coro Choral music at the Ospedali Maggiori in 18th century Venice - The Female Choir
Nicola Porpora and music at the Ospedaletto Born in Naples on 17 August 1686, Nicola Antonio Giacinto Porpora was both a prolific composer and a dedicated teacher. He started giving voice lessons in 1712, and many of his students were later to become acclaimed singers: among others, Carlo Broschi, who later went by the name of Farinelli, Antonio Hubert, Porporino, Caffarelli and Felice Salimbeni. In 1725 Porpora spent some time in Vienna, and between 1726 and 1733 was engaged off and on as music teacher at the Ospedale degli Incurabili. By this time he was well known as a musician, and his works were performed in various European cities. In 1733 he failed to win the appointment as Chapel Master at St Mark’s, but was called to London at the behest of the Opera of the Nobility, a company set up and funded by a group of nobles in order to rival Handel, the rising star of the moment who was already director of the Royal Academy of Music company. When things did not work out as Porpora had hoped, he returned to Italy, and from 1742 was back in Venice, this time as chorus master at the Ospedale della Pietà, and then from 1744 to 1747 in the same role at the Ospedale dei Poveri Derelitti run by the parish of S. Giovanni e Paolo. Following his resignation from this latter position, probably for family reasons, within a few months he was engaged in Dresden as Kapellmeister and singing teacher to Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis. Porpora was not fortunate, however, and in next to no time he found himself beset with problems. Farinelli was shocked to hear how he was faring, and with Metastasio did his utmost to obtain a reasonable pension for him. Once back in Naples the composer continued to be plagued by poverty, dying in a state of indigence on 3 March 1768. 4
“The most enthusiastic devotees of the ornate modern style will delight in the rigorous observance of the rules, the severe custodians of the early style will not find anything untoward in the lively and extravagant mixture of Ancient and Modern, Italian and French”. Porpora’s own words throw light on his identity as a musician. His solid background in counterpoint gave him the necessary skill and agility to compose in the idiom of the period, adapting and contributing to change and to new stylistic developments. As those who observed him at work were to write: “just as the virtues themselves are subject to change, either because genius improves as it grows more refined, or because men’s humours are more inclined to appreciate novelty than yearn after stability, Music too is thought to be conveyed by new rules, and the old ones that held sway until the beginning of this century are abandoned and derided”. Such was the atmosphere that the Neapolitan school brought to Venice, among other places. As Stefano Aresi has pointed out, the multitude of musicians trained in Naples who arrived in Venice immediately after the Vivaldi period represented the cultural and musical avant-garde of their city. And the foremost exponent of this school was Porpora, who worked in Venice on different occasions. The period to which this recording refers is four-year span between 1743 and 1747, which saw him engaged as a volunteer out of Christian charity, and later as director of the choir of the Pio Ospedale dei Poveri Derelitti, better known as the Ospedaletto. Like others in the city, the choir was made up of girls who lived in the charitable institution, and for all that they vied with the choirs of other such hospitals, when Porpora first took up the challenge the situation was catastrophic. Within a relatively short time, however, he managed to improve matters dramatically, bringing the formation back to the forefront of musical acclaim. All this involved a great deal of hard work. As Porpora himself wrote on 4 January 1745, “To form a good choir calls for many things, the most important of which I shall describe here. […] resonant voices possessed by girls who are determined, ready to work hard, and skilled as instrumentalists”. Indeed, the Neapolitan composer subjected his charges to an exhausting schedule: “not just 4 5
times a week, but 6 or 8, doubling them when necessary, several times over morning and evening even on feast days”. It was not only the girls themselves who were burdened with so much work, but also the other teachers and those responsible for instrument maintenance, who asked for an increase in stipend in view of the increase in commitment that had come about “with the arrival of Master Nicola Porpora”. Life had not been easy for the anxious Maestro at the Ospedaletto, and in 1747 he sought to return to Naples. Thus the composer’s Venetian experience came to an end, leaving an important mark on the city’s cultural life. Since 2010 Laboratorio Harmònia has been engaged in research and performance of the female choral repertoire produced in the Ospedali Maggiori of Venice, an experience that has few parallels in the history of music. Choosing Nicola Porpora as the first chapter of this undertaking relates to the fact that in our view he is the most original and intriguing choirmaster of the Ospedali. The title itself, Alle Figlie del Coro, derives from the name he gave to the original scores written for the girls. He was indeed the Master of the Figlie del Coro, or Choir Girls. Though the recording itself offers a synthesis of the three phases of Porpora’s creativity as a composer, each one in relation to his client or patron’s different requirements, the heart of his output is unquestionably his experience with the choirs in Venice. Salmi e Cantici all’Ospedaletto (Venice, Ospedaletto, 1744-1745). The compositions were probably written for the liturgical celebration of vespers at the Ospedaletto. From the compositional point of view, they are the lively expression of a distinctly new taste that Nicola Porpora brought to Venice in the wake of the Neapolitan school. This sense of innovation gratified the expectations of Venetian audiences, who flocked to the city’s many theatres. J. Brown has rightly asserted that “in Italy Church music, like that of Opera, is considered more a matter for pleasure than for devotion”. Church services had become a sort of show, to the extent that in the 6
encyclical Annus qui of 1749, Pope Benedict XIV declared that the music performed in churches should be suited to the place of worship ut nihil profanum, nihil mundanum aut theatrale resonet. The Psalms in this recording belong to two of the three principal forms of this genre of composition: concertate (compositions with soloists and choir: Confitebor and Nunc dimittis) and piene (just the choir: Credidi propter quo, Domine probasti me, Qui habitat). Immediately striking are the depth and density of the compositional fabric of these works. Porpora articulates the voice in a sort of vocal balancing act that reveals his extraordinary qualities as a teacher, all the more remarkable in view of the fact that his musicians were all female, and non professional – indeed many of the girls’ voices had still probably not reached any degree of maturity. Although his musicians were girls, adolescents and young women, he put his all into training them, creating a challenge that is still quite daunting for today’s performers, both singers and instrumentalists. Vigilate oculi mei, Sponsa Christi (Rome, 1712) for solo and basso continuo While still very young, Porpora composed the two motets Nocte die suspirando and Vigilate oculi mei for solo and basso continuo. The latter is a setting of a text that conjures up the images and expressive effects of the Canticle of Canticles. It consists of three arias (with the traditional da capo) that alternate with two short recitatives and an Alleluja finale. It is lively in character, with just a hint of pathos in the second section /verse of the arias. Particularly noteworthy is the constant virtuoso relationship between the voice and instruments, particularly in the gigue-like development of the central aria (Aer tellus) and the Alleluja at the end. Crimen Adae quantum constat (Vienna, 1754) This is the first of the Sei duetti latini sulla passione di nostro Signore Gesù Cristo composed in 1754, probably in Vienna. As Aresi declared in his excellent study of the 7
six motets, “the duet is composed in the osservato style, as it was called at the time, and the virtuoso passage that heralds the words inter scelus (in the second part of the duet) would appear to be a witting demonstration of the possibility of reconciling the new taste with the early style, exactly as in the Sonate XII”. © Nicola Ardolino Translation by Kate Singleton
Bibliography S. Aresi, Nicola Antonio Porpora, Sei duetti latini sulla passione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo; mottetti per Angiola Moro, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2004 D.E.U.M.M.=Dizionario Enciclopedico della Musica e dei Musicisti, Il lessico, Le biografie, UTET H. Geyer-W. Ostoff (ed.), La musica negli ospedali/conservatori veneziani fra Seicento e inizio Ottocento, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Rome 2004 P.G. Gillio, L’attività musicale negli Ospedali di Venezia nel Settecento, Leo S. Olschki Editore, Florence 2006
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Ensemble Barocca I Musicali Affetti It was Fabio Missaggia who had the idea of creating a group of Italian and foreign musicians devoted to the study and performance of early music on original instruments. The group was founded in 1997, and since then has focused on early sources and scores, constantly striving to perfect sound quality in order to address early music with the greatest possible freedom of expression. Ensemble Barocca I Musicali Affetti regularly perform at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. Their performances in this unique venue have included the first Italian production of Handel’s “Alceste”, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, the cycle of Handel’s great Italian cantatas “Apollo e Dafne”, “Clori, Tirsi e Fileno”, “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” and “Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno”, all of them conducted by Fabio Missaggia. Guest conductors who have worked with Ensemble Barocca I Musicali Affetti for many years include Monica Huggett and Sigiswald Kuiken, whose engagements with the ensemble continue throughout 2015. Ensemble Barocca I Musicali Affetti’s recordings include Handel’s “Apollo e Dafne”, Bach’s “Mass in G major”, Handel’s “Clori, Tirsi e Fileno” and Rameau’s “Pigmalion” under the baton of Sergio Balestracci (inauguration of the 2005 Festival di Viterbo, recorded for RAI – the Italian public broadcasting company). Shortly to be released is a DVD with performances of music by B. Marini and A. Vivaldi within the Galleries of Palazzo Leoni Montanari, a magnificent example of Venetian baroque architecture. The ensemble’s repertoire also embraces the present, with performances of contemporary compositions such as the premiere of Giovanni Bonato’s Non nobis, Domine, works by Bepi De Marzi and various jazz musicians. 9
Michele Peguri studied violin and piano, obtaining a first class degree in composition, conducting, choral music and choir conducting. As a conductor he attended master classes with I. Karabtchevsky, J. Kalmar (taking a Diploma at the Wiener Meisterkurse in Vienna, 1992), P. Arrivabeni and L. Acocella, with whom he studied for his degree. He has worked with various organizations and foundations: Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Teatro Verdi in Salerno, Martina Franca Festival, Wexford Opera Festival, Teatro Comunale in Teramo, Teatro Sociale in Rovigo. He also composes instrumental and choral music, as well as scores for the theatre. His compositions have been performed in many venues, including RAI, Rovereto Mozart Festival, Festival ’900 in Trento, Accademia Hungarica in Budapest. His compositions are published by Suvini Zerboni in Milan, Edizioni Osiride in Trento, Edizioni Janua in Verona and Armelin in Padua. He created and organized the musical event Pulcinella and Tiepolo: pictures in music from Pergolesi to Stravinsky. He has recorded for the Dinamyc label in Genoa, playing the harpsichord with the Estro armonico orchestra. He was chorus master for the first recordings of Donizetti’s “Elvida” (Bongiovanni, 2004), and Cimarosa’s “Cleopatra” (Bongiovanni, 2006). He transcribed and conducted the first modern performance of A. Buzzolla’s Messa a tre voci concertata con organo, editing the published edition of the work. Within the Alle Figlie del Coro project, he is responsible for the transcription, publication and direction of the unpublished psalms that Nicola Porpora wrote for the female choirs of the hospitals of 18th century Venice. Moreover, he also 10
transcribed and conducted the first modern performance of Porpora’s psalm Confitebor for solo voices, choir and orchestra. He works with the women’s ensemble Harmònia of Venice, which met with great acclaim at the “Festival della coralità veneta 2010” for the performance he conducted of Brahms’s “Four Lieder op. 17” for female choir, two horns and harp, receiving an award as “the best classical performance”. He teaches “Choral Music and Conducting” at Rovigo Conservatoire. Paola Crema, soprano, was born in Belluno and studied for her Bachelor’s Degree in opera singing at the “C. Pollini” Conservatoire in Padua, where she also obtained a first class Masters Degree in chamber music for voice. She attended various specialization courses on chamber music (French, German and Russian), devoting particular attention to the performance of baroque music under Gloria Banditelli, Patrizia Vaccari and Cristina Miatello. In 2010, pronounced winner of the “Premio Fatima Terzo” competition, she performed at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza under the baton of Sigiswald Kujijen. That same year she also sung under Roy Goodman at Villa Contarini and for the festival “Grandezze e meraviglie” in Modena. She sang the roles of Leocasta and Amanzio in the opera “Il Giustino” for the Vivaldi Festival in Sweden, Servilia in the first modern performance of Galuppi’s opera “La clemenza di Tito”, and Sefa in the oratorio “Il sacrificio di Jefte” at the Festival Galuppi in Venice. In 2009 she recorded the first ever performance of the “Psalmodia vespertina volans octo plenis vocibus concinenda” by Agostino Steffani. In 2011 she sang with Emma Kirkby in a 11
concert based on the various female figures in the Shakespeare tradition. In 2007 she sang in the premiere performance of “Sì come nave pinta da buon vento” by Stefano Scodanibbio on texts by Eduardo Sanguineti (spoken voice) at the Teatro Politeama.
has sung in Italy, France and Germany under conductors of the calibre of P. Maag, G. Andretta, G. Rebeschini, M. Berrini, G. Leonhardt, F. Bernius, D. Renzetti, M. Radulescu, J. Hofmann, H. Shelley, C. Hogwood, P. Phillips, D.R. Davies e R. Muti. Translation by Kate Singleton
Maria Zalloni, mezzosoprano, first studied piano, violin and voice at the “F. Manzato” Institute in Treviso. She made an early debut, singing treble in performances of “Die Zauberflöte”, “Pagliacci”, “Cavalleria rusticana”, “Macbeth” and “Carmen”. She also took part in numerous concerts and first performances of M. Viezzer’s oratorio “Lex” and his “Musiche per la Toti”, conducted by M. Rebeschini. In 2006 she obtained her Diploma from the J. Tomadini Conservatoire in Udine, thereafter specializing in the early and baroque repertoires in courses and master classes held by Patrizia Vaccari, Claudine Ansermet, Lavinia Bertotti, Sara Mingardo, Peter Philips (final concert held in collaboration with The Tallis Scholars). She then undertook further studies with F. Opa Cordeiro. She has sung both as a soloist and as a chorus member with Coro Giovanile Italiano, coro InCanto, Ensamble Laborintus, Athestis, Lacrimae Antiquae, Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, Melodi Cantores, Officina Musicum, Il Convito Musicale, Gruppo Musicale Italiano, Ars Cantica. Her numerous concert performances as a soloist singing baroque and early music focus in particular on Vivaldi, Handel and Porpora. Apart from the Baroque repertoire, she is also involved in contemporary music. She 12
Nicola Ardolino has been a choir conductor since 1987. In 1989 he began conducting Coro Femminile Harmònia, for which he has been recognized several times : 1st prize at Festival della Coralità Veneta in 2004 and 1st prize (section B) at the 46th International Choral Singing Competition “C.A. Seghizzi”. In 2003 he founded the children’s choir Piccola Harmònia, which is now a youth choir. It has always been noticed and praised at festivals and national competitions. Nicola Ardolino was the choirmaster for the production of two operas written for a children’s choir and orchestra: Brundibar by Hans Krasa, encored more than once since 2005, and I Musicanti di Brema by Andrea Basevi, performed for the La Fenice Theatre with libretto by R. Piumini,. Since the academic year 2005-2006 he has been conducting the Liceo Marco Polo of Venice choir. In 2010 he founded Laboratorio Harmònia, a centre for musical training and experimentation mainly aimed at children. It seeks to help children grow and develop their auditory and rhythmic capabilities from just a few months of age. This space hosts workshops and other training activities, Eurythmy studios, training for primary school teachers and academic training of professional musicians. Since 2010 he has been researching and reviving the Venetian female choral music that was performed in the “Ospedali” of “la Pietà”, “Incurabili”, “Derelitti” and “Mendicanti”. In collaboration with maestro Michele Peguri he put on the first modern performance of some of the Nicola Porpora’s psalms that were composed for the Figlie del Coro (Choir’s Daughters) of the “Ospedale dei Derelitti”, also known as Ospedaletto. In November 2013, still working with maestro Peguri and with his 13
original transcription, he performed Gloria RV 589 by Antonio Vivaldi for Solos, Female Choir and Orchestra with the Female Choirs Harmònia and Piccola Harmònia. Since 2006 he has been ASAC-Veneto’s (Association for the Development of Choral Activity) Artistic Consultant and a member of the children’s, youth and school choir commission. He has also taught at the European Centre for Choral Training. Coro Femminile Harmònia of the academy Laboratorio Harmònia was founded in 1989 in Marghera, Venice. It begins its activity by studying renaissance, romantic and contemporary choral music, achieving many remarkable results and gaining distinction in several competitions. Since 2010 it has been working on the baroque repertoire rediscovering the female choral music composed for the Ospedali Maggiori in Venice. The result is the outstanding project Alle figlie del Coro, in cooperation with important musicians such as Roberta Canzian and Elena Traversi and orchestras like Orchestra Barocca GB Tiepolo, Ensemble Barocca I Musicali Affetti and other significant names. The purpose is to rediscover, transcribe and spread the unreleased choral works by the choir masters of La Pietà, Ospedaletto, Incurabili and Mendicanti. A careful analysis of the performance practice during the XVIII century in Venice and a meticulous musicological work, published in the ASAC- Veneto choir magazine Musica Insieme n°105/2014, led to the eventual, outstanding performance on 16th November 2013 in the Duomo of Mestre of Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria RV 589, transcribed by Michele Peguri, for solo, female choir and orchestra. The Choir took part in significant choral projects directed by prestigious conductors such as Peter Neumann, Andrea Marcon, M. Berrini, Giorgio Mazzucato, Dino Doni. Since the beginning it has been conducted by Nicola Ardolino.
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Coro Femminile Harmònia and its conductor Nicola Ardolino
Recording: 29-30 March & 25 April, 2014, Concert Hall of Canevon, Marghera-Malcontenta, Venice, Italy Sound engineer: Stefano Volpato Cover image: Titian, Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1565, Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia p & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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