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The Vivaldi Edition, a recording venture conceived by the Italian musicologist Alberto Basso
and the independent label Naïve, is one of the most ambitious recording projects of the twenty-first century. Its principal objective is to record the massive collection of Vivaldi autograph manuscripts preserved today in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin, some 450 works. Incredibly, this is the private library of scores Vivaldi had at home at the time of his death in Vienna in 1741 and includes his extant operas, hundreds of concertos, sacred compositions and cantatas. Much of this music has not been heard since the 18th century. The release of more than 100 CDs, which began in 2000, will extend over the next ten years. The Vivaldi Edition's goal is to make this extraordinary wealth of music available to the public and at the same time to reveal the full genius of Vivaldi, not only as a composer of instrumental music, for which he was already known, but as the creator of some of the 18th-century's most exhilarating vocal music. More than twenty-seven titles have been released to date and this is the eighth opera in the series. Beyond this the Vivaldi Edition is active promoting affiliated concerts in major festivals and concert series throughout Europe and in developing multimedia projects which bring together musicians, film-makers, authors, visual artists and others. The Vivaldi Edition is changing the history of music and is setting new standards.
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Through one of those paradoxes so characteristic of musical history, Vivaldi's output still remains largely unknown, despite the meteoric rehabilitation it has enjoyed over the last fifty years. For, like a deforming prism, the extraordinary success achieved by a small number of concertos has eclipsed whole sections of the Venetian master's protean oeuvre, with the result that he is now a prisoner of his own image as an instrumental composer. An astonishing whim of fate in the case of a composer who, even though he was the uncontested master of the concerto in his own time, nonetheless devoted the main part of his career to opera. The slow process of rediscovery of Vivaldian opera in fact parallels the composer's own biography, since Vivaldi began his public career far from the theatre, combining his teaching duties at the Ospedale della Pietà with appearances as a freelance violinist. But right from the start, Vivaldi gave clear evidence that he was irresistibly attracted to the voice and to the theatre, in works whose every movement, conceived as a true dramatic scena, already heralded a master of the dramma per musica. A master who was first revealed in 1713, the year of the premiere at Vicenza of Ottone in villa, his first known opera, the springboard to one of the most outstanding operatic careers of the settecento in Italy. From this date onwards, for almost thirty years, Vivaldi ranged all over northern Italy, mounting his operas throughout the Veneto, but also in Florence, Milan, Mantua, Pavia, Reggio Emilia and Rome. His works were soon performed abroad and raided by illustrious European composers to nourish their own compositions. Between 1713 and 1741 Vivaldi brought forth a colossal output, the most important remnants of which are preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin. Musicological research has to date identified forty-nine opera libretti set by Vivaldi and linked him with absolute certainty to sixty-seven different productions. These figures, including revivals and arrangements, make him, along with Alessandro Scarlatti, the most prolific opera composer of his time. The length and sheer productivity of Vivaldi's career as a composer of operas attest to the considerable acclaim his works encountered, despite a number of resounding failures. There is abundant evidence of his success, not least in the number of prestigious commissions he received from celebrated theatres. Many of his contemporaries, too, were unstinting in their praise of his operas. Although Vivaldi did not implement reforms in the opera of his time comparable to the changes he imposed in the instrumental domain, he still strongly asserted his own originality over and above the conventions and codes of the dramma per musica. First of all by the exceptional dramatic inspiration he achieved in his compositions. Then by the inimitable character of his arias, transcending the often vilified plan of the aria da capo thanks to that same melodic invention, instrumental colour and rhythmic vitality that make his concertos and sonatas such unique, immediately recognisable works. By restoring this essential aspect of his genius to the composer of the celebrated Four Seasons, the revelation of the Turin manuscripts will ensure the rehabilitation of an important area of his contribution to our common musical heritage.
Frédéric DELAMÉA
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29 titles available > Opera teatrali |
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