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 Page from original score of Atenaide |
After achieving fame in Venice, Vivaldi embarked in 1718 on an extensive period of travel, mostly within Italy. For Florence, the capital of Tuscany, he composed one of his most accomplished operas, L'Atenaide, which was performed on 29 December 1728 at the famous Teatro della Pergola, with Vivaldi's protégée, the excellent Anna Giro, in the title role. The work received a most enthusiastic reception.
L'Atenaide, in a Byzantine setting, boasts a highly original style, and music that is very rich, with an extraordinary number of arias, written specially for the work or borrowed from other recent operas by Vivaldi. Thus we have the opportunity to hear again, for example, the marvellous 'Nel Profondo' from Orlando furioso, produced two years earlier. The Vivaldi Edition presents the world première recording of this opera, with an exceptional cast: Sandrine Piau in the title role (her third contribution to this series, after a remarkable In furore), experienced Vivaldi exponents Nathalie Stutzmann, Vivica Genaux and Guillemette Laurens, the very talented young singer Romina Basso, and old hands Paul Agnew and Stefano Ferrari. The work is conducted by the eminent Florentine conductor and Vivaldi specialist Federico Maria Sardelli, who here fulfils his dream of recording L'Atenaide not only in his native Florence, but in the very theatre in which it was first performed two hundred and seventy-nine years ago. "The premiere of Atenaide at the Teatro di Via della Pergola on 29 December 1728 marked a major new phase in Vivaldi's relationship with this prestigious Florence theatre. The prete rosso was coming back for the third time to a house whose solemn reopening in June 1718, after a period of closure of nearly thirty years, had been celebrated by his Scanderbeg. However, Vivaldi's stormy relationship with Marchese Luigi degli Albizzi, the colourful impresario who administered La Pergola on behalf of the Accademia degli Immobili, had prevented this collaboration from ever becoming institutionalised. The firm and implacable personalities of the Venetian and the Florentine, expressed in a correspondence as prickly as it is piquant, soon excluded any hope of peaceful cooperation, and each invitation of Vivaldi to La Pergola was therefore the product of exceptional circumstances. Eight years after Scanderbeg, only the economic crisis could induce Albizzi to call once more on the services of this most famous of Venetian composers in the hope of bailing out his theatre's finances. This move - which shows the high esteem in which Vivaldi was held in the Tuscan capital - turned out to be a shrewd one, for his Ipermestra, premiered at La Pergola during the Carnival season of 1727, was a triumph. The happy outcome was related by the Venetian scholar Abbé Conti in a letter to the Comtesse de Caylus on 23 February 1727: 'Vivaldi has produced three operas in less than five months, two for Venice and the third for Florence. The latter piece has restored the fortunes of the Tuscan theatre and made a great deal of money for the impresario.' The commission for Atenaide was obviously the consequence of this spectacular hit. In fact, a single season elapsed between Ipermestra and the prete rosso's next invitation to Florence, proof that Albizzi was expecting to renew his successful operation. His interests coincided with those of Vivaldi, who was again on poor terms with the theatres of Venice and found this new commission from outside La Serenissima to his advantage. But history, capricious as ever, was not to repeat itself." Extract from a text by Frédéric DELAMEA  |
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Eudossa having flown from Athens with her father Leontino and taken refuge in the then
Roman Byzantium in order to escape the attentions of Varane is about to wed the Eastern Roman Emperor Teodosio, a union very much approved by the Emperor's sister Pulcheria.
On the very eve of the wedding, Varane, son and heir to the kingdom of Athens, reaches Byzantium, vainly pining over his beloved whom he knew under the name of Atenaide. Teodosio, grateful to Varane's father and keen to forge a lasting bond between the two families sees in this arrival the opportunity of marrying his sister Pulcheria, who is however already courted by Marziano a Byzantine general whose social standing cannot hope to match hers and whom Teodosio, sensing danger to his plans, sends off to earn glory and trophies against the Bulgarian forces, and Probo the Emperor's attendant who, rejected by Pulcheria decides that if he shall not have her neither shall Marziano. Teodosio welcomes Varane with great warmth and proudly presents him to his future wife. Varane and Eudossa/Atenaide cannot hide their surprise, and Teodosio is extremely upset to find out that his wife to be has already had amorous exchanges with another, but forcing reason to dominate his passions he suggests that Eudossa be the one to decide, by presenting the one she truly loves with a precious jewel he produces. Eudossa has no doubts; Teodosio who has welcomed her and loved her respectfully from the outset is the one who is truly deserving of her love. She explains this to Probo, and hands him the ring in order that he may deliver it to his master. But Probo, seeing the opportunity of achieving his aims, betrays the trust the Emperor has placed in him and hands the ring over to Varane, suggesting however that, given the situation, the best way to make sure of getting what he wants is to kidnap the beautiful Atenaide, for fear that Teodosio might just change his mind. Believing his beloved to have chosen his rival, Teodosio banishes an astonished Eudossa without any explanation, and, rejected also by her friend Pulcheria, she decides to flee once more with her father Leontino, but in the process she encounters Varane who kidnaps her instantly. Leontino raises the alarm, gradually Probo's cunning plot comes to light and Marziano, who has lingered in Byzantium, incapable of separating himself from his beloved Pulcheria, sets the world to rights by freeing Eudossa from the clutches of Varane and returning her to Teodosio. And they all lived ... Nicholas HUNT
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Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741 Atenaide RV 702 Dramma per musica in tre atti Libretto di Apostolo Zeno Teatro della Pergola, Firenze 1728 Edizione critica dell'Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi a cura di Alessandro Borin Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi : Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venezia
Sandrine Piau soprano ATENAIDE/EUDOSSA
Modo Antiquo
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CD 1 (76'13)
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CD 2 (75'27)
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CD 3 (68'15)
Total timing: 3h39 |
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