Opera Rara: L'Oracolo in Messenia

A Great Comeback

This year’s final Opera Rara promises to be exceptional: a work by Antonio Vivaldi, unheard for 250 years, returns to the stage!

Antonio Vivaldi’s instrumental concertos are the most popular of his works, led by the all time violin hit – The Four Seasons. Much less is known about the Red Priest’s works for the stage, even though he worked with various theatres for 30 years, and penned almost a hundred operas. Around half have survived until the present day, and chances are diminishing for a spectacular discovery, such as the one from 1926, when 14 volumes of manuscripts with works by this great Venetian composer were found at the San Carlo Salesian Monastery in Italy’s Piedmont region. And so this year’s fourth staging from the Opera Rara cycle, presenting the world premiere of Vivaldi’s last opera L’Oracolo in Messenia (concert version), will be an even greater event. The work, previously regarded as lost, was recreated on the basis of a libretto of its Viennese premiere, recently discovered the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

But why Vienna in the famous Italian’s biography? Vivaldi arrived at Austria’s capital in 1740, when his star was slowly but inexorably extinguishing in his home city. He hoped to gain a position at the Viennese court and for financial support from Emperor Charles VI; he commenced also rehearsals for L’Oracolo in Messenia, an opera for a libretto written by Apostolo Zeno, successfully staged for the first time in Venice in 1738. However, the plans were thwarted by the emperor’s death; all operas were banned throughout the Empire during the year of mourning. Vivaldi didn’t abandon his search for a wealthy sponsor, but the financial difficulties put a serious strain on his already failing health. The composer, whose music filled half the globe, died on 28 June 1741 and was buried the same day, without a grand ceremony, accompanied simply by bells for the poor. It was only the perseverance of his friends that made the Viennese premiere of L’Oracolo in Messenia possible in early 1742.

The libretto of this version served as a basis for a musical reconstruction by Fabio Biondi, outstanding violinist, conductor and scholar of Baroque music, founder and leader of Europa Galante. Although this wasn’t the first time he took up such a challenge, the question how to resurrect long-lost, incomplete works, of which only individual arias survived the centuries, remains pertinent. The answer is simple: by using ideas from Baroque masters! Under great time pressure and faced with major competition, composers frequently used a technique known as pasticcio (the name became synonymous with the operas it helped create). They created completely new pieces, by borrowing and remodelling melodies from their own, and others’, earlier compositions. Biondi reached for just this technique: he supplemented preserved fragments of Vivaldi’s original work with arias from his other operas and music by composers who were the Red Priest’s contemporaries, such as Geminiano Giacomelli, Riccardo Broschi and Johann Adolf Hasse. So can we still regard it as Vivaldi’s opera? But of course! We have the original libretto, and the overworked Vivaldi frequently relied on the pasticcio technique to rescue his works. Selection made by Biondi is unlikely to be the only possible one, although bearing in mind the successes of Bajazet or Ercole sul Termodonte, recreated for contemporary listeners in a similar way, we can put our full trust in his knowledge, imagination, and musical intuition.

Especially since the work reaches us in an excellent production: the instrumental parts will be performed by Europa Galante, one of the most appreciated ensembles specialising in early music, under Biondi’s baton. The central role – that of Queen Merope – has been entrusted to the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg, who frequently performs at opera houses in Milan, Paris and Madrid. She works with the best conductors, including Marc Minkowski, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Ottavio Dantone, while last year she travelled across Europe with the programme Tribute to Farinelli (with Christophe Rousset and the Les Talens Lyriques ensemble). Merope’s son – Aepytus – will be taken on by the Italian mezzo-soprano Laura Polverelli, while the part of the tyrant Polyphontes, who uses his power and deception to try to take over the kingdom, will be taken by the excellent Norwegian tenor Magnus Staveland. It’s also worth paying attention to the secondary part of Thrasymedes. Firstly because of Julia Lezhneva, acclaimed as the new Maria Callas by “Le Figaro”. At the threshold of her career, the 21-year-old Russian soprano has already performed at festivals in Pesaro (Rossini Opera Festival) and Salzburg, and recorded Bach’s Mass in B minor with Minkowski. Last year she also took part in Kraków’s Opera Rara cycle under the direction of Giovanni Antonini. The second reason is the incredibly difficult part she has been assigned: it’s rich coloraturas and all manner of ornamentation requires a voice with a piano range, full control, and extraordinary technique. It’s no wonder – it features arias written for the best singers of the day, including the renowned castrato Farinelli. Other roles are filled by Romina Basso (Elmira), Franzisca Gottwald (Lyciskus), and Xavier Sabata (Anasander).

The Opera Rara cycle presents a variety of works from the Baroque period, written following the Venetian, Neapolitan, French schools… As it name suggests, it also includes some rarely-performed material. Opera lovers have already heard several Polish premieres, including works by Vivaldi (such as Ercole sul Termodonte, Ottone in villa and Orlando furioso). However, the world premiere of L’Oracolo in Messenia is an unprecedented event in Opera Rara’s three year history, and it will be famous in Poland and beyond. Through Euroradio, the near-forgotten work by the Venetian composer will reach listeners through 17 broadcasters across the continent, affiliated through the European Broadcasting Union. It will also be transmitted by Channel 2 of Polish Radio. (Barbara Skowrońska)

Artistic Director of the Opera Rara cycle: Filip Berkowicz