Nicola Porpora - Il Gedeone

"At the mention of the oratorio genre, music lovers automatically think of George Frideric Handel's 'Messiah' set to English texts from the Bible or Johannes Brahms's 'Ein deutsches Requiem.' But neither of these works is an oratorio in the stricter sense of the term. The oratorio, as a genre and the name of a genre, emerged from a number of different forerunner forms in Italy during the second third of the seventeenth century and initially remained by and large an Italian genre. It was not until 1730 that it established itself internationally, and here the oratorio texts of the Vienna court poet Pietro Metastasio played an important role. 

 

"From 1660 to 1730 there had been only one center of oratorio performance outside Italy, albeit a center of great importance: the Habsburg imperial court in Vienna. Up until the time that Maria Theresa became empress in 1740, oratorios — Italian oratorios — had been performed at the Vienna court on a regular basis. (This makes Nicola Porpora's 'Il Gedeone' of 1737 an extremely late work within the context of the Italian oratorios composed and performed in Vienna.) Vienna was also the model for other Catholic courts north of the Alps such as those in Dresden, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Prague, and Warsaw.

A Habsburg emperor, Leopold I, who him-self composed respectable oratorios, stood at the beginning of this Vienna tradition of the Counter Reformation and with a strong Jesuit stamp. His 'Il transito di S. Giuseppe' was per-formed almost every year for two decades beginning in 1680. For the period between 1660 and 1740 we have about 350 oratorios in text form with some two hundred oratorios by composers known by name and a good dozen by anonymous composers in score form. 

 

"Of the composers, sixteen (including Nicola Porpora) are represented by one oratorio, eleven by two oratorios, and five by three such works. Only those composers who were employed at the Vienna court or maintained close ties to it composed four or more oratorios for performance in Vienna. Oratorios composed elsewhere were 'importedo' mainly from Rome, Bologna, and Venice. It is note-worthy that three of the oratorio composers are known to have been women: Caterina Grazianini and Maria Margherita Grimani are represented with two oratorio premieres and Camilla de Rossi with four. 

 

"The oratorios composed during the great days of the Italian oratorio between 1660 and 1740 by and large exhibited a stable form. The libretti were in two parts and had four hundred to five hundred verses. Usually one character, a figure from the Old Testament, New Testament, or the lives of the saints, stood at the center of the action (and was named in the title), and there were four or five more solo vocal parts. The chorus was employed only sporadically, usually at the end of the two parts and in a very conventional way. The oratorio genre as a whole, especially in comparison to the contemporary opera and (secular) cantata, bore conservative traits. This had to do, especially in Vienna, with the special performance circumstances of the oratorio. At the Habsburg court oratorios were performed first and foremost during Holy Week, during a period in which sorrow and a minimum of musical means constituted the proper tone. In Vienna and else-where oratorios were intended as extraliturgical court devotion, even when they were performed in the court chapel or integrated into the Holy Week liturgy. Unlike what was frequently the case with the opera, they were not subject to public competition or to the pressure to make a profit. These factors played a major role in the shaping of the oratorio style. 

 

"The history of the oratorio was like that of the opera, however, in that the librettists played a role at least as important as that of the composers and often had a decisive influence. In Vienna two court poets brought about enduring changes to the oratorio text: the Venetian Apostolo Zeno (1668-1750, at the Vienna court during 1718-29) and the already mentioned Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). We know of sixteen libretti by Zeno for what he called 'drammi sacri,' from the years after 1719. The designation 'sacred dramem' meant that Zeno aimed at approximating the form of the oratorio to the drama, to the tragedy, especially to Jean Racine's religious dramas ('Esther' and 'Athalia'). He derived his subject matter exclusively from the Bible and made an effort not to expand this biblical material with invented stories, figures, and episodes. This led to the drastic reduction in the number of oratorios about the lives of the saints in Vienna. 

 

"Pietro Metastasio, the most important Italian dramatic poet of the eighteenth century, had an even more lasting influence. He was the idol of his times and held the post of Vienna court poet beginning in 1730. Between 1730 and 1740, at the time when Porpora wrote his 'll Gedeone,' Metastasio wrote seven oratorio libretti, which, like his opera texts, were submitted to multiple musical settings by numerous composers. It was through Metastasio, not only through the composers, that the oratorio genre gained the status of an international form. 

 

"The life of Nicola Porpora, who was born in Naples in 1686 and died in the same city in 1768, was linked in many ways to Vienna and to the Vienna court poet Metastasio. Porpora set 'Angelica' and 'Gli orti esperidi,' two of Metastasio's early poems intended for musical settings, as serenate for the birthdays of the emperor and empress in the then Austrian Naples in 1720 and 1721. During this time Porpora must have enjoyed the patronage of the Vienna court, perhaps through his employer, the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who himself rendered services to the Austrian monarchy. Between 1725 and 1743 Porpora wrote eight operas to texts by Metastasio and during his early period three or four operas to texts by Zeno. Porpora received his first commission for an opera for Vienna in 1714; it was entitled 'Arianna e Teseo,' set to a text by Pariati, and intended for the emperor's birthday. In 1718 his 'Temistocle' to a libretto by Zeno was premiered at the Vienna court theater on the occasion of the emperor's birthday. Nevertheless, Porpora's rise to fame as an opera composer followed not in Vienna but in Rome and Northern Italy. He settled in Venice in 1726 and then went to London in 1733 at the invitation of the Opera of the Nobility, Handel's rival in the opera business in the English capital. He left England in 1736 —before the Opera of the Nobility, like Handel's opera company, went bankrupt — and returned to Naples. He did not assume a permanent post there again at the Conservatorio di S. Maria di Loreto until July 1, 1739.

"When Porpora wrote the oratorio 'Il Gedeone' for Vienna in 1737, he was a 'free man' who was looking for a job. And, as chance would have it, the Vienna court music director Antonio Caldara had died on December 28, 1736! As one might assume owing to his personal acquaintance with Metastasio, Porpora did not seek in vain for support from him. 'Il Gedeone' was a sort of 'oriol piece' in which Porpora was supposed to show what he could do as a composer. He overlooked the fact, however, that he was supposed to compose a conservative oratorio for Holy Week corresponding to the models of the court composers Caldara and Fux. It is surprising (or perhaps was part of his strategy?) that Porpora did not set a text by Metastasio. 

 

"Porpora was certainly in Vienna for the premiere of 'Il Gedeone' on March 28. When he was unsuccessful in his bid, he returned to his native Naples and resided there from 1739 to 1741. We then find him in Venice and beginning in 1747 at the Dresden court, a center of the Italian opera. It was there that Porpora re-encountered Johann Adolf Hasse, who had been his pupil in 1722. (His other pupils included Farinelli and Caffarelli, the two most famous castrati of the time.) It was not until 1752 or 1753 that Porpora, with a handsome Dresden pension, settled in Vienna. Here he taught song to Wilhelmine, the mistress of the Venetian ambassador Pietro Correr, and to Metastasio's protegée Marianna Martinez. It was probably also Metastasio who introduced Porpora, then a European celebrity, to the young Joseph Haydn. Haydn became Porpora's servant, pupil, and piano accompanist in voice instruction. The outbreak of the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Saxony meant that Porpora lost his Dresden pension in 1757. His financial situation became increasingly precarious until he found new employment in Naples in 1757-60. He had grown old during a time of fundamental new musical developments and was a witness to another epoch, namely to the first, still 'baroque' third of the eighteenth century. Unlike Leonardo Vinci, Leonardo Leo, or Pergolesi, Porpora did not become a composer of the second third of the century, when the foundation was laid for the 'classical' styles in the opera and instrumental music in Italy as well as in Vienna. He spent the last years of his life in abject poverty in the city of his birth, where he died in 1768. 

 

"The libretto of 'Il Gedeone' is by an 'A. Perrucci.' Owing to the relatively early year of his death, it is uncertain whether the author was Andrea Perrucci (1651-1704), a well-known librettist and theater theorist who was active in Naples. On the other hand, Porpora's composition teacher Francesco Mancini set another oratorio libretto by a Perrucci in Naples in 1733 ('II zelo animato dal gran profeta Elia'), and it was based on a text published by Andrea Perrucci in 1691. The text of 'La Debbora profetessa guerriera,' an oratorio of 1691 by the Neapolitan Giuseppe Vignola certainly stems from Andrea Perrucci, and in 1701 the same composer, in his 'Il Gedeone geroglifico,' turned to the material that Porpora would use decades later. 

 

"In form and content the libretto set by Porpora is a text corresponding to the fundamental principles of Zeno's oratorio texts but hardly approximating Metastasio's verbal artistry. The story is derived — without major additions — from Judges 6-8 in the Old Testament, and Gideon [alto castrato], an Israelite liberator chosen by God from the period around 1100 B.C.E, stands at its center. Other characters include his father Joas (the biblical Joash) [bass], his wife Sichemi [soprano] (in the oratorio his only wife, in the Bible his concubine in Shechem, who bore him one of his seventy sons), and Gideon's retainer Fara [alto]. The opposition is represented by the commander Oreb [soprano castrato], a prince of the Midianites named in the Bible, and his officer Silve [tenor]. The poetic text is clearly divided into sixteen recitatives, twelve arias, three choruses (two of which form a remarkably full and lavish conclusion to the two parts), and the instrumental pieces introducing the two parts, an lntroduzione and a Sinfonia. Gedeone's father Joas and Sichemi sing three arias each, Gedeone himself (and his rival Oreb) only two arias, but they are particularly extensive. The two minor characters Fara and Silve are assigned one aria each. Celestial or allegorical figures hardly appear at all, and this too corresponds to Zeno's theories. The biblical angel who commissions Gideon to save Israel and to destroy Baal's altar does not sing in the oratorio. Joas's second aria has been eliminated from the present recording, and some secco recitatives and the concluding chorus — which is monumental enough anyway — have been abridged. 

 

"At the beginning of the second third of the eighteenth century, opera composers like Leonardo Vinci, Leonardo Leo, Johann Adolf Hasse, and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi brought about a fundamental change in musical style in Italy. The encounter with Metastasio's libretti led to a turning away from the baroque pathos of the slow aria and coloratura splendor of the allegro aria and from the dominance of counterpoint to emotionally stirring character, cantability, and the clear recital of the text with clear periodization of the musical phrases and a modest orchestral accompaniment supporting the vocal parts. Within a few years (Bach and Handel still had twenty years to live) a fundamentally new musical idiom came about, an idiom long designated as 'preclassical.' Bach and Handel were not the only two who would did not participate in this decisive stylistic development; Nicola Porpora would also have to be included among their company. In Vienna, however, the oratorio composer Porpora met with an oratorio tradition that not only was entirely and fully obliged to a 'baroqueo' idiom but also employed this old idiom conservatively in the field of the oratorio. Caldara and Fux both employed an 'eruditeo' emphatically contrapuntal-linear writing style in sacred music in general and in the oratorio. To be sure, Porpora himself had been instructed in 'stricto' polyphonic composition in Naples, and the concluding choruses of the two parts of 'Il Gedeone' leave not the slightest doubt about his ability to compose stupendous choral fugues in a manner that we would associate with Handel. Here the measured and serious tone of the choral polyphony of Fux and Caldara was at most one means of design among others. Porpora wanted to show what he could do and put his artistry on display, and reserve and economy were the least appropriate means for doing so. And so it is that 'Il Gedeone' makes a grand display of the brio and imaginative wealth of a genuine theater musician who served up lavish coloraturas and effective trills for the warbling of his vir-tuoso singers and let the castrato part in Gedeone's two arias indulge in concert splendor with oboes and even a solo trumpet (during Holy Week, when this instrument was supposed to keep its silence!). The alto castrato Pietro Casati, who was also active as a composer in Vienna), sang the part of Gedeone; La Pisani, the soprano, was the first Sichemi; and the court singer Praun sang the role of Joas. Vivaldi's concerto style, which had long since made its way to Naples, left clear traces on Porpora's string part, with its dense texture and constant motion. 

 

"This music by Porpora was just as foreign to the Vienna oratorio tradition as it was to the new gentle tones in the Italian operas and oratorios of those years by Leonardo Vinci, Leonardo Leo, Hasse, or Pergolesi. Nowhere is the dramatic impetus of Porpora's music so audible as in the no less than nine accompagnato recitatives with orchestral accompaniment. Here one should pay particular attention to how he works with string tremoli in the accompagnato before the second chorus, the siciliano chorus, and how the thematic design of the chorus together with the pastoral oboes in already anticipated in the recitative. At the same time, the thoroughly traditional delineation of the form (though there are already two-part arias along with the da capo arias that then represented the norm) and compositional technique with fundamental basses proper can no less not be overlooked.

"The dramatic style of this music does not follow as a matter of course from the libretto. The story of Gideon consists of divine calling, battle, and victory. Joas's fatherly warmth and Sichemi's fear counterpoint Gedeone's confident faith, which also makes him certain of victory. But tenderness, trembling, and grief could not find a place in this oratorio, which comes across like a splendid opera for a gala court occasion. 

 

"Porpora did not achieve the goal that he hoped to achieve with 'Il Gedeone' in Vienna, but he went down in grand style. Paradoxically, the very elements of this dazzling, captivating music that sealed his doom in Vienna in 1737 made the first new performance of this work in our time by the Wiener Akademie in the Hofburgkapelle a rousing success in more ways than one." (Jürg Stenzl, tr. Susan Marie Praeder. From the liner notes.)

 

Performers: Vokalensemble Nova, Wiener Akademi, Martin Haselböck, Kai Wessel, Ulf Bästlein, Linda Perillo, Henning Voss, Jörg Waschinski, Johannes Chum

1.1. Parte I: Introduzione

1.2. Parte I: 'Principe A Te Ritorno Apportatore'

1.3. Parte I: 'Quasi Locuste Che Intorno'

1.4. Parte I: 'Ma Forse Disperati'

1.5. Parte I: 'Quell'aura Lusinghiera'

1.6. Parte I: 'Padre Non Più Vana'

1.7. Parte I: 'Tu Se'il Minore De Toui Fratelli'

1.8. Parte I: 'Signor Del Popol Tutto'

1.9. Parte I: 'Mi Vegga, Oh Dio'

1.10. Parte I: 'In Qual Dubbio D'affetti'

1.11. Parte I: 'Di Nemico Sangue Il Campo'

1.12. Parte I: 'Odo Le Strida, Già Vaggo Il Volto'

1.13. Parte I: 'Oh Dio, Che Troppo Sono Potenti'

1.14. Parte I: 'D'una Dolce Speranza'

1.15. Parte I: 'Cadranno I Lupi Fieri'

1.16. Parte I: 'A Quella Omnipotente Man'

1.17. Parte I: 'Signor, Le Tue Minacce Noi Provammo'

 

2.1. Parte II: Sinfonia

2.2. Parte II: 'Sichemi Perche Mai Lui'

2.3. Parte II: 'L'alte Strida'

2.4. Parte II: 'Ove' Son Giunto, Ohime Infelice'

2.5. Parte II: 'À Pur Vinto, O Sorte Barbara'

2.6. Parte II: 'Alfin Sè Giunto Al Varco Dallo'

2.7. Parte II: 'O Beato Fortunato'

2.8. Parte II: 'Che Fia Di Gedeone?'

2.9. Parte II: 'Lodi Al Dio Delle Vittorie'

2.10. Parte II: 'Non Le Mie'

2.11. Parte II: 'Cogliete, Amici, Il Frutto Di Vostra Fede'

2.12. Parte II: 'M'abbondano Le Lagrime Per Doppia Gioia'

2.13. Parte II: 'Chi Nel Signor Confida Non Perisce In Eterno'

 

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