Albinoni: Terry Wey

Although known almost exclusively for his instrumental concertos and the spurious Adagio attributed to him, Tomaso Albinoni was mainly a man of the theater; he composed 81 operas and, late in life, made his living as a singing coach. However, the best efforts of posterity to catch up with Albinoni's operatic creations are significantly stymied by the fact that only three of his stage works are fully extant, the rest preserved only in occasional and fugitive fragments in the form of single arias and other bits and pieces. "Il Nascimento dell'Aurora" is a serenata – or more specifically, a "festa pastorale" – a kind of courtly entertainment not really meant to be specifically dramatic or compelling and, in this case, dealing with the birth of Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora ….

Although known almost exclusively for his instrumental concertos and the spurious Adagio attributed to him, Tomaso Albinoni was mainly a man of the theater; he composed 81 operas and, late in life, made his living as a singing coach. However, the best efforts of posterity to catch up with Albinoni's operatic creations are significantly stymied by the fact that only three of his stage works are fully extant, the rest preserved only in occasional and fugitive fragments in the form of single arias and other bits and pieces. "Il Nascimento dell'Aurora" is a serenata – or more specifically, a "festa pastorale" – a kind of courtly entertainment not really meant to be specifically dramatic or compelling and, in this case, dealing with the birth of Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora ….

Il Nascimento dell’Aurora belongs to the genre of the serenata, which was so well-loved in the 18th century. These serenatas were chiefly short operas of tribute, set in arcadian-pastorale surroundings, staged either fully or partially, and often performed outdoors. Mythological figures first shown in the timeless world of legend leave their mythological framework at the end of the work to congratulate and pay tribute to an actual person. The commission for Il Nascimento dell’Aurora was presumably given to Albinoni between 1711 and 1717 to celebrate the birthday of Elisabeth Christine von Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Emperor Karl VI. The work is for five solo voices, strings and continuo with obbligato theorbo.