L'essentiel Ferrari

Er war Impresario, Librettist, Komponist und ein hervorragender Theorbenspieler – doch in erster Linie fühlte sich Benedetto Ferrari als Musiker. Um 1604 in Reggio Emilia nordwestlich von Modena geboren, studierte er in Rom. 1637 ging er das Wagnis ein, mit dem Teatro S. Cassiano das erste öffentliche Opernhaus und selbsttragende Unternehmen in Venedig zu gründen. Die Logen wurden an Adlige und reiche Bürgerfamilien verpachtet. Das Parkett war zunächst unbestuhlt, frei auch für Turniere und Umzüge; die Plätze konnte jedermann kaufen. Verlängert wurde der Zuschauerraum durch die Bühne, der Orchestergraben blieb lange versenkt. An sämtlichen Opern, die für dieses und die anderen Häuser, die plötzlich wie Pilze aus dem Boden schossen, benötigt wurden, war Ferrari als Komponist und Librettist beteiligt. Doch gelten seine Partituren größtenteils als verschollen, weshalb wir Ferrari als Komponisten lediglich aus seinen drei Büchern mit Kammerkantaten, den Musiche varie a voce sola, kannten.

Sacred Cantatas Naxos' Eighteenth Century Classics series treats listeners to a couple of samplings from a genre in which Giovanni Battista Sammartini, "father of the symphony," was involved to a largely unknown extent, the sacred cantata. Both of these works come from 1751, which must have been a very sad year indeed for this composer, as they are Maria Addolorata (The Sorrowing Mary) and Il pianto di San Pietro (The Tears of Saint Peter). These works have been edited for publication by musicologist Daniele Ferrari, and are recorded here with Ferrari himself conducting.

Stradella's music is every bit as colourful and intriguing as his biography. His oratorio Ester, liberatrice del popolo Hebreo, based on the Old Testament story of Esther, whose bravery saves the Jews from slaughter and exposes the wickedness of the King's counsellor Haman, exemplifies the composer's distinctive style, while conforming to the traditions of the 17th-century oratorio. Moral teaching, vocal virtuosity and sinuous melodies are combined, in a work that expresses plethora of affects and emotions – from Esther's sorrow to Haman's malevolence.

The cantata Della Passione di Gesù Cristo, J-C 124 (On Jesus Christ's Passion), was first performed in San Fedele on 9 March 1759, the first Friday of Lent. This title, which was published in the catalogue of Sammartini's works (Harvard University Press, 1976), does not correspond to the text found in Father Keller's manuscript. The text belongs instead to the cantata Gerusalemme sconoscente, ingrata (Jerusalem, ungrateful and disowning), which bears the number J-C 122. In the catalogue, this number belongs to the text of the cantata La perfidia giudaica (The Jewish Wickedness), which is considered lost and is catalogued as number C-49. According to the current state of research the 1760 cantata Della Passione di Gesù Cristo, Signor nostro seems to be lost.

Sammartini had a long and active musical career, working as maestro di cappella or organist in as many as ten different churches, yet surprisingly few of his sacred compositions survive. In the sacred cantata Gerusalemme sconoscente ingrata, set to a text from another of his cantatas, La perfidia giudaica nella SS. Passione di Gesù Cristo, vocal texture is dominated by a typically Italianate melodiousness and virtuosity, while the orchestral writing is full of daring harmonies, sparkling themes, and an inexhaustible wealth of ideas.

"Countertenor Franco Fagioli, an exceptional singer with an even rarer modesty, was equal to the challenge of Handel's music in all its facets – the breakneck coloratura, which he is able to propel powerfully and effortlessly in the highest range, but also the profound melancholy of 'Scherza, infida,' for which he knows how to enshroud his voice in the hues of sorrow." This is what the periodical Opernwelt wrote in the spring of 2010 about the Argentinian countertenor Franco Fagioli, who sang the title role in Handel's "Ariodante" at the Badische Staatstheater in Karlsruhe.

We don’t know much about Carlo Sturla, not even the dates of his birth and death, and he is absent from Google – quite an achievement! The sole reference to him is in the register of the Convent of Santa Brigida belonging to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Sturla worked here, but apparently his assiduous attendance upon and training of the young women under his tutelage was viewed with some suspicion.