Mondo Cne

First performed at the Brussels court during Lent 1706, this second oratorio by Pietro Torri is the oldest to have been given in the capital of the former Spanish Netherlands, and for which a score survives. Sung by the leading artists of the time – the very same who went on to participate in the first performances of the early Handel operas – it played a decisive role in the dissemination of Roman oratorio in northern Europe. Torri, who had a lifelong attachment to the court of the Electors of Bavaria, left behind the most substantial corpus of oratorios – both in French and in Italian – before Handel, whom La Vanità del mondo anticipates by the beauty of its arias and its dramatic power.

Born in Lisbon of Italian parentage, Pedro António Avondano was employed at the court of Joseph I, becoming Portugal’s leading composer of instrumental music and dances for the royal ballet. Il mondo della luna (‘The World on the Moon’) was a hugely successful libretto by Carlo Goldoni and was set by the likes of Haydn—its comic tale seeing the social climber and strict moralist Buona Fede duped into thinking that he is on the moon. This narrative of illusion in collision with love, jealousy and power struggles is set with sublime lyrical and dramatic transparency by Avondano in this, his only opera.