Ombre Nere

Vivaldi, the Venetian, master of the whole palette of human emotions. From the church to the opera house, from tragedy to joy, the immediately-recognisable sensibility, the expressiveness, the inimitable colours and an unbeatable talent to say so much in just a few notes.

Vivaldi, the Venetian, master of the whole palette of human emotions. From the church to the opera house, from tragedy to joy, the immediately-recognisable sensibility, the expressiveness, the inimitable colours and an unbeatable talent to say so much in just a few notes.

Giovanni Battista Bassani (1657-1716), a relatively important figure in Ferrara, where he served as the cathedral’s maestro di cappella. This oratorio, which in its near-exclusive reliance on arias and recitative displays many of the dramatic characteristics of opera, was composed in 1686 as a tribute to those who died “in the Christian enterprises against the Turks” in 1683. Characteristic of many similar works of the period, its theme (the title means “Death confounded”) concerns an allegorical interaction among five characters–Death, Glory, Piety, Justice, and Lucifer–in which Death laments its powerlessness against the forces of Piety and Glory, who, along with Justice have assured the departed souls of the holy warriors an eternal existence in heaven.