La passione di Gesù Cristo

La Passione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo ( The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ ) is a Azione sacra (it. for oratory ) in two parts by Pietro Metastasio. It represents one of the meistvertonten oratorio texts of the 18th and early 19th century

History

Metastasio wrote his oratorio text in 1730 in Vienna; he was determined to set to music by Antonio Caldara. This set to music the text in March 1730 in less than two weeks.

In the history of the seal of the Passion oratorio presents his version in its complete departure from literally put forward Passionsbericht a weighty step towards novel aesthetics of sentimental suffering description Represents the libretto follows under the full waiver of Bible Word and the person of Jesus theatrical performances and became the 18th century 's largest popularity. As people Maddalena, Giovanni, Pietro and Giuseppe d' Arimatea appear, the choir only be entrusted to a few passages.

Many well-known composers set to music the libretto, including next Caldara also Domenico Natale Sarro ( 1738), Niccolò Jommelli ( 1749), Ignaz Wood Bauer ( 1762), Johann Gottlieb Naumann ( 1768), Josef Mysliveček (1773 ), Antonio Salieri (1776 ), Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1783 ), Giovanni Paisiello (1784 ), Ferdinando Paër ( 1800 ), Joseph Weigl (1811 ) and Francesco Morlacchi (1812 ), to name only the most important.

Salieri version

Salieri wrote his version of the famous original in 1776 for the Viennese Composers firm where it was premiered on 18 and December 23 1777. The difficult soprano role of Maddalena had designed for his pupil Salieri Catarina Cavalieri, the tenor part of Pietro Vincenzo Righini for. Also in this work builds Salieri to the reform efforts of his mentor, Christoph Willibald Gluck, but without vocal brilliance and coloratura completely ruled out. Striking are numerous accompagnato recitatives and several large-scale scene complexes with whom Salieri tries to counteract the schematism of the libretto. Noteworthy also appear the numerous minor tones, set the dramatic accents. The overture depicts - According Salieri - the certain agony of Peter.

The aged Metastasio to have Salieri's setting of the Passione highly valued and declared in the presence of Emperor Joseph II, " it sey this music the most expressive of all that have been made on this poem " as Salieri's first biographer Ignaz Franz handed down from Mosel posterity has. Kudos for the then 26- year-old composer. Johann Adolf Hasse It has also expressed praise of the work, particularly on one of the great choral fugues, decide each part.

The work was extremely popular with his contemporaries, including there were performances in Leipzig (1786 ), Copenhagen ( 1790), Leipzig ( 1791) and Berlin ( 1793). Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach has proven the piece performed in Hamburg.

More recently, the work has been getting frequent thanks to two available print editions, so among other things, 1995 in Verona, in 1999 and 2002 in Heidelberg, 2000 in Vienna, 2002 in Brno, in Cologne in 2003, 2006 in Dusseldorf, Cologne and Leverkusen, as well as in Bitonto, Brindisi and the Teatro la Fenice in Venice and in Salieri's hometown Legnano, 2007 part of the Festival Itria in Martina Franca, Brindisi and Cerignola and in Caen, France, 2008 in the Dresden Frauenkirche. The piece is now in several recordings on the market, including Hanno Müller- Brachmann.

• Oratory