Читать книгу Anna Maria Strada, Prima Donna of G. F. Handel - Judit Zsovár - Страница 16

In consideration of the above, it is no surprise that Marcello’s Il teatro deals with the productions, management, and singers of Sant’Angelo and S. Moisè, engaged in the 1720/1721 season as the embodiment of the new manner. Its frontispiece contains Strada’s surname, anagrams of Vivaldi, Giovanni Orsatti, impresario of S. Moisè, and furthermore that of the Sant’Angelo’s co-manager, impresario Modotto, Giovanni Palazzi, librettist of the first staged opera of the season, Vivaldi’s La verità in cimento, and members of the cast arrived from and trained in Bologna.⁷⁵ According to Selfridge-Field and Strohm, this very group of Bolognese singers as representatives of the bravura singing style (together with the composer and librettist Giuseppe Maria Buini at S. Moisè) were the main target of Marcello, whose family co-owned Sant’Angelo. They are reflected ←31 | 32→in the pamphlet by a strong Bolognese dialect in the conversations between the prima donna and her mamma.⁷⁶

Composers and vocalists seem indeed to have been coming in a large number from Naples and Bologna to Venice in the 1720s, as Villeneuve mentions.⁷⁷ Among the Bolognese members of the company at S. Moisè there were Caterina Borghi, Cecilia Belisani, and Caterina Cantelli who all participated in Buini’s operas Il Filindo (1720) and Cleofile (1721) at San Moisè.⁷⁸ In 1721 Buini married Belisani, with whom he frequently collaborated in Venice (La caduta di Gelone 1719, Armida delusa 1720).⁷⁹ From the Sant’Angelo cast, Marcello mentioned the names of Chiara Orlandi and Antonia Laurenti, who shared the stage with Strada in all of the operas in which she appeared in Venice (La verità in cimento 1720; Filippo, re di Macedonia, Antigona, and Il pastor fido in 1721).⁸⁰ Merighi, the most illustrious member of the company, was likewise Bolognese.

Il Teatro alla moda’s frontispiece suggests furthermore a business relationship between Vivaldi and the impresario of Sant’Angelo, Modotto, and also with the impresario of San Moisè, Giovanni Orsatti. Beyond its general description of the practice of Venetian, and in a broader sense of the Italian operatic life, Il teatro speaks about particular productions of the autumn of 1720 at Sant’Angelo and San Moisè, namely of La verità in cimento (RV 739) by Vivaldi and Buini’s ←32 | 33→Il Filindo (as is indicated by the publication date of December that year).⁸¹ According to Strohm, Marcello’s work could have harmfully affected Vivaldi’s activity in Sant’Angelo as well as in Venice more generally. After his Mantuan years he began to reappear as an opera composer in the city; already in 1721 he had little to do in the carnival season, and thereafter he disappeared entirely from Venice for four years. As Strada might have been one of his protégées, the damage that befell Vivaldi’s reputation most probably impacted her career as well, for she did not return to Venice.

As noted earlier, Strada stood as virtuosa di camera in the service of Count Girolamo Colloredo-Waldsee, the Governor of Milan since the summer of 1720.⁸² Colloredo himself was also quite fresh in his position; he became governor in spring 1719. Vivaldi might have gotten to know the soprano through his new Venetian patron, Johann Baptist of Colloredo-Waldsee, the imperial ambassador to Venice between 1715 and 1726, who was presumably related to the Milanese Count.⁸³ The composer must have heard Strada in Giuseppe Vignati’s Aquilio in Siracusa, written as part of the annual birthday celebration of the Holy Roman Empress Elisabetta Cristina di Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Charles VI, and performed at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan on 27 August 1720. This possibility is supported by the fact that the seconda donna, Anna Maria Lodovica d’Ambreville, was one of Vivaldi’s singers who took part in two of his operas in Mantua the previous year: Teuzzone and Tito Manlio. Strada was given the terza donna role, but she had three arias and such fellow singers as the excellent tenor Francesco Borosini and the castrato Carlo Scalzi.⁸⁴ That passionate, fierce and warrior-like heroic role type, which emerged regularly during her career and seemed to befit her personal and vocal features alike, found Strada at her debut playing princess Merope, who rejects the tyrant’s proposal because she loves the Roman soldier Aquilio, and does not bow to blackmail even with her brother’s execution.

Strada’s voice must have given a very strong impression, considering that Vivaldi hired this seventeen-year-old soprano straightaway for his La verità in ←33 | 34→cimento, premiered on 26 October 1720 at Sant’Angelo.⁸⁵ Though it is uncertain what kind of relations connected Vivaldi to the theatre in the 1720/21 season, it is well known that he regularly worked not only as a composer but also as an impresario at Venetian opera houses in the previous decade. He used to be the impresario at Sant’Angelo together with his father, between 1713 and 1715. Very likely he was involved into the run of this particular season of 1720/21, managing his own operas financially as well as artistically, just as he did in 1716/17 and at S. Moisè in 1716 and 1717/18 as musical director.⁸⁶ In the case of La verità, therefore, Vivaldi might have functioned as kind of a producer, his duties including choosing the libretto on the one hand, hiring the cast and coordinating the succession of the performances on the other, meaning that he controlled and composed all the meanwhile inserted numbers, refreshing arias according to the singers’ wishes and revisions to gain the audience’s higher interest and pleasure.⁸⁷ According to the avvisi, the premiere was successful:

The same Saturday evening went staged for the first time at the S. Angelo theatre the opera entitled La verità in cimento, which has been succeeded with universal applause.⁸⁸

The summary of the plot is as follows: Sultan Mamud switched the sons of his wife Rustena and of his favourite concubine Damira, born on the same day. As a consequence, Damira’s son Melindo is to be his successor to the throne. In the midst of the preparations for Melindo’s marriage with princess Rosane (played by Strada), Mamud repents and reveals that the actual heir is Zelim, Rustena’s son. Zelim is in love with Rosane, who, therefore, has to decide between her emotions and ambitions of becoming queen.

Because operas, especially Venetian ones, were staged at short notice (generally within one or two months including the compositional process), the first rehearsals were frequently held at the composer’s house. Vivaldi, who until 1722 lived in a house next to Sant’Angelo, seems to have held auditions and coached singers directly at home.⁸⁹ In light of these circumstances it is easy to imagine how the voice of the young Strada could serve as a guideline for him to accommodate ←34 | 35→his compositional methods to a yet unknown dimension of vocal art, that of a high female soprano, as well as its dramatic context. There must have been a mutual, back-and-forth exchange of inspiration, for nothing could better build up, enlarge and deepen Strada’s vocal, musical and dramatic consciousness, teaching her the appropriate and well balanced use of her skills as tools of expression, than a composer with personal insight. There was enough working time available to make progress together, during which they could become acquainted with each other’s musical habits, reactions and way of thinking.

The creation of Rosane’s role reflects not only on Strada’s unusually high tessitura but her great stamina, too. Though she was a debutant, at least in Venice, and therefore she must have had the rank of the seconda or terza donna, Strada sang no less than five arias ‒ while the other soprano, Chiara Orlandi as Rustena had four, and the contralto Merighi as Damira three. The musico-dramatic versatility and ambiguity of Rosane’s almost cynical character might be an indicator of vocal complexity. Assuming that Strada executed her part with an excellent vocal quality ‒ by right of the fact that her vocal performance never received a negative critique in her entire career (moreover, its brilliancy always came in for praise) ‒ one can take certain marks of the composition as hinting at attributes of a fresh sound and a naturally well-set chiaroscuro technique: a bright and silvery vocal production highlighted by panther-like vocal agility, and fierce passion enabled to be loosed by precise intonation.

Even Strada’s recitatives were set remarkably high, resting many times on eʺ (Ex. 1.1) ‒ especially striking when considering that the contemporary Venetian tuning for opera performances was higher than elsewhere, most probably a′=440 Hz.⁹⁰

Example 1.1 Vivaldi: La verità in cimento – excerpt from the recitative of Act I scene 3, bars 5–8, vocal part

←35 | 36→

Strada’s first aria of the version of the premiere, ‘Solo quella guancia bella’ (I/3; A major, Allegro, C) refers to a high and vented voice, the freedom of which lies in a rather wide range. Vivaldi’s stirring and shamelessly bold way of composing does not show any limitation in the use of sixth- and octave leaps, hitting aʺ through them regularly – eleven times, to be exact – including da capo (Ex. 1.2). This also shows that her range went even beyond this, and most probably she displayed it at the cadenzas or via ornaments of the recurring section. The ease of her production seems evident in the placement of accents in the text, which can be approached by leap from above or by step from below (see ‘pietà’ in bars 17–18).

Example 1.2 Sections A and B1 of ‘Solo quella guancia bella’, bars 13‒34, vocal part

The rushed interpretation (which the aria requires), the rapidity of fifth-, sixth-, and octave leaps combined with coloratura patterns ‒ besides the pronunciation of the text ‒ makes it clear that Strada’s strongest vocal attributes in her youth were agility, flexibility, and high notes executed with ease and securely with a precise intonation. It is likely that these abilities showed themselves with such an elemental obviousness at the beginning of her training that the logical and only right choice of her master must have been to prepare her to be a high lyric coloratura soprano. In this way, Strada’s singing drew the attention of Vivaldi, who had not composed for a specifically high female soprano before. It must have posed a new challenge for him as he began to develop his compositional technique for this type of voice. Strada inspired all composers with whom she collaborated, becoming ab initio an artist generating creativity in others.⁹¹ Although the aria exhibits a parlante quality, the leaps and especially coloraturas towards the end of the A section and during the whole B part go beyond this: the ←36 | 37→horse-like flouncing-bouncing melody and its playful upbeat rhythm reveal the youth of the performer and the unsteady character of Rosane at the same time. The princess is fond of Melindo whom she thinks to be the legitimate heir of Sultan Mamud’s kingdom, and in this sense her infatuation expressed in words and music meshes perfectly. On the other hand, the vocal part can be considered way too wriggling at a fast tempo to make the exclusiveness of her solid love credible.

The counterpart of this first aria is ‘Tu sei sol dell’alma mia’ (II/8), a unison movement with the violins and senza basso in the manner of the Neapolitan galant style. Terzine prepare (bars 9–10 and 23–24) the zigzagging leaps (bars 11–12 and 25–26), which usually end in ascending volatine semplici (bars 16–17 with upbeat and 27–28). Additionally, the A2 section introduces tritone leaps interlinked with each other chromatically (bars 30–31; Ex. 1.3). This aria was an addition on Strada’s behalf and an upgrade of her rank of terza donna as its text does not appear in the printed libretto. The music is in stark contrast with the verse, indicating the uncertainty of Rosane’s fidelity right after both Melindo and she learn that Zelim is actually the royal heir, not her fiancé.

Example 1.3 Section A of ‘Tu sei sol dell’alma mia’, bars 9‒35, vocal part

There is a substitution aria for ‘Solo quella’, ‘Con più diletto’ (G major, Allegro, 2/4), which must have been written in a rush between two performing nights. It seems to be supported by the fact that, though it occupies two violin parts in imitative concerto style, it lacks real melodic invention and applies the most common coloratura patterns mechanically.⁹² However, it did no harm to its real goal, that is, to offer Strada the chance to display more virtuosity (Ex. 1.4). If ‘To sei sol’ was a post-premiere addition, then, given its vocal technical similarity to ←37 | 38→‘Solo quella’, it could have triggered its substitution for ‘Con più diletto’. Though the tessitura of the latter is a third lower than that of ‘Solo quella’, great freedom had been provided for Strada to introduce any kind of coloratura passages, volatine, and embellishments in the da capo as she pleased. She could do that harmonically quite independently, due to the pause for the violins and violas in bars 27‒33 and 58‒63, and also to the silence of the basses in bars 35‒45 and 65‒72. In addition, in the middle section, which has the simple delicacy of modulation to ←38 | 39→the relative minor ‒ a fine act of colouring an aria written in a major key, praised by De Brosses ‒ she could also show her abillities in a messa di voce.⁹³

Example 1.4 Section A of ‘Con più diletto’, bars 19‒84, vocal and bass parts

De Brosses stated that minor-key arias were very rare in Venice. In this light it is very intriguing that the part of Rosane includes two such arias: ‘Amato ben sei la mia speranza’ (I/12; C minor, Andante, 2/4) and ‘Con cento, e cento baci’ (III/7; C minor, Allegro, C). ‘Amato ben’ (Ex. 1.5), although it was first used in Vivaldi’s La Candace (RV 704, performed at the carnival season in Mantua the same year) as ‘Ingannno tu sei la mia speranza’, but not yet heard in Venice; it is in fact the second movement of the violin concerto Il sospetto (‘Suspicion’, RV 199).⁹⁴ The concerto, also dated 1720, is the first of a group of three pieces; the other two are L’inquietudine (‘Anxiety’, RV 234) and Il riposo (‘Rest’, RV 270).⁹⁵ The complete and well-balanced melodic structure of Il sospetto’s slow movement makes it more probable that the instrumental version is actually the original, which has than been converted into a da capo aria form with a two-part A section (A1+A2), divided by orchestral ritornelli.

Example 1.5 Section A1 of ‘Amato ben’, bars 22‒39, vocal part

The simple melody and the mezzo carattere style of the text setting in ‘Amato ben’ conceal the high tessitura of the aria. The gʺ-s have to be reached by the singer through fifths, and the a↑ʺ-s through sixth leaps, requiring portamenti, and ←39 | 40→on the top of that the sound is meant to be rather soft – indicated by the meaning of the text, unaccented syllables as well as the character of the aria: ‘my dear beloved, you are my hope’. In Andante, the legato has to be flexibly strong and constant but never hard nor harsh or sharp, which requires a high-level breath control as well as flexible bodily support.

In ‘Con cento, e cento baci’ (Ex. 1.6), the vocal technique just discussed is turned upside down, as it is built up to emphasise top notes, mainly gʺ – placed on main beats and accented syllables – by hitting them several times. Jumping up from an octave or a fifth below meant that the head tones were reached from notes falling in the territory of the chest register.

Example 1.6 Section A1 of ‘Con cento, e cento baci’, bars 7‒24, vocal part

Octave leaps regularly occur in Rosane’s part. ‘Addio caro, tu ben sai’ (II/2; B↑ major, Allegro, C) contains two such occasions in the A section by hitting gʺ and aʺ in succession (b. 26 and 27). Further accented gʺ notes are reached by sixth leaps (Ex. 1.7). In one instance, the melody rides as high as b↑ʺ. A large number of such passages can be found in Strada’s repertoire, making it possible to conclude that her registers were perfectly blended from her debutante years onwards.⁹⁶ It ←40 | 41→follows that her portamento together with the cantar di sbalzo technique must have been flawless, too.⁹⁷

Example 1.7 ‘Addio caro, tu ben sai’, bars 26‒34, vocal part

Following the performance series of La verità, Strada immediately had to begin preparations for the next production, Filippo, re di Macedonia (premiered at Sant’Angelo on 27 December 1720). The music is lost, sadly, but the third act is attributed to Vivaldi, and the first two to Giuseppe Boniventi. One aria by Vivaldi sung by Strada seems to have survived. The text proved helpful for the aria’s identification, as it is almost entirely the same as one of the verses of Domenico Lalli’s libretto.⁹⁸ ‘Scherza di fronda in fronda’ (RV 663), a cantata of Vivaldi’s authorship, is preserved in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden (MUS. 1-J-7,3) as a single manuscript copy by Johann Gottfried Grundig, the Hofkapelle’s copyist.⁹⁹ Furthermore, an operatic version of the same music (Ex. 1.8) has been found by Francesco Degrada in a large aria collection in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris (F-Pn Vm7 7694, ff.221r–223r) with the superscription ‘Aria del Signor Orlandini’. Degrada, who discovered the similarity of the aria’s text in Filippo, ←41 | 42→assumes that ‘Scherza di fronda in fronda’ is Vivaldi’s composition, also on the grounds of musical analogies. Although the related style of Vivaldi and Orlandini is rather confusing, the attribution to Orlandini appears to be unsafe in any case, because sixteen arias under his name in the collection are of disputed authorship; of these, at least six are by Leonardo Vinci, Domenico Sarro, Gasparini, and Francesco Mancini, and from operas performed throughout Italy in the 1720s.¹⁰⁰

The cantata is in E↑ major, and its vocal part is slightly simpler than the Parisian operatic version in F major. According to Michael Talbot, the aria with an orchestral accompaniment (two violins and bass) from Filippo was converted to a continuo aria. In the autograph manuscript of Vivaldi’s chamber concerto RV 103, on the verso of its last folio, a basso continuo sketch for this movement can be found in B↑ major. The complication caused by the key can be resolved by the assumption that this reshaping of the bass served as an exercise for a student of the composer.¹⁰¹ What Strada sang was most likely the F major version (in the Parisian manuscript; III/3, Ex. 1.8). With her later repertoire in mind, this aria assumes a special importance among the works she performed in her early years, foreshadowing some essential features of her mature vocal profile: this galant number is abundant in semiquaver triplets and demisemiquaver rhythms, which require fine technical work, not to mention octave leaps, which are also prominent.

Example 1.8 Section A2 of ‘Scherza di fronda in fronda’ (operatic version), bars 16–29, vocal part

Orlandini’s Antigona, a setting of Benedetto Pasqualigo’s libretto with which he obtained his first critical success in Venice, was premiered in the carnival ←42 | 43→of 1718 at Teatro San Cassiano, with Diana Vico in the title role. Three years later Strada sang Giocasta in this opera, together with Merighi as Antigona. At S. Cassiano, Giocasta’s character was embodied by Antonia Cavazzi, a contralto. Likewise, it was sung by Teresa Peruzzi detta La Denzia, also a contralto, in 1724 at the same theatre. The Sant’Angelo revival of 1721 could be connected to Orlandini’s involvement in that season. Although no score of the 1721 version survives, all of Giocasta’s aria texts are congruent with those of the 1718 production (GB-Lbl Add. 16066; US-SFsc *M2.5 v. 66),¹⁰² pointing to the possibility that the same arias were transposed upwards or maybe altered but without substitution. This seems all the more likely for at Sant’Angelo there were only given concert performances, presumably serving as a rushed substitution for the poorly received Filippo.

Strada’s last opera in Venice was Il pastor fido from Carlo Luigi Pietragrua, premiered at Sant’Angelo on 11 February 1721.¹⁰³ That was a very busy carnival season for her as she appeared in no less than three productions during those few weeks. The avvisi define Il pastor fido as tragicomedia pastorale and claim that it was successful.¹⁰⁴ Strada embodied Dorinda as seconda donna, but she was the first soprano, since the prima donna was Merighi. Pietragrua likewise displays her high tessitura and agility. The aria ‘Fuggi pur’ (II/2; G major, 3/8; Ex. 1.9) applies dance-like triple metre containing not only coloraturas but also a comparatively long sustained note, probably inspired by Strada’s superb messa di ←43 | 44→voce. ‘Dal tuo stral’ (IV/3; Ex. 1.10) is a dance movement, too: a gigue. Its triplet-rhythms seem to have suited her throat very well, and it could have provided an easy motion for her voice, so that she could naturally execute accented aʺ tones several times.

Example 1.9 Pietragrua: Il pastor fido – ‘Fuggi pur’, bars 28–66, vocal part

Example 1.10 ‘Dal tuo stral’, bars 70–84, vocal part