Читать книгу Anna Maria Strada, Prima Donna of G. F. Handel - Judit Zsovár - Страница 22

Strada’s first opera in Naples (Table 2.1) was Porpora’s Semiramide, regina dell’Assiria. The opera is lost, but one aria written for and sung by her, ‘Se d’aquilon’ (I/5; G major, Allegro, C), survived: (1) Porpora reused it for his Siface (Viriate, I/2), performed in Milan and at S. Giovanni Grisostomo Venice simultaneously during the carnival season of 1726, from 26 December 1725 onwards; and (2) it was sung again by Strada in London, in one of Handel’s Italian pasticci, Ormisda in 1730. It is very informative that whereas in Milan, ‘Se d’Aquilon’ was ←59 | 60→performed at the Lombard pitch (i.e. a whole tone higher) by Marianna Lorenzani Conti, in Venice it was omitted by Marianna Benti-Bulgarelli (as Viriate) and replaced with the aria ‘Non lascia il ben che brama’. Benti evidently was not a virtuoso singer and her range went only up to aʺ. While ‘Se d’Aquilon’ has a very high tessitura and requires gʺ and aʺ too frequently; moreover, these notes are placed on accented beats, and therefore they call for a powerful vocal production. As far as Lorenzani is concerned, Jean-Benjamin de la Borde described her as an ‘excellente et célèbre musicienne’ (‘excellent and celebrated musician’), while he only noted Benti’s beauty and fine acting skills.

The case of ‘Se d’Aquilon’ serves to classify Strada’s vocal calibre (Ex. 2.1). Marked with the characteristics of a castrato aria, it musters arpeggiation, coloratura patterns, descending volatine semplici, syncopation, accented gʺ (thirty-one times) and aʺ (six times) notes, trills, repeated notes (note ribattute), and violin idioms (in the B section) – all of this above a continuous drumming bass accompaniment. The aria displays an increasing limitlessness and freedom of the vocal toolbox.

Example 2.1 Porpora: Semiramide, regina dell’Assiria – vocal part of ‘Se d’Aquilon’

←60 | 61→

In Semiramide, regina dell’Assiria the aria belongs to Zomira, the Bactrian Princess who is held captive in Babylon with her beloved Idaspe.¹⁴⁹ The text of the recitative introducing the aria in Act I, scene 5 makes clear how deeply she loves Idaspe, and that his loss would ruin her forever: ‘Idaspe, Idaspe, you alone are the sweet support to my afflicted soul; you, dear subject of all my thoughts. Being far from you, I am deprived and diminished, descending from the golden throne. Without my beloved Idaspe I do not want to live’.¹⁵⁰ After such words one would expect everything but the type of aria described above: perhaps a lamenting, pathetic number in a minor key and with an afflicting melody would be appropriate. Instead, a simile aria comes with strong images of disaster:

If Aquilo in his rage truncates / the beloved plant, / the dear grapevine / languidly falls to the soil. // Of the darling trunk deprived, / has nobody to sustain her, / whom the river does not revive, / neither nourishes the sun.¹⁵¹

This anomalous situation deeply shades any consideration of Zomira’s character, whom the audience might expect to represent the typically helpless, victimised, and fragile young second woman of the opera. ‘Se d’Aquilon’, being her very first aria, turns it all upside down and gives the strongest impression of power, one generated by a mixture of bravery and fright: she fights against hopelessness, which might reign if she lost the one who means everything to her.

For Strada, who must have been very receptive to adopting not only certain elements but the general vocal production of the castrato singing method, these years must have meant a vital period of learning, having the young Farinelli as her stage partner. Naomi Adele André has suggested the same when discussing Cuzzoni and Faustina’s long-term collaboration with Senesino as an example of a phenomenon of early Romantic Italian opera as well:

In addition to formal teaching situations, the castrati’s presence in opera gave other singers an opportunity to “learn by example” […] As with Cuzzoni and Bordoni, several of the female singers who were the first interpreters of primo ottocento opera also had the benefit of singing onstage with, and learning formally or informally from their ←61 | 62→castrati colleagues. […] Frequently these women sang the prima donna characters that were romantically paired with the heroic roles assigned to the castrati in the plot. This meant that these women had to blend their voices with the castrati’s, coordinate complementing embellishments, and decide where they both would breathe for the numbers where they sang together.¹⁵²

Strada must have noticed the obvious difference in quality when comparing Carlo Broschi to the former castrati she had encountered. Most probably it was also very helpful that they were of a similar age (Farinelli was nineteen in 1724, Strada two years his elder) and that both were in their early careers ‒ already with some reputation behind them, but still in the process of maturing. Moreover, this was the very time when Farinelli ‒ after Faustina emerged as a star with the new manner of bravura singing by 1720 ‒ with the help of his master, Porpora, acquired a greater measure of virtuosity in the execution of passaggi, wide leaps and a higher level of rhythmic variety, so as to compete with her.¹⁵³ Strada ostensibly had enough self-assurance to work with him in a relaxed atmosphere, and, doing so, could get as close as professionally possible to observe and learn from this extraordinary living example of rich and bright vocal production, perfect messa di voce, incredible breath control, as well as use of chest and support:¹⁵⁴

The perfect art of holding the breath, and retaking it with such cleanness, so as to not allow anyone to know when he was breathing, started and ended with him. The perfect intonation, the unfolding, the extending and expanding of the voice, his portamento, the perfect union of registers, the sparkling agility, and perfect trill were all in him in the same degree of perfection.¹⁵⁵

Four times they played lovers: in Semiramide as Zomira and Nino (singing the duet ‘Mio bel sole, Idolo mio’ III/10), in Eraclea as Flavia and Damiro, in Zenobia as Aspasia and Decio, and as Ermione and Oreste in Astianatte. As sopranos, they had the same high tessitura in duets. Only when singing at the same time was Farinelli’s part written a third lower. Even then, the vocal lines crossed each other several times, as is the case in ‘Spera sì, ma solo amore’ (Zenobia in Palmira III/8; B↑ major, Larghetto, 6/8; Ex. 2.2) – the only duet between Strada and Farinelli that survives, mainly because the castrato was always avoiding singing non-solo vocal numbers.¹⁵⁶

←62 | 63→

In the question of acting, however, Strada might have been much more accomplished and natural than Farinelli, who, though having an advantageous appearance, lacked passion on the one hand and refrained from using any gesture for the expression on the other. According to Quantz and Charles Burney, he simply stood motionless like a statue.¹⁵⁷ Strada, at the same time, was reported in London to have a ‘good manner’, which might refer to an effective way of acting, but her small figure was out of the ordinary. This latter comment only poised a problem to British audiences, not Italian ones.

Example 2.2 Leo: Zenobia in Palmira – Excerpt from the duet ‘Spera sì, ma solo’, bars 22–35, vocal parts

In the next production, Leonardo Vinci’s Eraclea,¹⁵⁸ Strada played the flirtatious Flavia, one of Eraclea’s daughters, who desires love only for pleasure. Nevertheless, her relationship with the irresponsible Demetrio (Farinelli) brings her only pain and torments of jealousy.¹⁵⁹ She had been entrusted with galant arias in Andante. ‘È un amor che alletta poco’ (I/6; C major, C, Andante) features a high tessitura, mostly between c″ and a″. The same can be said about her another first-act aria, ‘Il ruscelletto amante dell’erbe’ (I/15; G major, C). Although it is more chiselled rhythmically, it has octave jumps and even more accented high notes than the former aria. Markstrom noted the sweet and delicate effect the ←63 | 64→orchestration creates with the recorder and pizzicato strings.¹⁶⁰ ‘Non sa che sia’ (II/3) is a gavotte with syncopation, rush coloraturas culminating in accented a″ notes, and trills. The latter are frequent in her next two arias as well, those of ‘La filomena che piange’ (II/11; A major, C, Poco andante) and ‘Da quell’ora che restai’ (III/4; G minor, C, Tempo giusto – Largo; Ex. 2.3). This confirms Charles Burney’s later remark about Strada’s brilliant shakes in London. The latter, an aria d’agilità, uses violins with sordine to accompany the syncopated vocal line with its repeated notes and trills at the word catene (chains), jumps of a sixth, and general semiquaver coloratura flourishes. On the whole, Reinhard Strohm’s observation about Eraclea as a mezzo carattere dance opera is definitely valid for Strada’s role, while the elevated level of virtuosity in these types of arias proves Vinci’s compositional inventiveness and fluidity.¹⁶¹

After Eraclea, there was a pasticcio set by Vinci and Leonardo Leo, namely Turno Aricino, complemented with arias of Giovanni Porta, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Lotti, Porpora, Giovanni Maria Capelli, and Vivaldi, among others. The Avvisi di Napoli stated that ‘the performers have been permitted to place in this opera diverse arias to their satisfaction’.¹⁶² Strada, in the role of Livia, had five arias, three of which survive. ‘Non so dirlo, e un non so che’ (I/5) as well as ‘La speme lusinghiera’ (II/6) by Leo,¹⁶³ and ‘Se fide quanto belle’ ←64 | 65→(III/5) by Vivaldi.¹⁶⁴ The other two are: ‘Se piaci a questo cor’ (I/11) by Vinci and ‘Spiego il volo’ (III/9) by Porta.¹⁶⁵ ‘Non so dirlo, e un non so che’ (I/5; 2/4, B↑ major) borrows its text from Antonio Salvi’s Arsace, which was given at S. G. Grisostomo in Venice in 1718 in Michelangelo Gasparini’s setting (aria of Rosmiri, I/3).¹⁶⁶ ‘La speme lusinghiera’ (II/6; 3/8, C major; Ex. 2.4) is probably Leo’s new setting of Silvio Stampiglia’s verses from Turno Aricino.¹⁶⁷ Both of Leo’s contributions are arie di mezzo carattere of Neapolitan style, with syncopation, chromatics, sixth-, seventh-, and octave jumps, and of a high tessitura, reaching a″ notes placed on rhythmic accents. ‘Se fide quanto belle’ (III/5; Vivace, F major, 2/4) is the same type of dynamic parlante aria for high soprano, several of which Strada sang in Vivaldi’s La verità in cimento in 1720 (e.g. ‘Solo quella guancia bella’, ‘Addio caro – Tu ben sai’, and ‘Con cento, e cento baci’).

Example 2.3 Vinci: Eraclea – ‘Da quell’ora che restai’, bars 10–43, vocal part

Example 2.4 Leo/Vinci: Turno Aricino – ‘La speme lusinghiera’, upbeat to b. 11 to b. 25, vocal part

Further opportunities came to Strada for vocal development with the opening event of 1725: Domenico Sarro’s Tito Sempronio Gracco. By good fortune, Quantz witnessed one of the performances and committed a short description to paper:

On January 13 I therefore travelled from Rome to Naples, where I immediately heard an opera composed by Sarri, almost in the style of Vinci. Farinelli, who was then approaching his famous perfection, Strada, who later became more famous in England, and Tesi, were brilliant in this opera. The others were only fair.¹⁶⁸

←65 | 66→

The musical material of Erminia’s role in Tito Sempronio Gracco indicates the appearance of new features in Strada’s singing. Her entrance aria, ‘Se veglia, se dorme lʼamante suo core’ (I/2; D minor, 3/4; Ex. 2.5), is an energetic piece with a singular melody in Andante. The violins play colla parte, while the rest of the orchestra moves in quaver notes of drumming bass. The D minor aria alternates rashly between modal and tonal colourations, twisting chromatically through elaborated rhythmic patterns with demisemiquaver notes on one hand, and large syncopated legato lines combined with wider leaps on the other. Specifically, these large legato phrases signify a novelty in Strada’s vocal style, showing a higher technical level and stronger vocal production that cannot be found in her earlier repertoire. The ambivalent meaning of the text predicts the conclusion of the plot: Erminia declares her true love to Mario, but in the B section the seeds of ambiguity are sown, namely the contrast of dreaming and being awake.¹⁶⁹ The ←66 | 67→initial melody, which sounds natural on violins, is hardly comfortable for a human voice. Although well built up, ascending gradually over bars 12‒15, the melody is technically complicated: not only because of repeated up-and-down movements, sixth-leaps, dotted rhythms, and coloraturas, which are placed vocally as best possible, but also because the structure, which reaching a b↑ʺ and descending immediately a ninth to conclude (at bars 14‒15), needs conscious planning of support and breath control. The rest of the aria (Ex. 2.6) continues to suggest Strada’s ease in the higher register.

Example 2.5 Sarro: Tito Sempronio Gracco – Introductory ritornello to ‘Se veglia, se dorme’, bars 1–15

Fascinating long coloraturas occur two times at the words ‘languisce d’amore sospira per te’ in both parts of the A section, as a motivic answer to the second half of the opening ritornello. For the first time (upbeat to b. 18 to b. 25), heavily chromatic second-chains appear, while for the second time (upbeat to b. 42 to b. 47) this process is disturbed by fourth- and seventh leaps, adding a vocally unexpected jump up to b↑ʺ again. The latter happens on the rhythmically syncopated word ‘sospiraʼ (‘sigh’).

Giving an answer of equal rank to Rosanno’s (Farinelli) aria dedicated to terzine, ‘Ninfa amante’ (I/9, B↑ major, 3/8, Andante), the vocal line of Strada’s ←67 | 68→‘Vorrei morire’ in scene 10 (G major, C) is centred on descending and ascending violin idioms in Vivace assai (Ex. 2.7).

Example 2.6 Section A of ‘Se veglia, se dorme’, bars 12–49, vocal part

Example 2.7 ‘Vorrei morire’, bars 3–9, vocal part

An interesting case emerges with ‘Straniera Donzella’ (II/5; E major, 2/4, Allegro; Ex. 2.8) ‒ a simile aria which reveals that Erminia does not return to her former lover but keeps the new one. From this, a second version can be found at the end of the second act in the copyist’s manuscript: a substitution of the original aria with the same key (E major) and text, but with a clearly different concept.¹⁷⁰ It must have served as musical refreshment during the succession of performances. Nevertheless, it is one of the rare occasions when Strada had a substitute aria in an original role (see Vivaldi’s ‘Con più diletto’ in Ch. 1). The first version has a light, galant, dance-like character in 2/4 ‒ beaten in 4/8 ‒ which gives an easy and graceful frame to the number. Playful dotted semiquavers, ←68 | 69→octave leaps and syncopation-chains interlaced with chromatics, all help to spice up the simple dance-base of the piece. Its range is quite wide, yet high notes do not explicitly occur. Surprisingly, the melody reaches e′ fourteen times in the A section. The generally lower tessitura of this movement speaks of a fortification of Strada’s chest register, even if this aria was substituted in the course of Tito Sempronio’s run.

Example 2.8 Section A1 of ‘Straniera donzella’ (first version), bars 15–34, vocal part

During these early Neapolitan years, lower notes indeed began to occur with more regularity in her repertoire. In addition, we have to take into account the pitch-difference of the Venetian and Neapolitan tuning: the latter was a whole tone lower.¹⁷¹ In light of the above, evidence suggests that Strada’s vocal range expanded. The substitute version of ‘Straniera donzella’ (E major, C; Ex. 2.9) exhibits to a high tessitura and a bravura character, though it retains something of the original leggiero style and keeps some traces of chromaticism as well. Thus, ←69 | 70→this aria is more grandiose, and its virtuosity is exaggerated by the oboes added to the orchestration.

Example 2.9 ‘Straniera donzella’ (substitute version), bars 8–18, vocal part

Example 2.10 Section A of ‘Saetta si bella’, bars 5–27, vocal part

The rhythmic variety of ‘Saetta si bella’ (II/10; B↑ major, C, Andante; Ex. 2.10) reflects another side of Strada’s kaleidoscopic skill set. The vocal part is a dense combination of syncopated arpeggiations with semiquavers, of dotted patterns with trills and demisemiquaver notes, of appoggiaturas, and of sustained notes for messe di voce. During this Neapolitan era, this kind of chiselled, galant Andante aria, in which the vocal line and verse genuinely fit each other by blurring the differentiation between the principal and ornamental notes of the melody, started to multiply in Strada’s repertoire: demisemiquaver grace notes became an essential part of the vocal line, appoggiaturas and acciaccaturas likewise, in the form of syncopation.¹⁷² This signals a very important process concerning her vocal profile as well as artistic personality. As for brilliance, therefore, Quantz might well have been right.

In fact, the Avvisi di Napoli asserted that the work met ‘universal satisfaction’, although this warm response was due not only to the dazzling vocal virtuosity transmitted by first-class performers. The spectacular elements, the costumes, and scenery ‒ the costly proposition of the impresari ‒ also played a very important role in carrying the show to success:

On Thursday evening took place for the first time the opera entitled Tito Sempronio Gracco at the San Bartolomeo theatre, which succeeded with universal satisfaction due to the music by the celebrated Maestro di Cappella Domenico Sarro; also because of the famous costumes of the performers as well as the up-to-date, fashionable scenery, elaborated with perfection, for which no expense has been spared by our impresari. His Princely Serene Highness was present to listen to it together with all the nobility.¹⁷³

The appreciation of the clothes is not by chance, as it occurs regularly in the avvisi when a theatrical evening comes under discussion. On the other hand, the expression of ‘famous costumes’ ‒ ‘famosi Abiti’ ‒ and mention of the new scenery implies that particular care has been taken with this production; the impresari, Galtieri and Del Pò, surely took this side of the performances seriously, ←70 | 71→considering their background in painting and stage design. It must be noted that the description of the premiere evening of Semiramide regina dell’Assiria, Strada’s debut in Naples, also gave account of the various facets of the whole production:

On Saturday evening the new opera, entitled Semiramide, was performed for the first time at the San Bartolomeo theatre, which succeeded with general satisfaction both for the composition in verse done by a noted man of virtue, and for the music coming from the illustrious Niccolò Porpora, Maestro di Cappella to the Serene Highness of Darmstadt, and above all for the company who performed it, the best one could wish for. To see furthermore the changes of scene all brand new, admirable in every respect, not only for the painting, but also for the architecture, all designed by the celebrated architect, engineer and academician of Milan, Giovanni Battista Oliviero, enriched by several dancers by the choreographer Sebastiano Scio, Maestro di Balli of Serene Elector Palatino. In all these good taste of our impresari was manifested, who did this on their own for the satisfaction of the public. On Sunday evening His Highness the Eminent Viceroy was also present to listen to it.¹⁷⁴

The conception of a performance, the costumes, and scenery influence a singer’s imagination of the drama and of the role he or she creates. Contrary to the lavishness of the costumes, scenery, and stage machinery at the first-rank opera houses in Venice; what we see here is a lack of extraordinary machines and exotic animals on stage, but there are artistically painted, ‘well constructed stage sets’ and fair costumes instead. The focus fell on the planning of the scenery, a kind of directing action in service of the drama, and on the clothes which, through their richness and beauty, can magnify the essential features of a certain character. Reading between the lines, one can surmise that these reports bespeak fine taste.

Similar to the previous productions, the dramatic strength of text and music could show itself within a proper visual environment in the following ←71 | 72→opera of the season 1724‒1725, Zenobia in Palmira by Leonardo Leo.¹⁷⁵ The plot¹⁷⁶ should not be confused with the popular and frequently set libretto of Metastasio’s Zenobia (1738, first performed 1740).¹⁷⁷ The present one does not deal with the wife of Radamisto from the first century AD (which can be read in Annals, Book XII by Tacitus) but concerns Zenobia, the Palmyrian Queen, a different person who lived in the third century BC and was married to Odenato.

The date of the Neapolitan premiere fell on 13 May.¹⁷⁸ Coincidentally, four days earlier L’amore eroico, a dramma per musica, which is based on the same plot, started its run at S. Samuele in Venice.¹⁷⁹ Though the score by Francesco Brusa seems to have been lost, the British impresario Owen Swiney claimed that its musical quality was unacceptably low. A detailed description of its ←72 | 73→compositional shortcomings can be found in Johann Mattheson’s Critica Musica. Nevertheless, Swiney praised the Bolognese contralto Santa Marchesini who played Zenobia.¹⁸⁰