The “constant theatre” of Orontea

CF Composed by Cesti for the court of Innsbruck, Orontea (1656) soon became one of the first real successes in the history of opera, thanks to the many repeat performances following the premier. Four centuries later, what seem to be the reasons for its success today?
GA I believe the quality of Cesti's music as well as the plausibility of the story and the characters' traits played a role in the piece's major success.

CF Indeed, the characters, who are not gods or mythological heroes, appear very human, with their feelings and ambitions, as well as their fragility.
GA Yes, they are very real characters. The audience is given the opportunity to identify with them in a direct way, explicitly. At the beginning of the play, the protagonist, Queen Orontea, an unscrupulous woman of power who claims her freedom and who is not interested in love, is rebuked by her tutor and adviser, the philosopher Creon, because state interest requires her to have a husband and heirs for succession. By telling the queen “politica reale / deve insegnarti a superare te stessa” (realpolitik / must teach you to outdo yourself” (in the second scene of Act I), Creon sums up in a very modern way the meaning of a monarchical Realpolitik. Then, Orontea falls in love at first sight with Alidorus (who is presented as a painter, with an almost romantic connotation) and everything naturally changes, giving rise to the plot of the opera. All in all, this is a very topical story that unfolds often at a fast pace.

CF What are some other contemporary elements of the opera?
GA The language of the libretto is very colloquial, extremely direct. Although it is 17th-century Italian, it is a language that is distant from, for example, Metastasio's abstract poetry and rather hints at the importance of the acting skills of the opera's performing singers of the time. At that time the boundary between comedy, tragedy and sung opera was perhaps much more blurred than it would be later in the eighteenth century. Another element is the form, which alternates recitatives, ariosos, refrains and ariettas with frequent changes in tempo, articulating a lively and continuously moving dramatic unfolding, projected forward. It is, in short, a far less defined and codified form than that of Metastasian opera or eighteenth-century comic opera. While 17th-century music might have appeared to be the achievement of a formal value to contemporaries, to us it is fascinating for its experimental sense of research, as of something that is in the process of becoming and is still forming beyond its clarity of structure (in addition to opera, this is also the case with the instrumental music of composers such as Dario Castello and Biagio Marini).

CF To be performed today, a mid-17th-century work of the Venetian model requires substantial editing. Most of the music is written for voice and basso continuo, to which at most two violin parts are added.
GA The Teatro alla Scala commissioned a new edition for the occasion from Alberto Stevanin, who analysed and compared four complete scores and two collections of arias (preserved in various libraries in Rome, Parma, Cambridge and Naples). No autograph score of the opera has survived, unfortunately, and furthermore none of the examples seems to be directly related to that of the first performance. The edition also addresses and resolves questions about the discrepancy of registers in the various versions: the part of Alidoro here is intended for an alto, while Gelone for a bass.

CF What interpretative problems does a score such as Orontea pose today?
GA Since the instrumental component consists mainly of refrains, the lion's share of the work is the basso continuo, which will be very substantial, varied and timbrally colourful.

CF So what instruments will be used to make the basso continuo?
GA The ensemble will include lutes, theorbos, two harpsichords, harp, dulcian, viol, cello, and lirone. Precisely because of its importance, the basso continuo must be very concerted. The freedom that this music leaves in the treatment of instrumentation in each performance is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of concertation. The real challenge of doing such an opera in a great theatre like La Scala is precisely to give an identity of feelings and situations related to the instrumentation, which is absolutely free and open.

CF So the basso continuo concertation will have direct implications with respect to the dramaturgy of the opera...
GA Of course, it is a work in progress. Some coordinates are set in advance, but then it will be a matter of amplifying what the scene proposes, interacting with the director. The most interesting work will come when the scene rehearsals begin. The important thing is to approach it with a light (which does not mean superficial) hand, because in fact what pervades this music is lightness, sprezzatura.

CF Beyond the problems associated with the realization of the basso continuo, are there other specific aspects on which the interpretive work will focus?
GA One aspect is rhythmic, related to prosody. Building long rhythmic musical arcs, and at the same time, working on the clarity of the individual element is a guideline of mine in the general interpretation, which I will try to pursue even more here. Then there is the aspect of vocal technique. What vocal technique should be employed, one wonders? We will be in a large theatre, there will be experienced singers in this repertoire, but they must also have an adequate volume of sound. There is the need to combine stylistic necessity, ornamentation (from this point of view, the music of the mid-17th century is in a transitional phase, requiring reflection, between the diminution of the late 16th and early 17th centuries and the ornamental practice of the more mature Baroque) and the demands imposed by the environment in which one sings. And there are the character pieces, humorous with the part of Gelone, who is always drunk, which require close work with the director; sometimes it seems that one almost doesn't have to sing in the proper sense but in a way that encroaches on acting. Performing Orontea is much more of an adventure for me than it would be to direct an 18th-century or even an early 17th-century opera (in the past I have directed, for example, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and Emilio de' Cavalieri's La rappresentazione di anima et di corpo). The score of Orontea is undoubtedly rich, but here we are working on a rather thin thread, because almost everything focuses on the vocal line accompanied by the basso continuo.

CF It is therefore necessary to work on the essentials....
GA Interpreting such an opera is a gamble in a way. But it is a piece that really fascinates me because it gets down to the bones of dramatic expression, that is, the words, without there being excessive concessions to pure vocal virtuosity as happens in 18th-century arias when the moment of performance takes over. Instead, this is, so to speak, “constant theatre.” And I like that a lot. The goal is to be able to capture the attention of an audience of 2,000 people with the importance of the single verse and the single word.

CF In addition to being a composer, Cesti was an outstanding singer. What unique features do you detect in his vocal writing?
GA What is noticeable is the urgency to rhythmically and melodically render the meaning of the text unfolding through flexible and diverse forms as best as possible. Also noticeable in the writing is the aspect of sprezzatura, which is so elusive, if you will, but also so important; in Italian music it significantly struck foreign enthusiasts. It is an expression of the utmost elegance, spontaneity and ease, so natural as to appear extemporaneous but actually the result of a well-considered study. Trying to restore the spirit of the sprezzatura of a score like this, reduced to the bone, in music that sounds natural, immediate and fun will be crucial for me.

 

Cesare Fertonani
Translation by Alexa Ahern