Landi - Il Sant'Alessio "O morte gradita" Philippe Jaroussky. Stefano Landi Sant'Alessio "O morte gradita" Act II, Sc. 7 Libretto: Giulio ROSPIGLIOSI www.librettidopera.it/zpdf/alessio.pdf First …More
Landi - Il Sant'Alessio "O morte gradita" Philippe Jaroussky.
Stefano Landi Sant'Alessio "O morte gradita" Act II, Sc. 7 Libretto: Giulio ROSPIGLIOSI www.librettidopera.it/zpdf/alessio.pdf First performance: 8 March 1631, Rome In this video: Sant'Alessio: Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor. Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie. Director: Benjamin Lazar. Théâtre de Caen, October 18, 2007. While searching for more and more scores as Marc and I usually do, we came across this manuscript fragment (a copy, not an autograph) from Landi's Il Sant' Alessio. Of course the temptation was too great to resist. So I decided to work on a video project. I had one problem out of many which almost stopped me from making the video: the score I found didn't have the instrumental parts, but only the vocal part and the continuo. The other problems were: (a) only the first half of the text was shown on the manuscript, and (b) there were some pauses in the score that recording didn't have as well as some notes that were held longer than Philippe Jaroussky sings. Once I found the solution for the main problem by filling the gaps in the score with the images from the DVD, I asked Marc for his opinion on it. And he came up with the idea of writing the score in hand and making it fit the recording. This also allowed us to present the second part of the text on the score. The text and translation was also prepared by Marc. And after that, all I had to do was to use image manipulation to stylize the score captures and design the title slide and to put together all three components: the sound, the images and the score. The end result, I must say, is a bit eerie yet much more beautiful than I imagined it would be. - Eser I made this score in the Baroque style, without trying to reach perfect authenticity. My source was an early 20th-century handwritten copy, where the voice part was written in G clef; I used a first-line C clef instead, which was used for soprano parts in the Baroque period. I adjusted the word-setting to Philippe Jaroussky's singing (namely the melisma on "vita" and "chiave", and also "o Morte" repeated), but of course his ornamentation is not indicated. I also cut two bars that were not performed, as well as the continuo realisation (right hand). - Marc D. Text: O Morte gradita, ti bramo, ti aspetto; dal duolo al diletto tuo calle m'invita, o Morte gradita. Dal carcer umano tu sola fai piano il varco alla vita, o Morte gradita. O Morte soave, de' giusti conforto, tu guidi nel porto d'ogni alma la nave, o Morte soave. Il viver secondo tu n'apri nel mondo, con gelida chiave, o Morte soave. Translation (by Marc D.): O pleasant Death, I want you, I await you; your path invites me (to go) from pain to delight, O pleasant Death. Only you make beautiful the passage from the human prison to life, O pleasant Death. O sweet Death, solace of the righteous, you lead into the harbour the ship of every soul, O sweet Death. You open in this world the (doors of the) second life with a frozen key, O sweet Death.
Stefano Landi Sant'Alessio "O morte gradita" Act II, Sc. 7 Libretto: Giulio ROSPIGLIOSI www.librettidopera.it/zpdf/alessio.pdf First performance: 8 March 1631, Rome In this video: Sant'Alessio: Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor. Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie. Director: Benjamin Lazar. Théâtre de Caen, October 18, 2007. While searching for more and more scores as Marc and I usually do, we came across this manuscript fragment (a copy, not an autograph) from Landi's Il Sant' Alessio. Of course the temptation was too great to resist. So I decided to work on a video project. I had one problem out of many which almost stopped me from making the video: the score I found didn't have the instrumental parts, but only the vocal part and the continuo. The other problems were: (a) only the first half of the text was shown on the manuscript, and (b) there were some pauses in the score that recording didn't have as well as some notes that were held longer than Philippe Jaroussky sings. Once I found the solution for the main problem by filling the gaps in the score with the images from the DVD, I asked Marc for his opinion on it. And he came up with the idea of writing the score in hand and making it fit the recording. This also allowed us to present the second part of the text on the score. The text and translation was also prepared by Marc. And after that, all I had to do was to use image manipulation to stylize the score captures and design the title slide and to put together all three components: the sound, the images and the score. The end result, I must say, is a bit eerie yet much more beautiful than I imagined it would be. - Eser I made this score in the Baroque style, without trying to reach perfect authenticity. My source was an early 20th-century handwritten copy, where the voice part was written in G clef; I used a first-line C clef instead, which was used for soprano parts in the Baroque period. I adjusted the word-setting to Philippe Jaroussky's singing (namely the melisma on "vita" and "chiave", and also "o Morte" repeated), but of course his ornamentation is not indicated. I also cut two bars that were not performed, as well as the continuo realisation (right hand). - Marc D. Text: O Morte gradita, ti bramo, ti aspetto; dal duolo al diletto tuo calle m'invita, o Morte gradita. Dal carcer umano tu sola fai piano il varco alla vita, o Morte gradita. O Morte soave, de' giusti conforto, tu guidi nel porto d'ogni alma la nave, o Morte soave. Il viver secondo tu n'apri nel mondo, con gelida chiave, o Morte soave. Translation (by Marc D.): O pleasant Death, I want you, I await you; your path invites me (to go) from pain to delight, O pleasant Death. Only you make beautiful the passage from the human prison to life, O pleasant Death. O sweet Death, solace of the righteous, you lead into the harbour the ship of every soul, O sweet Death. You open in this world the (doors of the) second life with a frozen key, O sweet Death.