“Stabat Mater dolorosa” …. it must be one of the greatest icons of Christian art. From scenes where she is fainting in Flemish art to mourning groups with her friends in the great Italian paintings, and on to one of the most famous images of all, when the crucifixion is actually over, and the Virgin is nursing her son on her lap in Michelangelo’s Pietà.
This quite long Latin text dates from the 18th century in Italy and it was in Naples in the 18th century that the cult of Mary was most highly developed, with religious Brotherhoods (with lay members) devoted to her, and one in particular, The Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows, commissioned both the settings we heard in this concert – an original and successful idea for a programme.
Both Scarlatti and Pergolesi set exactly the same text. Alessandro Scarlatti is perhaps best known as Domenico’s Dad – his eldest son, a vituoso harpsichordist and composer, who wrote 600 sonatas. If they are all as ravishing as the relatively few we get to hear he did a splendid job. And when Handel was young, in Italy, he beat Domenico in a contest on the harpsichord.
But back to Alessandro. Son of a singer, a tenor, he became Maestro di Cappella to the Viceroy of Naples. This caused some mutterings because he came from a performing family – and his opera-singer sisters caused some scandals. One of them was carrying on with the Viceroy’s staff. Alessandro, undaunted, went on to produce a very long string of operas and to become the major figure in Neapolitan opera. His singer daughters were not allowed to perform in opera – no government-sacking scandals for them – but they did appear in the more respectable setting of concerts and private musical events. Alessandro also spent successful time in Rome, but Naples was not too pleased at his many absences from his church job. It was ever thus!
The Stabat Mater was written late in his life. We had string and continuo – and that was exactly what we had – two violins, cello and chamber organ. It was all we needed. Having heard the two pieces, I felt perhaps the instrumental players slightly got the best of it in this setting. There was such a variety of speeds and styles, changing all the time, for them to play. In their simple black dresses, Rachel Ambrose Evans and Katherine Nicholson set the mood. They are both very experienced in this style. The blend of a soprano and a mezzo was very attractive – so often music of this time is two sopranos, and you cannot have such a contrast. Their ornamentation was particularly skilled – and absolutely together – you could not have put a pinhead between the voices. The structure tended to be solo-duet-solo-duet verse by verse which meant the ladies had to keep gracefully leaping up and down!
Turning to Pergolesi, we had a slightly different approach. But first a little about him. Sadly it is very little for he was dead at the age of 26 – even younger than Mozart or Schubert. I have not managed to discover why *, but the high mortality from illness at this time could easily explain it. When his opera “La Serva Padrona” which was comic, was performed in Paris, it sparked a war between people who enjoyed the new Italian comic genre, and those who loved the serious French opera of Lully, Rameau and so on. Me, I’d go for both!
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater literally replaced Scarlatti’s which was now considered old fashioned. We now added a viola to our little band, with delightful effect. Scarlatti’s version is a good 45 minutes long (a long sing in one bloc for our ladies) and I think Pergolesi’s benefitted by being a bit tighter. He merged various chunks of the text into a longer duet or aria, which carried the emotion forward. It rather worked out that, in the Scarlatti, Rachel got more opportunities but the Pergolesi gave Kathy a real chance to show what she could do.
Perhaps I’m in a minority, but in the Scarlatti I began eventually to feel it could be time to hear a male voice, which of course there isn’t, but in the Pergolesi I had no such feelings at all.
I hope we will have more programmes of this type. And at the end – My Treat – my favourite duet in all opera. The ladies sang Nero and Poppea’s last love duet from Monteverdi’s “L’incoronazione di Poppea”. Gorgeous! The only fly in the ointment, which I was reminded of when the opera was recently presented by RAM Opera (and very well too), is it seems Monteverdi didn’t write it! It was tacked on. All I can say is thanks to A.N. Other!
* I have since been helpfully informed that Pergolesi died of TB.