Booklet - Chandos Records

Lamentarium
www.atalante.co.uk
Tears of Artemisia · Helen of Troy
Mary Magdalene · The Blessed Virgin
Luigi Rossi
Marco Marazzoli
Domenico Mazzocchi
Marc’Antonio Pasqualini
ATALANTE
ERIN HEADLEY
www.DestinoClassics.com
Worldwide distribution in association with Nimbus Alliance
‘Extravagant, exotic beauty…’
The Observer
DESTINO
CLASSICS
RELIQUIE DI ROMA I: Lamentarium
1
Passacaglia del Seigneur Louigi (inst)
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale,Vma. 651
Luigi Rossi (1597-1653)
2
Cadute erano al fine * †
(Lament of the aged Helen of Troy)
Rome,Vatican Library, Chigi lat.VI. 81
Marco Marazzoli (1602-1662)
3
Spargete sospiri (inst)
Rome,Vatican Library, Barb. lat. 4219
Luigi Rossi
4
Già celebrato havea la Regina di Caria †
(Lament of Artemisia)
Rome,Vatican Library, Chigi lat.V. 69
Marco Marazzoli
11.31
5
Pender non prima vide sopra vil tronco *
(Tears of Mary Magdalene)
Oxford, Christ Church Library, Mus. 998
Luigi Rossi
19.01
6
Perchè dolce Bambino *
(On the birth of Our Lord)
Rome,Vatican Library, Barb. lat. 4203
Marc’ Antonio Pasqualini (1614-1691) 3.25
7
Piangete occhi, piangete * †
(Let us weep for the passion of Our Lord)
Musiche sacre e morali, Rome 1640
Domenico Mazzocchi (1592-1665)
7.42
8
Peccantum me quotidie (inst)
Oxford, Christ Church Library, Mus. 83
Luigi Rossi
2.40
9
Conclusion of Oratorio per la Settimana Santa * † Luigi Rossi
(Lament of the Blessed Virgin)
Rome,Vatican Library, Barb. lat. 4199
7.01
ToTal playing Time
2.49
ATALANTE
10.27
Photo: Fernanda Fernandez
2.38
Paulina van Laarhoven • Annalisa Pappano • Nora Roll • Erin Headley • Siobhán Armstrong
67.17
2
23
9. oratorio per la Settimana Santa
oratorio for Holy Week
Vergine
Virgin
Votisi pur dei mali
L’urna su le vitali
Ombre de questa spoglia.
Ecco l’ancilla tua pronta a tua voglia:
S’a te piace il mio pianto, occhi piangete;
Se t’aggrada il mio duolo,
È poco un petto solo.
Now let this evil urn be emptied
over the victim’s mortal remains.
Behold your handmaid, ready to do your will:
if my crying pleases you, then weep,
my eyes;
if my pain is acceptable to you,
one breast is not enough.
Dolori, tormenti, crescete!
Piangete occhi, piangete!
In lagrime quest’anima
Disciolgasi, dissolvasi, si stempre!
Occhi piangete, si, piangete sempre!
Sorrows, torments, increase!
Weep, eyes, weep!
Let this soul dissolve
into tears that melt and flow!
Eyes, weep, yeah weep for evermore!
Madrigale ultimo
Final madrigal
Piangete occhi, piangete!
Dolori, tormenti, crescete,
Chè per un Dio che langue,
Per un figlio che more,
Che versa per amore un mar’ di sangue,
È poco ogni tormento, ogni dolore.
O d’eccelsa pietà nobile insgena,
Ch’ai suoi seguaci il vero calle addita
Di vincer morte e d’eternarsi in vita
E lacera n’insegna
Che per salir’ di vera gloria al trono
E le pene e i martir’ le pene sono.
Weep, eyes, weep!
Sorrows, torments, increase,
since for a departing God,
for a dying son
who shed an ocean of blood for love,
any torment, any pain is too little.
O noble emblem of sublime mercy
Which show his disciples the true way
to conquer death and attain eternal life,
and teach through pain
that to ascend the throne of true glory,
pain and torment are the wings.
- Cesare Raggioli
22
ATALANTE
Erin Headley - director
Nadine Balbeisi - soprano *
Theodora Baka - mezzo-soprano †
Paulina van Laarhoven and Annalisa Pappano - viola da gamba
Nora Roll - viola da gamba and Erin Headley - viola da gamba, lirone
Kristian Bezuidenhout - harpsichord
Siobhán Armstrong - arpa doppia
Elizabeth Kenny and Andrew Maginley – chitarrone
Produced, engineered and edited by John Hadden
Recorded 27-30 November 2010, St George’s, Chesterton, Cambs, UK
Executive producer: John Hadden, Destino Classics
Cover image: Nadine Balbeisi as Mary Magdalene
Booklet reverse image: Theodora Baka as Artemisia
Photos: Fernanda Fernandez
Costumes: Alessio Rosati
Designed by Doubletake Design Ltd.
Performing editions: Jörg Jacobi, Edition Baroque, Bremen;
Richard Abram, Lucy Carolan and Erin Headley
Italian texts and translations: Candace Smith
Atalante is funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) of Great Britain
3
Lamentarium
lamenting and religious ecstasy, not only through
Christian but also through Classical narratives.
17th-century Rome and the Barberinis
References to past cultures are nowhere more
evident than in the great Vatican Library, already
a monumental establishment in the 17th century,
when Francesco Barberini was librarian (162633), and who collected and bequeathed vast
numbers of books and manuscripts. Among
the music collections are literally thousands of
vocal works, the most fascinating being settings
of the narratives of the tragic figures of history,
both pagan and religious (Armida, Artemisia,
Cleopatra, Dido, Helen of Troy, Olympia, Mary
Magdalene, the Blessed Virgin, St Catherine,
Joseph, Cain and Abel, David, Xerxes, Nero,
Seneca and many others).
Foreigners visiting Europe are always struck
by the accumulation of cultural layers that
Rome inherited over thousands of years, from
the monuments of the Roman Empire to the
magnificent 17th-century architecture, sculpture
and painting patronised by the Catholic Church.
The works of Bernini, Borromini, Caravaggio,
Poussin and a host of other artists are evident
at every turn, but the great Roman poets
(including several popes and cardinals), writers,
scholars and scientists are known today only to
a learned few. Of the music that reverberated
throughout Rome’s splendid palaces, churches
and oratories, we know very little. Most laymen
today would be able to name only Palestrina as a
Roman composer.
The generation of Roman composers after
Monteverdi, led by Luigi Rossi and Marco
Marazzoli, intensified the rich and rhetorically
powerful poetry of their contemporaries to
create a new musical aesthetic that was sensual,
passionate, ecstatic, even erotic. Rossi and
Marazzoli produced sacred and secular operas
and oratorios, and vocal chamber music, of
which their combined output of solo and
ensemble cantatas numbers over 700.
Led by Urban VIII (Pope from 1623 to 1644)
and his nephews, cardinals Francesco and
Antonio, the Barberinis and their extended and
privileged family influenced the whole of the
Catholic world through religious, diplomatic,
military and, above all cultural enterprise. They
implemented a conscious strategy of spreading
the doctrines of the Counter-Reformation,
especially through music and the visual arts.
Their banner heralded the attributes of
martyrdom and death, extravagant repentance,
Occhi miei, che spargeste
Di lagrime i torrenti,
Per due begli occhi ardenti,
Spargete hor caldi fiumi
Per quel Fattor celeste,
Che creò quei bei lumi.
Voi, che del pianto haveste nulla,
O poca mercede,
Da chi non cure, o crede,
Deh, sgorgate di lagrime una piena,
Per quel Fattor, che rende
Vero amor per amor, gioia per pianto;
Voi, che piangeste tanto,
Hor come occhi miei, lassi aridi siete?
Piangete occhi, piangete.
O my eyes, you who have shed
torrents of tears,
for two beautiful, burning eyes,
pour forth now hot rivers
for that heavenly Maker
who created those beautiful eyes.
You, who have had little or no pity
for the weeping
of those who do not care or believe,
ah, pour out now a flood of tears
for that Maker who turns
love into true love, grief into joy;
you, my eyes, who have wept so much,
why are you now tired and dry?
Weep, eyes, weep.
Mentre chi mi die vita,
Per me fatto mortale, a morte langue,
Si prodigo sangue,
Occhi miei, voi due lagrimette avari sete?
Piangete occhi, piangete.
While he who gave me life,
and was made mortal for me, now languishes
in death, so covered with blood,
my eyes, are you now too miserly to shed two little tears?
Weep, eyes, weep.
- Girolamo Preti
Rossi was the leading composer of 17th-century
bel canto, the new elegant and lyrical style of
melodic writing and ultra expressive recitative
4
21
7. Dovremo piangere la passione di n.S.
let us weep for the passion of our lord
Piangete occhi, piangete,
Non più gli altrui rigori,
O dolor mio,
Ma il dolor del mio Dio,
Che del mio pianto ha sete.
Piangete occhi, piangete.
Weep, eyes, weep,
no longer for the sufferings of others,
or for my own pain,
but for the pain of my God,
who is thirsty for my tears.
Weep, eyes, weep.
Deh, non piangete più la feritate
Di terrena beltate,
Piangete la pietà,
L’amor di lui che langue,
(oh Dio) per cui?
Langue perché di mia salute ha sete.
Piangete occhi, piangete.
Oh, weep no more for the wounds
of earthly beauty;
weep for mercy,
and for the love of him who languishes,
(Oh God) for what?
He languishes because he is thirsty for my health.
Weep, eyes, weep.
Non piangete d’Amor l’arco mortale,
Ma quell’arco vitale
Di quelle braccia aperte,
Arco pietoso, e forte,
Che saettò la morte
Con ferità, onde voi salute avrete.
Piangete occhi, piangete.
Do not weep for the mortal bow of Love,
but for that life-giving bow
of those open arms,
a merciful and strong bow
which death shot
with cruelty, so that you might have health.
Weep, eyes, weep.
Non piangete gli strali,
Ond’empio amor terreno
Già mi trafisse il seno.
Questi piangete, ohimè, chiodi pungenti
Delle piante innocenti.
Avventar questi strali
Vostre colpe mortali
Voi, voi gli Arcieri siete,
Piangete occhi, piangete.
Do not weep for the arrows
with which wicked earthly love
has pierced my breast.
Weep, alas, for these sharp nails
from innocent plants.
You are the archers
who will hurl these arrows,
your mortal blows.
Weep, eyes, weep.
20
that was a reaction to the earlier, text-dominated
stilo rappresentativo. The triple-time arias in
particular are full of his unmistakable suavity.
However, in his lament of the Magdalene,
Rossi conveys the penitent’s torturous spiritual
and sensual journey almost entirely through
extravagant recitative. Only a brief aria, whose
long-awaited arrival comes near the end, delivers
the poignant moment of resignation and final
despair.
The Piangete, occhi piangete motif appears in the
Magdalene lament and at the end of the Oratorio
per la Settimana Santa, and it is the incipit of
Domenico Mazzocchi’s spiritual cantata. This
remarkable work is on a reflective text in quasirecitative style with refrains, and outrageous
key relationships (C minor and F sharp major)
to convey the soul’s struggle yet final bliss in
reaching the higher realm.
Why this magnificent repertoire has not received
widespread attention provokes much thought.
The cantatas are for the most part in manuscript,
often difficult to read, and perhaps not
immediately appealing because of their spiritual
and moral texts; they are predominantly set in
recitative. Artemisia’s lament makes in quick
succession references to Niobe and Egeria, and
later, Clotho – figures that heighten the meaning
of the underlying narrative; their significance
would immediately have been grasped by
Rome’s aristocrats and intellectuals. Indeed,
part of their enjoyment would have come from
discerning the nuances, which even native Italian
speakers today may find elusive. Our approach
in making this remarkable repertoire more
accessible is to present concerts in staged form,
in Italian-style period costumes and with props
and atmospheric lighting, so that these tragic
characters are able to step out of their frames
and into our world to offer us a fully immersive
experience.
Spiritual and moral cantatas, sacred operas
and oratorios and independent laments were
commissioned by the Barberinis to reinforce
their motto Delectare et docere: to ‘delight while
instructing’. The lament in particular is the
ideal vehicle to serve the Catholic cause since
it intimately involves the listener in a narrative
of emotional struggle that ends in catharsis or
redemption.
Helen of Troy’s vanitas lament chronicles the
enormous destruction caused by a beautiful face,
and warns of youth’s ephemerality; Artemisia’s
pitifully twisted and depraved narrative cautions
against excessive grief. The two Blessed Virgin
works here are worlds apart in dimension:
the miniature Perché, dolce Bambino is a short,
bittersweet aria revealing that Jesus weeps so
that we might be saved, while the conclusion
to Rossi’s epic Oratorio per la Settimana Santa
proclaims that the only path to glory is through
pain and torment.
5
Musical performance in the 17th century was
also enhanced by a kaleidoscopic continuo
palette. In addition to the chitarrone, harpsichord
and double harp, the most exotic colour to
hand was that of the lirone whose haunting and
ethereal sound was specifically recommended to
accompany laments and tragic scenes in Italian
operas and oratorios. This multi-string bowed
instrument had from nine to fourteen strings,
which could produce sustained, purely tuned
chords, even in the most far-reaching tonalities.
Here we have cast the lirone in independent
‘scenas’ where it can be used more generously and
to greater effect than in the discreet lament scenes
found in large-scale dramatic works.
one of the most renowned of the soprano castrati
who sang in Roman opera and oratorio. The
castrato voice appeared in the Sistine chapel in
1562, and as opera later developed, these male
singers became marvels of the musical stage.
Since women were forbidden to sing in any
papal institutions, female roles in operas, oratorios
and cantatas were sung by men. The famous
castrato, Loreto Vittori was praised for his moving
renditions of Mazzocchi’s Mary Magdalene and
Dido laments.
Although women were banned from performing
in public, the applauded female singing trio of
Leonora Baroni, her sister Catarina and their
mother Andreana held musical academies in the
family’s private palace. Their self-accompaniment
on an impressive array of instruments (harp, lirone,
theorbo, viola da gamba and Spanish guitar) stole
the limelight, to the envy of rival groups like
the Lolli sisters, and even Vittori and Pasqualini.
It is tempting to imagine these talented and
graceful divas portraying ancient heroines with
the backdrop of one of the richly coloured, goldthreaded Artemisia tapestries loaned to them by
cardinal Francesco. Such soirées were patronised
and attended by the Barberinis, and among their
special guests was the French viol player André
Maugars, who recalled one such concert in 1639:
Viol consorts also served Roman vocal music
well, especially for the accompaniment of
the voice. Antonio and Francesco Barberini
each owned a chest of viols, as did Queen
Christina of Sweden at her Roman residence;
G. B. Doni, the music scholar had two as part
of his eccentric Greek tuning experiments.
Occasional evidence of viol consorts providing
chordal accompaniments to vocal pieces led
us to experiment with our own realisations in
the Helen and Magdalene cantatas. The purely
instrumental items here are transcribed from vocal
works, a common practice for the viol consort
from the early 16th century.
Deh s’altro non potete
Piangete occhi, piangete
E piangete sin tanto
Che dia fin la mia fine al vostro pianto.
Ah, if you cannot do otherwise,
weep, eyes, weep,
and weep until my end
brings an end to your weeping.”
Per sì fervidi accenti
D’Amor misti e di duolo
Fuor dell’usato il volo
Ferman nell’aria addolorati i venti.
For such fervent words,
mixed with love and grief,
the dolorous winds, exceptionally,
stop in mid-air.
Sprezzansi i sassi
E l’impietade istessa
À lagrime sì pie
Lagrima anch’essa.
The rocks are filled with self-loathing,
and impiety itself,
at the sight of such pious tears,
also weeps.
6. Sopra la nascita di n.S.
on the birth of our lord
Perchè dolce bambino
Da sacrosanti lumi
Versi di salso humor due caldi fiumi?
Ah risponde il mio Dio,
Perché non pianga tu, pianger vogl’io.
Why, sweet child,
from your sacred eyes
do you pour two hot rivers of salty tears?
“Ah”, my God responds,
“I wish to weep so that you weep not.”
- S. Casino
‘This concert transported me into such ravishment, that
I forgot my mortal condition and believed myself to be
among the angels.’
Rome was the most important centre for the
male voice, and Marc-Antonio Pasqualini was
6
19
Ma lassa a che di strida
In van quest’ aria ingombro
E mi querelo.
But, alas, I fill the air
in vain with my cries,
and lament my fate.
Tu Cielo, almen su l’esecrande teste
D’huomini si perversi
Ch’han dato morte al tuo Signore e mio,
Perche tutt’in un tempo hoggi non versi
E le fiamme e gli strali e le tempeste?
E tu, perche non t’apri, spietato Inferno,
E dentro al tuo più cupo centro
Non gli condanni a sempiterno horrore?
Ma dove, o mio dolore,
Dove la mente e’l favellar trasporti?
Come bramar poss’io
Che s’armi a danni altrui Cielo et Abisso,
S’a chi t’ha crocifisso
Pur hor tu stesso dall’eterno Padre
In supplichevol suono
Hai procurato d’impetrar perdono?
Come bramar poss’io
À chi morte ti diè pena et affanno
Se della mia bellezza il fasto e l’alterezza
À par degl’uccisori ucciso t’hanno
E se del viver mio la colpa atroce
Più che lo sdegno hebreo t’ha posto in Croce?
You, Heavens, why do you not at least,
this very day and all at once,
hurl flames and arrows and tempests
upon the despicable heads of such perverse men who put to
death your Lord and mine?
And you, merciless Hell, why do you not open up and
condemn them to eternal horror
within your darkest centre?
But where, O my grief,
where do mind and speech lead to?
How can I yearn
for Heaven and Hell to arm themselves
against others if even you,
in supplicating tones,
have implored forgiveness from the eternal Father
for those who crucified you?
How can I yearn for pain and affliction
against those who brought you death
if the pomp and pride of my beauty killed you
as much as the killers themselves,
and if the atrocious guilt of my life,
more than Hebrew scorn, placed you on the Cross?
Erin Headley’s sensational new group
Atalante is named in honour of Leonardo
da Vinci’s friend and pupil Atalante
Migliorotti, inventor of the lirone. That
magic and ethereal bowed instrument has
been Erin Headley’s domain for the past
30 years, through an astonishing number of
performances and recordings that have been
acclaimed worldwide.
Occhi, voi che vedete
Sol per vostra impietà su questo legno
Il Rè de Regi esanimato e nudo
À portento si crudo,
À che non vi chiudete,
À che del sole che tien pur hora
Su nel Cielo ascoso
per la Pietà del suo fattore i rai
Vi mostrate più crudi o men pietosi.
Eyes, you that see
only through your impiety the King of Kings,
lifeless and naked upon this wood,
at the sight of such a cruel wonder
you do not close;
and while the sun even now
hides its rays in the sky
out of mercy for its creator,
you show yourselves to be even more cruel or less merciless.
Their début in October 2009 at the
Southbank Centre in London – in staged
performances of the laments of Artemisia,
Helen of Troy, Mary Magdalene and the
Blessed Virgin – was a major success with
rave press reviews. Atalante’s exploration
of this fascinating repertoire, including the
18
Atalante
staging and filming of it, has received generous
support from the Arts and Humanities
Research Council of Great Britain.
Atalante’s members include many valued
musical colleagues whom Erin Headley has
attracted internationally over the years. Her
viol players, who are all lirone players, hail
from Sweden, Holland and the USA, and her
continuo specialists come from Germany,
Ireland, Italy, South Africa and Great Britain.
In the 17th century the lirone was said to
‘move the soul and transport the spirit’. Its
true realm was the lament, a genre covering
the whole spectrum of human emotions.
Atalante’s luxurious continuo band of double
harp, chitarrone, keyboards, viol consort (a
Roman speciality for accompanying the
voice) and lirone enhance the sublimely dark
repertoire of 17th-century Rome, including
music not heard for over 300 years.
nadine Balbeisi, soprano, is a JordanianAmerican who performs throughout
Europe and North America; in Germany
she concentrates on the opera and oratorio
repertoire, and with the viol player Fernando
Marín, she co-founded the duo Cantar alla
Viola to explore vocal music accompanied by
the viola da gamba.
Theodora Baka is a Greek mezzo-soprano
whose repertoire ranges from Renaissance
and Baroque to contemporary music. She has
appeared in numerous opera productions on
the continent, most notably with Alan Curtis
and Il Complesso Barocco; she also performs
and records traditional Greek music.
7
Photo: Fernanda Fernandez
Erin Headley
and the lirone
My life was changed forever in
1975 when a colleague handed me
a manuscript as we were looking
at scores in the Vatican Library.
Here was a folio with the curious
annotation ‘Cain con la lira’ from
Bernardo Pasquini’s oratorio Cain
e Abele. This recitative was the
oratorio’s central lament; it offered
some startling melodic writing, and
wonderful shifts from the simplest
of tonalities to the most distant and
outrageous. As I read up on the little
literature then available, I concluded
that in the 17th century at least, ‘lira’
was the Roman term for lirone, a
multiple bowed string instrument
whose bizarre tuning was perfectly
set up to accommodate such an
extreme harmonic style.
My preoccupation with this extraordinary
instrument and its astonishingly dark and
fascinating repertoire led me on an exciting
historical, cultural and musical journey. In 1980
I commissioned the building of my first lirone;
I soon became the only player of it in the world
since the 17th century. It was my great privilege
to participate in hundreds of performances and
recordings on the lirone (and the viola da gamba)
in Europe, North America and the Far East
with numerous leading early music groups, most
notably Les Arts Florissants. But the most valuable
experience and insight that I gained about 17thcentury music and continuo playing was within
my own group, Tragicomedia with co-founder,
Stephen Stubbs.
Unfortunately Roman music did not figure
prominently in most of my regular professional
work, with the exception of the operas and
8
Non sol la Croce inonda
Ma sopra questo monte in più
D’un rio già s’apre e si discioglie.
not only inundates the Cross,
but has already opened up upon this mount
into more than one river, and dissolves.
Ma se nel farti esangue
A me tolto ha la morte ogni mio bene
Fra tormenti di sangue, fra diluvi di pene,
Come, ah come poss’io
Viver senz’alma e senza te, mio Dio?
But if by rendering you bloodless,
death has taken my only love from me,
between bloody torments and floods of pain,
how then can I live without my soul
and without you, my God?
Almen già che mi vieta aspra doglia infinita
Sperar co’ miei tormenti
O pace, o tregua di quest’afflitta vita
Consenti, almen consenti,
O mio Signore, che si tronchi lo stame
E ch’io ti segua, che se l’aria onde spiro
Di refrigerio invece horror m’apporta,
Se quanto sento e miro
Sembra a’ miei lumi tragico e funesto
E che sarà di me se’n vita io resto?
Since bitter and infinite sorrows and torments
allow me no hope of peace or respite
from this troubled life,
O my Lord, at least grant
that the thread [of life] be broken,
and that I may follow you, for since the air I breathe
brings me horror instead of solace,
and since all that I hear and see
appears to my eyes as tragic and pernicious,
what, then, shall become of me if I stay alive?
Non più con queste chiome
T’asciugherò le piante
Se chiamerotti a nome
Non fia più chi m’ascolti e mi risponda.
No longer shall these locks of mine
dry your tears;
if I call you by name,
there is no one who will hear me and answer.
Del tuo soccorso priva
Non veggo più chi possa
In fra gli scogli scorger mia nave
E ricondurla a riva.
Without your aid,
I no longer see anyone
who might spy my ship among the rocks
and lead it to shore.
A chi nel duro esiglio
Riccorrerò per medicina o scampo?
Da chi nel proprio inciampo
L’anima sconsigliata havrà consiglio?
E negl’affanni miei
Chi mi consolerà s’estinto sei?
To whom, in this harsh exile,
shall I run to for cure or safety?
From whom will my stumbling
and misguided soul seek counsel?
And who will console me in my sorrows
if you are deceased?
17
5. Pianto della Maddalena
Tears of Mary Magdalene
Pender non prima vide
Sopra vil tronco, e lacerato e morto
La bella Peccatrice il suo diletto
Che repente al cospetto
Delle turbe homicide
Gettossi à piè
Del sacro santo legno
E del suo Amore in segno
Havendolo di tempo in un momento
E cento volte, e cento
Con ambidue le braccia avvinto, e stretto
Dispiega al fin tra pianti e tra i sospiri
In queste amare note i suoi martiri.
As soon as the beautiful sinner
saw her beloved
hanging from the vile tree, lacerated and dead,
in full view of the murderous crowd,
she suddenly threw herself
at the feet
of the sacrosanct wood,
and as a sign of her love,
having embraced it tightly in both arms
once and a hundred times, and a hundred more,
in sobs and sighs
and with these bitter notes,
gave voice to her sufferings.
“O mio nel mar del mondo
Fido legno e nocchiero
O mio bene, o mia vita,
O mio conforto, o mia sola speranza
E pur è vero, o Dio, che tu sei morto.
O my faithful wood and helmsman
in the sea of the world,
O my love, O my life,
O my comfort, O my only hope,
it is true, O God, that you are dead.
Sei morto, et io spingendo
Su nell’eterno sfere
Hor singulti, hor preghiere
Di Popolo orgoglioso et inhumano
Sottrarti all’ira ho procurato in vano.
You are dead, and I,
casting now sobs, now prayers
upwards towards the eternal spheres,
have vainly attempted to protect you
from the wrath of a proud and inhuman people.
Sei morto, e la tua morte maraviglia
Si grande al cor mi reca
Che d’essermi parrebbe
Dando fede a me stessa.
O folle, o cieca s’io non vedessi,
Ohime, purtroppo aperto
Gli stratii ch’hai sofferto
E che’l sangue che gronda
Dalle trafitte tue lacere spoglie
You are dead, and your death
brings such wonder to my heart
that it seems to be my own,
and brings me faith.
O foolish and blind am I if I could not see, alas,
that the excruciating wounds that you have suffered are
sadly still open,
and that the blood which overflows
from your pierced and tattered remains
16
The sound-world of the lirone
was utterly beguiling – one felt
transported to a 17th-century
camera privata, musing on the
bleak messages of mortality
and transience. oratorios of Luigi Rossi and the sacred opera, Il
San Alessio by Stefano Landi in performances and
recordings with Les Arts Florissants. These are
works that specifically call for the lirone, and they
give us valuable clues as to how the instrument
is to be used. In the 1990s I conceived of several
recordings of Roman music for Tragicomedia
(Teldec), but my dream to explore and make the
repertoire even better known to the music world
was only made possible when I was awarded an
AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)
of Great Britain fellowship in 2007 to complete my
life work on the lirone.
Classical Music Magazine
Their voices were garlanded by
the otherworldly sounds of the
lirone, played by Erin Headley,
who pioneered the instrument’s
revival and is its greatest
exponent.
As an important part of the research I specifically
formed Atalante to perform, record and video
as much Roman music for the lirone as possible.
This first recording, which focuses on independent
laments, is supported by a further grant from
the AHRC, as is our second and forthcoming
recording, L’Oratorio di Santa Caterina by Luigi
Rossi and Marco Marazzoli. A second AHRC grant
has made three more Roman recordings possible
in 2011.
Classical Iconoclast
This recording is dedicated to the memory
of my mother Romette, an inspiring
keyboard and bowed-bass player whose
unusual name means ‘little Rome’.
9
2. lamento d’elena invecchiata
lament of the aged Helen
Testo
Narrator
Cadute erano al fine,
Dopp’ostinata guerra,
D’Ilio le mura incenerite a terra,
E già tornata era alla patria riva
La combattuta Argiva.
Avea lunga stagione Elena pianto
Nella sua gran sventura,
La rovina di Troia e l’arse mura.
Finally fallen
after obstinate war
the walls of Ilio were burnt to the ground
And already back to the native shore
was the fleet from Argos, having fought hard.
Helen had been crying a long time over her great fate,
over the great wretchedness of Troy,
and its burned down walls.
Esecrò, maledì fiera il destino
Che l’avea fatto gioco
Di fortuna fallace,
Né in sì grave dolor trovava pace.
Quando ch’a sé vicino
Un cristallo trovò lucido e netto
Alle bellezze sue ministro eletto,
In cui spes[s]o mirando [il suo] sembiante.
Di se stessa veniva a farsi amante.
A quel vago cristallo i lumi volse
E, poi che divenuta ella già scorse
La sua fronte rugosa
E già l’aurato crin fatto di cenere,
Fatta languido giglio quella rosa
Che già fioria nelle sue guance tenere,
Poichè vidde sparito omai dal labro
Il vivace cinabro,
Contro vana beltà tutta sdegnosa,
Non più dal duolo oppressa,
Sorridendo così parlò a se stessa.
She abhorred and fiercely cursed the fate,
which played a great trick
on her deceptive fortune,
so that she could not find any peace
from such great pain.
At once she found near her
a bright and polished crystal,
elected ministry of her beauty,
in which often looking at her own aspect,
she was used to become a lover of herself.
To that graceful crystal she turned her eyes,
and, as she spied her forehead covered with wrinkles,
and her golden hair already turned gray as ash,
and the rose that used to bloom on her cheeks
turned into a languid lily,
as the lovely vermilion
vanished from her lips,
she disdainfully spoke to herself
against vain beauty,
no more oppressed by pain.
10
Su perdona, o mio bene,
Se mentre, o nova stella
In cielo avvampi
o del fiume di Lete
Oltre l’arene rendi col’ombra tua
Sereni i campi.
Perdona, o Dio,
Se nel mio petto ascosi
Questi miseri avanzi havran l’inferno,
Forse, se non a parte almen pietosi
Di quel dolor ch’ivi soggiorna eterno.
Forgive me, my beloved,
if you glow as a new star
in the heavens,
or with your shadow
you calm the fields of the strands
beyond the river Lethe.
Forgive, O God,
if buried in my breast
these pitiful remains go to Hell—
perhaps, at least in part, merciful
of the grief which dwells there eternally.
Già ch’il ciel
Non vuol che torni
Per mio mal Mausolo
In vita passerò
Torbidi i giorni
Da voi ceneri nutrita.
Since the heavens
do not want my Mausolo
to return, to my dismay
I shall spend my life
in gloomy days,
nourished by you, ashes.
La vita fia breve
Fian brevi i tormenti
Se morti alimenti
Da morte riceve.
May life be brief,
and brief the torments;
if you nourish death,
from death shall you receive.
Più diceva, ma intanto
Vede ch’in copia grande
Accresciuto dal pianto
Il vino fuor del calice si spande.
She spoke further, but meanwhile,
she saw the goblet’s full measure of wine,
increased by her tears,
spill over.
- S. Casino
15
Forse le spoglie ancor leggiadre e belle
Col mio sangue, e col’alma
Ad’onta de la morte, e de le stele
Di far tornar’in vita havrò la palma.
Perhaps I shall take the palm for bringing back to life,
with my blood and my spirit,
his mortal remains, still graceful and beautiful,
in spite of death and the stars.
Care ceneri prendete
Del mio sen la sepoltura
Più del marmo in cui vedrete
La mia fè candida e dura.
Dear ashes, accept my breast
as your burial place:
as you will find in it devotion
more pure, more firm than marble.
Del mio sen nobile al paro
Benché misero et afflitto
Non ha tomba, e Menfi, e Faro
Non piramide l’Egitto.
To this noble breast, though wretched and tormented,
neither the tombs
of Memphis nor the lighthouse of Pharos,
nor the pyramids of Egypt can compare.
Far l’esequie a voi potranno
Le mie lacrime cadenti
E le faci a voi saranno
Del mio cor le fiamme ardenti.
The tears I shed
shall be your obsequies,
and the burning flames of my heart
shall light your tomb.
O del Idolo mio
Reliquie amate
Se l’ambrosia di voi
Più dolce, e cara non fu,
Come formate oggi
Alle labbra mie bevanda amara?
O beloved relics
of my idol,
how is your nectar
that was once so sweet and dear
now become bitter
on my lips?
O del bel foco mio ceneri spente,
Ma spente, oimé, come m’ardete il core,
Se covate l’ardore
Come in voi non vagheggio il lume ardente?
O extinguished ashes of my beautiful fire,
though extinguished, alas, how do you still burn my heart?
If you hold your heat within,
why do I not enjoy your burning flame?
14
Elena
Helen
Queste d’Elena son l’alte bellezze
Al cui lucido raggio,
Al cui gran foco già parve sì poco
Ch’ardesse Troia e che cadesse estinta?
Per voi Troia fu vinta?
Are these the high beauties of Helen,
to whose shiny ray,
to whose great fire and fall of Troy
did not seem enough?
For you, Helen, Troy was vanquished?
Per voi andorno in sin all’ alto cielo,
Cinte di fosco e fiammeggiante velo,
Squallide fiamme ad oscurare il giorno?
Per voi, forme fallaci,
Per voi, forme fugaci,
Si versò tanto pianto?
Per voi solo l’alzaro in riva al Xanto
Monti d’estinti eroi?
Was it because of you that squallid flames
surrounded by a foggy and firey veil
obscured the day?
Because of you, deceptive appearances,
because of you, ephemeral appearances,
so many tears were poured?
Because of you by the shores of the Xanto
pile up mounds of dead heroes?
Queste d’Elena son l’alte vaghezze,
Onde restò l’Asia e l’Europa esangue?
Alla cui pompa et al cui fasto altiero
Sacrar tutto il suo sangue,
Mirossi il mondo intiero?
Are these Helen’s great graces,
for which Asia and Europe were left bloodless?
To which pomp and to which a rich and superb altar
the whole world
sacrificed its blood?
Or voi, stolti mortali,
Deh, vedete qual sian bellezze frali,
Lo sguardo a me volgete
E di vostra follia meco ridete.
Now you, mindless mortals,
Alas, you can see the fragility of beauty,
Look at me now,
and laugh at your own foolishness.
11
Elena e Testo
Helen and Narrator
Deh, mirate, o ciechi’amanti,
Qual sia quelle beltà
Che morte vi dà.
Deh, vedete come fuggano,
Dalle labra i rubini,
Come si struggono
I capelli d’oro fini,
E le vaghe e fresche rose
Di due guance vezzose.
Alas, look, oh blind lovers,
at which graces
death gives you.
Alas, see that they fade away,
from the lips of rubies,
how the fine golden hair
vanishes
and so do the beautiful and fresh roses
of two charming cheeks.
Eppure, o ciechi amanti,
Per caduca beltà versate pianti.
And yet, oh blind lovers,
You still weep for fleeting beauty.
Ombra vana è la beltade
Che del tempo preda cade:
Splende appunto qual baleno
Ch’all apparir dispare e si vien meno.
Beauty is a vain shadow
which falls to the prey of time:
its rainbow shines
and vanishes as quickly as it appears.
Eppure, o ciechi a amanti,
Per caduca beltà versate pianti.
And yet, oh blind lovers,
You still weep for fleeting beauty.
Testo
Narrator
Sì disse, poi spezzò
Quella luce ove già si vagheggiò:
E quanto frale sia sembiante vago,
Mostrò in fragil cristallo a noi l’imago.
That said, she spurned the reflection
in which she had gazed at herself:
And so she showed us through the fragile mirror,
how fragile is a beautiful face.
– Pannesio
12
4. lamento d’artemisia
lament of artemisia
Già celebrato havea
La Regina di Caria
Al morto sposo il funeral pietoso,
E già l’amate ceneri
Volea sepelir nel suo petto.
The queen of Caria,
having observed
her dead husband’s pitiful funeral,
now wanted to bury his beloved ashes
in her breast.
Cangiata a tale effetto
Con molle ciglio, e pallido sembiante
Sembrava Egeria in fonte,
E Niobe in pietra.
So affected was she,
with eyelids wet and countenance pale,
that she seemed like Egeria in water,
and Niobe in stone.
Ma prima che nel calice spumante
Immerga il labro, dal dolore impetra
Con sì meste querele
D’accompagnar nel seno il suo fedele.
But before the foaming goblet
met her lips, she froze with grief,
with sad moans
in her breast for her faithful husband.
Artemisia a che più gemi
Altro Mausolo ti chiede
di pietà, d’amor, di fede,
vuol da te gl’uffici estremi.
“Artemisia, why do you still groan?
Mausolo asks of you
only pity, love and faith,
and the ultimate obeisance.
Se non puoi come vorresti
Torre al cielo il tuo consorte
Fà del suo ch’almen ti resti
Ciò ch’a te lasciò la morte.
If for all your wishes you cannot
regain from heaven your husband,
at least keep as much of what was his
as death has left you.”
Mausolo i giorni tuoi Cloto recise,
Ma non già ti divise
Dal mio sen dove vivo ancor tu sei
E morto ti desio
Perche eternar vorrei
Nelle cenere tue l’incendio mio.
Mausolo, [the fate] Cloto has cut your life,
but she has not separated us,
for you live in my breast;
I desire you dead,
for I would like my flame
to live eternally in your ashes.
13
RELIQUIE DI ROMA: I
RELIQUIE DI ROMA I: Lamentarium
Eternal lamenting, extravagant repenting, religious ecstasy…
passionate, sensual, macabre and erotic narratives from 17th-century Rome
Passacaglia del Seigneur Louigi
Luigi Rossi
Elena invecchiata
Marco Marazzoli
Spargete sospiri
Luigi Rossi
Lamento d’Artemisia
Marco Marazzoli
Pianto della Maddalena
Luigi Rossi
Perché dolce Bambino
Marc’ Antonio Pasqualini
Piangete occhi, piangete
Domenico Mazzocchi
Peccantum me quotidie
Luigi Rossi
Conclusion of Oratorio per la Settimana Santa
Luigi Rossi
ATALANTE
ERIN HEADLEY
NADINE BALBEISI soprano
THEODORA BAKA mezzo-soprano
RELIQUIE DI ROMA I: Lamentarium
ATALANTE, ERIN HEADLEy • BALBEISI • BAKA
RELIQUIE DI ROMA I: Lamentarium
ATALANTE, ERIN HEADLEy • BALBEISI • BAKA
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Atalante is funded by the AHRC (Arts and
Humanities Research Council) of Great Britain
NI 6152
NI 6152
Made in the UK by Wyastone Estate Limited
P 2011 Wyastone Estate Limited
© 2011 Wyastone Estate Limited
www.wyastone.co.uk