THE CHAMBER CANTATAS OF ANTONIO VIVALDI for Lowell Lindgren THE CHAMBER CANTATAS OF ANTONIO VIVALDI Michael Talbot THE BOYDELL PRESS © Michael Talbot 2006 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Michael Talbot to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2006 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge with the support of Fondazione Giorgio Cini Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi Venezia ISBN 1 84383 201 1 The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9 Woodbridge Suffolk IP12 3DF UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue Rochester NY 14620 USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by Pru Harrison, Hacheston, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Newton Printing Ltd, London, UK www.newtonprinting.com Contents List of music examples vii List of tables ix Preface xi Conventions and abbreviations xiv 1 The Rediscovery of Vivaldi’s Cantatas 1 How contemporaries saw them 1 How modern commentators have seen them 11 Their modern revival 20 2 The Cantata Genre 25 Its historical development 32 Its literary nature 33 Its musical nature 44 3 Vivaldi and the Voice 61 The composer and the text 61 Vivaldi as literarybricoleur 66 The composer and the singer 75 The composer and the accompaniment 84 4 The Mantuan Cantatas 89 Vivaldi’s Mantuan episode 89 The Mantuan court 91 A mirror of court life 94 Individual works 102 5 Cantatas of the Middle Years 120 Vivaldi’sBlütezeit 120 Cantatas for all occasions 124 Individual works 137 6 The Dresden Cantatas 164 Vivaldi and Dresden 164 The cantatas of the Dresden compilation 170 Individual works 173 Postscript: The spurious works 182 7 Vivaldi’s Cantatas in Perspective 188 The cantata within Vivaldi’s oeuvre 188 Approaches to performance 192 Glossary 201 List of Vivaldi’s cantatas published in the New Critical Edition 206 Spurious works 208 Bibliography 209 Index to musical works 217 General index 223 List of Music Examples Ex. 2.1 Vivaldi,Perfidissimo cor! Iniquo fato!, RV 674: opening. 48 Ex. 2.2 Vivaldi, Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 2 no. 9 (RV 16): opening. 51 Ex. 2.3 Pistocchi,Dolorosa partenza, oh Dio, che l’alma: ‘Vedo Zeffiro 53 con l’aura’, bars 11–16. Ex. 3.1a Vivaldi,All’ombra d’un bel faggio, RV 649: ‘Vorrei, mio ben, 78 da te’, vocal periods 1–2. Ex. 3.1b Vivaldi,Par che tardo oltre il costume, RV 662: ‘Allor che in 80 cielo’, vocal periods 1–2. Ex. 3.2 Vivaldi,Geme l’onda che parte dal fonte, RV 657: recitative, 83 bars 12–16. Ex. 3.3 Vivaldi,Par che tardo oltre il costume, RV 677: recitative, 83 bars 1–8. Ex. 3.4 Vivaldi,All’ombra d’un bel faggio, RV 649: ‘Senti che ti 85 risponde’, opening. Ex. 3.5 Vivaldi,Perfidissimo cor! Iniquo fato!, RV 674: ‘Nel torbido 85 mio petto’, bars 5–8 (bass). Ex. 3.6 G. B. Pescetti,Di sì bel faggio all’ombra: ‘Come va l’ape nel 87 prato’, opening. Ex. 4.1 Vivaldi,Aure, voi più non siete, RV 652: ‘Ti confido il pianto 105 mio’, opening. Ex. 4.2 Vivaldi,Del suo natio rigore, RV 653: ‘Quei begl’occhi io 108 pianger vidi’, opening. Ex. 4.3 Vivaldi,Del suo natio rigor, RV 653: ‘Sempre invano il Dio 109 d’amore’, bars 57–73. Ex. 4.4 Vivaldi,Elvira, anima mia, RV 654: ‘Partirò, ma vedrai quanto’, 109 extracts. Ex. 4.5 Vivaldi,Elvira, anima mia, RV 654: ‘Passo al rogo fatal, e son 110 già cinto’, bars 7–10. Ex. 4.6 Vivaldi,Nel partir da te, mio caro: opening ritornello. 112 Ex. 4.7 Vivaldi,Si levi dal pensier, RV 665: ‘Vanne sull’Adria, infido’, 113 bars 10–35. Ex. 4.8 Vivaldi,Lungi dal vago volto, RV 680: opening. 114 Ex. 4.9 Vivaldi,Lungi dal vago volto, RV 680: ‘Mi stringerai, sì, sì’, 115 bars 81–7. Ex. 4.10 Vivaldi,O mie porpore più belle, RV 685: opening. 117 Ex. 4.11 Vivaldi,Tremori al braccio e lagrime sul ciglio, RV 799: 119 opening. Ex. 5.1 Vivaldi,Scherza di fronda in fronda, RV 663: first vocal 130 period. viii THE CHAMBER CANTATAS OF ANTONIO VIVALDI Ex. 5.2 Vivaldi,Amor, hai vinto, hai vinto: ecco il mio seno, RV 651: 139 ‘Passo di pena in pena’, bars 19–22. Ex. 5.3 Vivaldi,Fonti del pianto, RV 656: bars 37–48. 140 Ex. 5.4 Vivaldi,Geme l’onda che parte dal fonte, RV 657: bars 7–21. 141 Ex. 5.5 Vivaldi,Sorge vermiglia in ciel la bella Aurora, RV 667: 145 opening (Turin version). Ex. 5.6 Vivaldi,T’intendo, sì, mio cor, bars 5–7. 146 Ex. 5.7 Comparison of settings of the second aria ofT’intendo, sì, mio 147 corby Vivaldi and Porpora. Ex. 5.8 Vivaldi,Che giova il sospirar, povero core, RV 679: 152 bars 26–34. Ex. 5.9 Vivaldi,Perché son molli, RV 681: ‘Dunque, già ch’il mio 155 duolo’, opening. Ex. 5.10 Vivaldi,Vengo a voi, luci adorate, RV 682: ‘Sempre penare’, 157 bars 32–41. Ex. 5.11 Vivaldi,Amor, hai vinto, hai vinto: ecco il mio seno, RV 683: 159 ‘Passo di pena in pena’, opening. Ex. 5.12 Vivaldi,Cessate omai cessate, RV 684: ‘Nell’orrido albergo’, 162 bars 22–102, vocal line. Ex. 5.13 Vivaldi,Usignoletto bello, RV 796: ‘Come te cantando anch’io’, 163 opening. Ex. 6.1 Vivaldi,Geme l’onda che parte dal fonte, RV 657: ‘Deh non 173 partir sì presto’, bars 49–51. Ex. 6.2 Vivaldi,Perfidissimo cor! Iniquo fato!, RV 674: ‘Più amar non 174 spero’, bars 38–50. Ex. 6.3 Vivaldi,Pianti, sospiri e dimandar mercede, RV 676: ‘Lusinga 175 è del nocchier’, bars 24–9. Ex. 6.4 Vivaldi,Qual per ignoto calle, RV 677: ‘Qual dopo lampi e 177 turbini’, bars 10–18. Ex. 6.5 Carlo Arrigoni (?),Qual per ignoto calle: ‘Qual dopo lampi e 179 folgori’, opening. Ex. 6.6 Vivaldi,All’ombra di sospetto, RV 678: ‘Avvezzo non è il 181 core’, bars 13–20. Ex. 6.7 Filli, di gioia vuoi farmi morir, RV 672: opening. 185 Ex. 6.8 Piango, gemo, sospiro e peno, RV 675: bars 9–16. 187 Ex. 7.1 [Albinoni],Allor che il mondo in letargo profondo: ‘Vaghe 190 stelle, deh venite’, opening. Ex. 7.2 Vivaldi,Usignoletto bello, RV 796: opening with realized 194 continuo. Ex. 7.3 Vivaldi,Tremori al braccio e lagrime sul ciglio, RV 799: 199 ‘Quello che senti, o bella’, bars 5–8. List of Tables Table 1.1 Statistics for works in four genres by Vivaldi and five 1 contemporaries. Table 1.2 Publishedcantatas,1659–1735:listedbyyearofpublication 3 (col.1). Table 1.3 Publishedcantatas,1659–1735:listedbyplaceofpublication 5 (col.5). Table 2.1 Cantata structures employed by Antonio Ottoboni and Pietro 32 Metastasio. Table 2.2 Treatment of the ostinato bass theme in Benedetto Vinaccesi’s 58 aria ‘Che pena è il vivere’ fromBelve, se mai provaste. Table 3.1a Structure of the first and second vocal periods in ‘Vorrei, mio ben, da te’, fromAll’ombra d’un bel faggio, RV 649 (c.1720). 78 Table 3.1b Structure of the first and second vocal periods in ‘Allor che in cielo’, fromPar che tardo oltre il costume, RV 662 (c.1731). 82 Table 4.1 Vivaldi’s Mantuan cantatas. 95 Table 4.2 Structure of the first aria, ‘Augelletti, voi col canto’, from 115 Lungi dal vago volto, RV 680. Table 5.1 Vivaldi’s cantatas outside the Mantuan and Dresden groups. 125 Table 5.2 The cantatas contained in Meiningen, Max-Reger-Archiv, 132 Ed 82b. Table 6.1 The cantatas of the ‘Dresden compilation’ of c.1733 contained 171 in SLUB, Mus. 1-J-7, pp. 4–12. Table 7.1 Tempo markings in the arias of Vivaldi’s cantatas. 197