With his concept of standardized plots, Francesco Cavalli made history in the opera world of the 17th century. This led to his becoming one of the most sought after opera composers in Europe, far beyond his home city of Venice. The new critical Cavalli Edition published by Bärenreiter begins with Ercole amante.
With his concept of standardized plots, Francesco Cavalli made history in the opera world of the 17th century. This led to his becoming one of the most sought after opera composers in Europe, far beyond his home city of Venice. The new critical Cavalli Edition published by Bärenreiter begins with "Ercole amante", the start of the first series of fourteen stage works. Against the background of the legend of Hercules’ passion, a sumptuous plot unfolds, in every way a match for the occasion of the wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Teresa of Spain.
Pietro Francesco Cavalli (Crema, 1602-Venice, 1676), who rose through the ranks at the chapel of San Marco, Venice, from choirboy (1616) to second and then first organist (1639, 1644), and finally maestro di cappella in 1668, was also the most important opera composer of the mid-seventeenth century. During an operatic career that spanned the period 1639-1673, he produced nearly thirty works for Venetian theaters, as well as several for important centers elsewhere in Europe--notably Milan, Florence, and Paris. In addition, many of the operas originally written for Venice circulated widely throughout the Italian peninsula and beyond. Although he clearly profited from his association with Monteverdi, maestro di cappella at San Marco when Cavalli arrived there and opera composer extraordinaire, Cavalli’s special place in the history of opera was a product of his own special talents—as a musician and businessman--and the evolving social conditions of opera in his time and place.
Shortly after the momentous event of Carnival 1637, when a small band of visiting musicians from Rome presented the first ”public” opera in Venice at the Teatro Sand Cassiano, Cavalli formed a production company with several colleagues (a librettist, a singer, and a choreographer). The group took over at San Cassiano, where they produced Cavalli’s first opera, Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo, in 1639. Although he soon relinquished his managerial responsibilities and initiated an artistic collaboration with a new librettist, Giovanni Faustini, Cavalli produced eight more operas at San Cassiano in as many years, before moving to a succession of other theaters, where his annual productions continued virtually unabated—except for a brief hiatus while he was in Paris--until the late 1660s.
The development of Cavalli’s operatic career coincided with a period of remarkable growth in the Venetian opera industry. This can be measured by the rapid increase in the number of theaters--from one (1637) to two (in 1639), to three (in 1640), and finally four (in 1641)—and the concomitant rise in the number of annual productions-- from a single opera in 1637 and 1638 to three in 1639, five in 1640, to a high point of seven in 1642, two of them by Cavalli himself. By the early 1640s, opera had become one of the main attractions of the famed Venetian Carnival, when visitors from abroad swelled the population of the city well beyond its normal size.
Although other composers and librettists were active during the 1640s, the Cavalli-Faustini team was unique in producing operas on a regular, consistent basis throughout the decade. To facilitate the rapid production of new works, they developed a set of musico-dramatic conventions--such as the invocation, the lament, the love duet, and the comic aria--which found their place within the context of standardized plots involving the misadventures of two pairs of high-born lovers, attended by assorted comic servants. Many of these same conventions have persisted in opera, to the present day.
A hero in Love – ”Ercole amante”
Cavalli’s historical importance has been recognized since the late nineteenth century, and his operas have been studied and performed with increasing frequency. But his music has been available only to those willing and able to transcribe it themselves from the manuscript scores housed primarily in the Marciana Library in Venice. Until recently, most performances were based on scores that were heavily edited to suit the tastes of audiences unfamiliar with the relatively sparse style of seventeenth-century opera. For the scores consist essentially of a voice part and bass line, with only a few string parts for ritornellos and an occasional aria accompaniment. Editors often added string parts, as well as winds and brass. Following a second wave of performances, though, influenced by the developing ”early music” movement, scores were shorn of many of these ”additions”, but the texts were still unreliable, and all performances were subject to the whims and tastes of the particular editor.
In the past decade or so, thanks to a number of conductors, who have performed and recorded Cavalli’s works in attractive productions, audience interest has increased. These operas, so successful in their own day, are now regarded as something of a treasure-trove, an unexplored source of appealing new experiences for the contemporary opera public. In response to this interest, and to make reliable materials available to theaters, the idea of a complete edition of Cavalli’s works was born. Under the auspices of Barenreiter, a first series, comprising fourteen operas, is underway. Chosen according to various criteria—most successful during the composer’s lifetime, most important historically, most representative of his output as a whole—each opera will be edited by a different musicologist in accordance with a set of standardized editorial principles.
Once launched, with Calisto and Ercole amante next year, both edited by Alvaro Torrente, we envision the production of one score per year. Adhering to the highest standards of scholarship, our scores will facilitate performance by resolving ambiguities of notation, adding instrumental parts where necessary, and presenting texts in a clear and unencumbered manner. Our aim is to offer carefully edited materials to promote and enhance modern performance of these works, which represent the very foundation of the art we know as opera.
Ellen Rosand
Yale University
General Editor, Cavalli Edition
from: takte 2/2008
The return of Cavalli. The start of the Complete Edition of his operatic works
Francesco Cavalli
Ercole amante (1662). Edited by Álvaro Torrente. Opere di Francesco Cavalli. Bärenreiter-Verlag 2010. Performance material on hire
First performance according the new edition: 11.1.2009 Amsterdam. De Nederlandse Opera, conductor: Ivor Bolton, stage director: David Alden
Staff: Prolog: Cinthia (Soprano*), Tevere (Bass*) – Oper: Ercole (Bass), Venere (Soprano), Giunone (Soprano), Hyllo (Tenor), Iole (Soprano), Paggio (Soprano), Deianira (Sopran), Licco (Alto), Pasithea (Soprano*), Sonno (mute), Mercurio (Tenor), Nettuno (Bass), Eutyro (Bass*), Bussiride (Alto), Clerica (Soprano*), Laomedonte (Tenor*), Bellezza (Soprano*).
* Roles could be performed by other members of the cast.
5 Sopranos, 1 Alto, 2 Tenors, 2 Basses
Orchestra: 5 parts
Picture: Herakles, Deianira and Nessos, greek vase, 6. c. b. c., Louvre, Paris