A Garden of Earthly Delights at the Papal Court: Marco Marazzoli’s extravagant musical entertainments
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, Musical Directors, Teresa Wakim, Carlotta Colombo & Alissa Magee, sopranos; James Reese & Aaron Sheehan, tenor; Jesse Blumberg, baritone; John Taylor Ward, bass-baritone
Boston Early Music Festival
Since 1980, the Boston Early Music Festival has been at the forefront for excellence in the field of Early Music throughout North America. BEMF began co-presenting concerts and opera productions at the Morgan in 2006.
Marco Marazzoli’s cantatas for six voices, two violins, and continuo are exquisite miniature dramas, with a kaleidoscopic variety of vocal arias, duets, and trios culminating in glorious choruses. Each cantata treats a different subject: one features Bacchus and his followers overindulging in the grape harvest, another recounts Radamisto’s daring escape from the clutches of vengeful King Tiridate. Il Riposo conjures the peace and tranquility of the papal retreat at Lake Gandolfo, while another, La Guerra e la Pace, is an allegory of the struggle between War and Peace, in celebration of the Peace of the Pyrenees between Spain and France, which was finally concluded after the intervention of Pope Alexander VII, Marazzoli’s patron. A thrilling cast of seven singers brings Marazzoli’s extraordinary harmonies to life accompanied by the incomparable BEMF Chamber Ensemble in a modern premiere of these magnificent works.
BEMF Chamber Ensemble. Photography by Kathy Wittman