Most opera fans are familiar with Gluck the reformist -- the composer of Orphée et Eurydice who sought to balance drama and music in his works. But few know his early works which show him to be a master of the Baroque opera seria tradition he later rejected. L'innocenza giustificata, a festa teatrale written in 1755, is one of these works. Its structure -- cobbled together from aria texts by Pietro Metastasio, but with new recitatives by Giacomo Durazzo -- already shows a desire to create more dramatic continuity and ...
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Most opera fans are familiar with Gluck the reformist -- the composer of Orphée et Eurydice who sought to balance drama and music in his works. But few know his early works which show him to be a master of the Baroque opera seria tradition he later rejected. L'innocenza giustificata, a festa teatrale written in 1755, is one of these works. Its structure -- cobbled together from aria texts by Pietro Metastasio, but with new recitatives by Giacomo Durazzo -- already shows a desire to create more dramatic continuity and interest than was commonly found in the Baroque period. The music is a jumble of Baroque and Classical elements: florid da capo arias, almost Mozartian recitative, and ensembles that show the emerging influence of comic opera. But the opera seria influence is unmistakable. The resulting stylistic hodgepodge can't be considered entirely successful. But it is interesting, and Christopher Moulds and the Capella Coloniensis make about as compelling a case as possible for it. Leading the...
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