VENEZIA SALVA

Description

Act I, scene 1:
Jaffier’s perfection: just, proud, fierce, tender. A prophecy of redemption.

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Beatus vir, SV 268,
for two sopranos, alto, two tenors, bass and basso continuo
from Selva Morale e Spirituale, Venice, 1640

_________

Act I, scene 2:
Renaud “evokes the Old Testament”
foreseeing the destruction of the Venetian enemy.

Claudio Monteverdi
Dixit Dominus (II), SV 264
motet for eight voices, two violins and basso continuo,
from Selva Morale e Spirituale, Venice, 1640

_________

Act I, scene 2. Act II, scenes 4 and 6:
A battle fought in Pierre’s words and in Renaud’s great speech.

Dario Castello (1602-1631)
Sixteenth Sonata a 4 for bowed string instruments, “The Battle”
from Sonate concertate in stil moderno a una, due, tre, quattro voci e Basso Continuo, second book,Venice, 1629

_________

Act I, scenes 2 and 6:
Friendship between Pierre and Jaffier.

Claudio Monteverdi
Venite, sitientes, SV 335
motet for two sopranos and basso continuo,
from Seconda raccolta de’ sacri canti, Venice, 1624

_________

Curtains between act I and act II:
A church organ playing in San Marco.

Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612)
Toccata del secondo tuono, Ch.236
from Girolamo Diruta’s Il Transilvano, first part, Venice, 1593

_________

Act II, scene 3:
Violetta evokes the Marriage of the Sea ceremony. Music by Monteverdi.

Claudio Monteverdi
Laudate pueri Dominum (II), SV 271
from Selva Morale e Spirituale, Venice, 1640

_________

Act II, scene 13:
Violetta’s second speech about beauty:
“maybe it’s rather here, where she talks about Monteverdi’s music”.

Claudio Monteverdi
Confitebor tibi Domine (III) in the French style, SV 267
from Selva Morale e Spirituale, Venice, 1640

_________

Act II, scene 13:
Jaffier “sees” the Beauty of Violetta and Venezia.

Alessandro Grandi (1590-1630)
O quam tu Pulchra es,
from Ghirlanda sacra scielta da diuersi Eccellentissimi Compositori, Venice, 1625

_________

Act II, scene 16:
Jaffier’s Monologue. Inner suffering.

Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Canzon à 3, Due Violini, e Violoncino, overo Tiorba
da Messa, e Salmi Concertati con Istromenti Imni Antifone & Sonate […], Venezia, 1656

_________

Curtains between act II and act III:
Night, Jaffier regret.

Biagio Marini (1594-1663)
Pretirata
from “Balletto Secondo a 3 & a 4”, Sonate da chiesa e da camera, Venice, 1655

_________

Act III, scene 1:
The plot is foiled.

Claudio Monteverdi
Laudate pueri Dominum (I), SV 270
for two sopranos, two tenors, bass and basso continuo
from Selva Morale e Spirituale, Venice, 1640

_________

Act III, scene 4:
Jaffier despair, “Gregorian chant of dereliction” (Cristina Campo)

Gregorian chant
Omnes amici mei derelinquerunt me, respons
from the Spanish antiphonary Sidney, Add. Ms. 413, 1550-1600

_________

Act III, epilogue:
Violetta’s final monologue

Francesco Cavalli
Magnificat for 8 voices, instrumented for two violins and cello, ripieno, and other instruments, at will,
from Musiche Sacre, Venice, 1656

Venezia Salva (Venise Sauvée” / Saved Venice) is an unfinished tragedy by Simone Weil, set in 1618, which reconstructs and dramatizes a historical fact. Some Spanish conspirators plan to destroy Venice to the shout of “We make history”. But the crazy dream is thwarted by the “betrayal” of one of the soldiers, an “attentive man, who suddenly sees her and saves her”. In Weil’s drama, when the city is finally safe, Monteverdi’s music resounds in San Marco.

Monteverdi, Grandi, Castello, Cavalli are among the most important masters of the Venetian school that has its center in San Marco and that at least from the Gabrieli onwards has defined a unique and much imitated practice and style in which voices and instruments dialogue and concert. Beauty is always in danger, then as now. Always difficult, always in need of attention.