Alessandro Scarlatti 300
21 October Italy / Padova
Amici della Musica di Padova
Alessandro Scarlatti
Serenade, for three voices, Clori, Lidia, and Filli, with violins, lute by Mr. Aless:o Scarlatti
I Bassifondi Ensemble
Francesca Boncompagni soprano
Valeria La Grotta soprano
Gaia Petrone contralto
Simone Vallerotonda lute and conductor
(First performance in modern times)
Alessandro Scarlatti's serenade ‘Clori, Lidia e Filli’ most likely dates back to 1701 and may have been performed in Naples on 2 June of that year for the octave of Corpus Domini.
Alessandro Scarlatti's serenade ‘Clori, Lidia e Filli’ most likely dates back to 1701 and may have been performed in Naples on 2 June of that year for the octave of Corpus Domini.
The Gazzetta di Napoli of 7 June reports that on that day, after the procession and various celebrations in the Palazzo della Posta, at the end of the festivities, “there was no lack of music, in a famous serenade by the Royal Master of the Chapel Scarlati [sic] with selected voices and noble instruments”.
Its only manuscript is preserved in the Library of the Conservatoire Royal in Brussels and calls for three voices (two sopranos and an alto), two violins, viola, lute and continuo.
Its uniqueness, which makes it a “unicum” in A. Scarlatti's vast production of cantatas, lies in the fact that in a central aria of the composition, the lute appears in “obligato” dialogue with Filli in concertino, to which the concerto grosso of violins and harpsichord responds.
