Now available for rental is the new edition of Orfeo by Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), the Neapolitan composer’s pasticcio written for London audiences and constructed especially for the famed Italian castrato Farinelli in the lead role, with libretto by Paolo Rolli. Porpora’s happy-ending version of Orfeo juxtaposes his own arias with music composed by Hasse, Araja, Vinci and Veracini in a thoroughly efficacious rewrite.
In an interview published in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera’s cultural insert La Lettura, countertenor and editor of the new edition of Orfeo Raffaele Pe had this to say: “In a kind of greatest hits from 18th-century Italy, Porpora uses some of the most well-known melodies from the career of Farinelli, but he gives them a completely new rewrite. The resulting opera is extremely homogeneous from a linguistic point of view […] This is the hypothesis of them all – that Farinelli, definitely an erudite soul, played and composed solfeggios and arias himself. It’s great to think that, in an opera so connected to his experiences as a singer, he was the one who chose and even managed the composition tout court. In the arias of Orfeo, it’s as if there’s another hand at work, one that sets the character apart, both in terms of the vocal part and in the form of the aria itself.”
The first performance – in concert form – of this edition, which is the result of the revision of original sources by Raffaele Pe and Fabrizio Longo, was warmly applauded by the audience in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien on January 22, 2022. The cast featured Raffaele Pe, Marie Lys, Carlotta Colombo, Filippo Mineccia, Miriam Albano, Christian Senn, accompanied by the La Lira di Orfeo ensemble, conducted by Dmitry Sinkovsky. As Oper in Wien noted, “The audience was thrilled, people clapped in unison, clamoring for an encore of the finale, which they were treated to".
The concert is slated for release on CD.
Dramma in musica in tre atti
Musica di diversi autori
Libretto di Paolo Rolli
Revisione sulle fonti a cura di Raffaele Pe e Fabrizio Longo (2021)
Orfeo, s - Aristeo, c - Euridice, c - Proserpina, s - Autòneo, c - Pluto, b
2 Ob, 2 Traverse, Fg, 2 Trb, 2 Cor, 2 Vl, Vla, Vc, Cb, Cemb.li
Photo: Raffaele Pe & La Lira di Orfeo - © Noah Shaye