In "Aspettate" there is another reason for this sense of reality. While there is only one singer, there are in fact two characters: the singer and the audience. Unlike most drama, where a "fourth wall" exists separating audience from stage, "Aspettate" denies any barrier between the singer and audience. We are spoken to directly in the here and now. We are asked questions, we are given answers, we are mocked, we are entertained, and we are eventually chided for even listening in the first place!
The subject matter of "Aspettate" couldn't be more topical; it regards song, the art of singing, and the multitude of poor singers who won't stop doing it! More specifically, it "Aspettate" is humorously critical of the popular pastime that is amateur singing in Italy. The cantata mocks the emotional conceits and downright silliness of cantata texts themselves, and their rabid consumption for leisure time pleasure. Our singer, obviously a professional, has simply had enough of it all.
At the time, this satirical cantata would have been immediately recognizable for its allusions to living composers, musical styles, love poetry, and the music-crazed populous. Cesti makes fun of himself too, for he was a major culprit in creating the very same lovesick and tormented vocal music that spread throughout Italy. It is certain that Cesti's cantatas found there way to Handel during his travels through Rome and Venice; more masterful music again incorporated into the signature "Handelian" style. While the inside jokes of "Aspettate" might not seem as recognizable now as they did in Cesti's time and place, the cantata's biting wit and vivid narration still remain immediate. And to think, if Cesti lived today, he might compose a similar cantata about the hateful addiction of reality-based television programs.
On the second half of the program, we have tried to reconcile a performing challenge: how to prove the excellence of an entirely unknown opera without performing the entire staged opera. A concert can never fulfill the requirements of opera's basic elements: visual atmosphere, the manipulation of time and space, and the sense of a narrative flow. By the opposite token, no one will, or should, stage an unknown opera without hearing the work in a simplified (and less expensive) setting.
To meet this challenge, we've programmed the arias of the final half of Cleopatra, which directly relate to the Egyptian Queen's downfall. By interspersing these vocal selections with dance tunes of emotional variety, we hope to simulate dramatic time flow and maintain the main plotline's continuity. The finale ballet/chorus of Cleopatra (which was the basis for the final chorus of both Agrippina and Acis and Galatea) will be heard uncut, and realized in a new edition. Thanks to the composer's fine sense of pacing and drama, we only need our imagination to fill in the blanks.
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