Last Friday I attended a performance of Ziani's oratorio
Il sacrifizio d'Isacco by the Utrechts Barok Consort, directed
by Jos van Veldhoven. I wanted to send a short report to Matthias
Rademacher (former member of Orfeo), but sent it to Matthew Westphal
instead. He asked me to write about the performance for Orfeo
and EMR. So that's what I have done.
Marc'Antonio Ziani was born in Venice around 1653.
He got his first music lessons from his uncle, Pietro Andrea Ziani.
In 1686 he became maestro di capella at Santa Barbara in Mantua,
where Antonio Caldara was one of his pupils. After some years
he moved back to Venice. At the end of the 17th century he was
a famous composer and the leading opera composer of Venice. In
1700 he became vice-maestro di capella at the imperial court in
Vienna, in 1712 he became maestro di capella. He
died in Vienna 1715. The oratorio 'Il sacrifizio d'Isacco' was
composed in 1707. It was a so-called "sepolcro", an
oratorio in one part, to be performed at the night of Good Friday.
Such a sepolcro was scored for solo voices with strings and bc.
It was performed on stage, like an opera. The libretto was written
by Pietro Antonio Bernardoni and is based on Genesis 22, 1-18,
which tells the story of Abraham, who is asked by God to sacrifice
his only son, Isaac. But in the libretto the story is extended.
For dramatic reasons two characters are taking part, which the
Bible tells nothing about: a servant of Abraham (Un servo d'Abramo)
and Abraham's wife Sara, who has a rather small role. Then, since
it was performed at Good Friday, there had to be a link with the
death of Jesus at the cross. So in the end the angel not only
interferes to prevent the sacrifice of Isaac, but also announces
the death of the Son of God at the same hill, where the sacrifice
should take place. This sacrifice symbolises the sacrifice which
*did* take place, many centuries later. The work starts with a
sinfonia in F minor with the characterisation
"grave", which creates a sombre atmosphere. Sinfonias
like these were quite common in Vienna - for example by Caldara.
Most of Abraham's arias are in minor keys, whereas Isaac's are
in major, as long as he doesn't know what is going to happen.
The instrumentation is also interesting: in one aria the soloist
is accompanied by two solo violins, in another there are three
solo violin parts: soprano, alto and tenor. And at the end in
an aria by the angel a virtuoso solo part is given to a trombone.
There are some very dramatic moments in this oratorio, in particular
the moment when the angel intervenes to prevent the sacrifice
of
Isaac. The characterisation of the personalities is very good
as well. Abraham is portrayed as a man who is torn between sadness
about the forthcoming death of his son and his will to do what
God has asked him. Isaac, on the other hand, is a very lively
character. When he knows what is going to happen he insists on
going on with it and accepts his fate: he prefers his own death
to that of his father. The performance as a whole was quite good,
as could be expected from this ensemble. Jos van Veldhoven, who
is also the conductor of the Netherlands Bach Society, has founded
the ensemble in 1976 and has performed many vocal works of the
17th and 18th century, some well-known, but preferably lesser
known or totally unknown works. For
his performances he brings together a cast which is a mixture
of experienced and young singers, stimulating them to learn from
each other. One can argue about the quality of some of the soloists
he uses, but on the whole the performances of the UBC are memorable.
Since about five years the UBC performs three vocal works every
season, of which two are hardly known. In recent years operas
by Bononcini, Keiser and Mattheson have been performed. In the
Ziani oratorio the role of Abraham was sung by the bass Henk Neven.
He did that quite well: his voices lacks some strength, but that
was very appropriate for this role. What I missed was some strength
in the lower register: he had some problems with the lower notes
of his part. The role of Isaac was excellently sung by the soprano
Anne Grimm, who has a very clear and light voice, which is very
well suited to the role of the young Isaac. Sara was sung by the
Portuguese soprano Anabela Marcos. She wasn't bad, but I didn't
particularly like her voice and her vibrato was too wide for my
taste. The servant of Abraham was sung by the young German tenor
Immo Schröder, who is also a member of the Collegium Vocale.
He is a very good singer: I liked his clear voice and his excellent
articulation. This is a name to remember, because I believe he
has a good future as a solo singer. Then the angel: this role
was sung by Janine Pas, who was announced as a mezzosoprano, but
sounded much more like a contralto to me. Her performance made
me aware once again why I find contraltos in baroque music often
problematic. Her voice was just too deep and dark to be convincing
in this role. Yes, it is a dramatic role here - but I think that
a performance by a male alto (with a voice like David Cordier
or Graham Pushee) would be much more convincing. The balance with
the (small) orchestra was a problem as well.
On the whole, though, it was a fine performance. There
is still a lot to discover, in particular oratorios of Ziani's
time. This kind of music hasn't been explored systematically yet.
Hopefully that will happen in the near future. The next piece
the Utrechts Barok Consort will perform is the oratorio La morte
d'Abel by Leonardo Leo (1694-1744).