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- From: CZ03@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CZ03000)
- Newsgroups: rec.music.early
- Subject: Poppea revisited
- Message-ID: <23DEC92.11093373.0074.MUSIC@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
- Date: 23 Dec 92 05:16:17 GMT
- Article-I.D.: MUSICA.23DEC92.11093373.0074.MUSIC
- Sender: Early Music List <EARLYM-L@AEARN.BITNET>
- Lines: 39
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-
- In the Monteverdi seminar that just finished here at McGill
- University, we spent several classes dealing with the multitude
- of questions that arise when one examines L'Incoronazione di
- Poppea. Not least of these intrigues is the question of
- attribution. Noted scholar Alan Curtis suggests that large
- portions of Ottone's role and the final duet ("Pur ti miro") are
- in fact the work of some other, younger composer(s). After
- conducting a performance of Francesco Socrati's "La finta pazza"
- in 1989 (the score was thought lost until its recent re-discovery
- by Lorenzo Bianconi), Curtis was convinced that Socrati was the
- true composer of the famous concluding duet between Nero and
- Poppea. Anyone interested in following up on this research might
- wish to read:
- 1. Curtis, Alan. La Poppea Impasticciata or, Who wrote the
- Music to L'Incoronazione (1643)?. Journal of the
- American Musicological Society, 42 (1989): 22-54.
- 2. the Foreword and Preface to: Monteverdi, Claudio.
- L'incoronazione di Poppea. Alan Curtis, editor. London :
- Novello, 1989.
-
- Personally, I prefer the Hickox recording partly because it is so
- stark. However, if this was the way it was first performed, we
- are left wondering what the string players did for most of the
- opera's length. Their music only adds up to about ten minutes.
- Others have dealt with this problem by changing the
- orchestration, hence the recorders in the N. Harnoncourt version
- and the interpolated, non-Monteverdian ritornellos in the Rene
- Jacobs recording. By the way, since Jacobs does not credit the
- composers of these ritornellos, some people have suggested that
- he composed at least a few himself. I would be curious to know
- what anyone else has to say. His version of Il Ritorno d'Ulisse
- in Patria should be available soon. It will be interesting to see
- what he does with it.
-
- A final note: A facsimile edition of Socrati's "La finta pazza"
- is in preparation according to one source. Has anyone heard
- anything further?
-
- David Curtis (cz03@musica.mcgill.ca)
-