In retrospect it is easy to say, but the Peralada Festival had been collecting for years the necessary elements to give meaning to an Easter edition like the one that is celebrated this year for the second time. To begin with, it counted on the fidelity and complicity of this exceptional interpretive tandem formed by the musical director Dani Espasa and the countertenor Xavier Sabata, long-term friends and collaborators, who were united by the desire to discover wonders of the baroque repertoire, such as that operatic oratorio by Alessandro Stradella with which they opened the competition this year, on Holy Thursday in the Carme church, with all the carnality and theatrical ardor of the Seicento. Pure mystical sensuality.
But Peralada also had a similar audience that was sensitive to spirituality and proud of the artistic abilities made in Catalonia. A partly international audience that yesterday applauded for five minutes this San Giovanni Battista from 1675 to which Dani Espasa and his group Vespres d’Arnadí have carried out archaeology and recovered the original score of what is considered the pioneer of the concerto grosso. Espasa conducted up to 15 musicians from the harpsichord and organ, with an endless number of violas and two solo violins in dialogue, as well as a generous continuo. Salzburg Pentecost directed by Cecilia Bartoli has a small rival in Mediterranean Europe.
There were many attractions to approach Peralada… even the mayor of Barcelona, ??Jaume Collboni, decided on his own initiative, taking advantage of the fact that he was heading north. That Stradella was at the time a cult composer, copied by Handel himself (he quotes him in his Giulio Cesare in Egitto) and influential in later generations, already made the premiere in Catalonia a must, an opera with beautiful passages and intense musical theatricality. . But fame precedes this composer, best known for his Casanova vision. Seducing the married women to whom he intended to give music lessons ended up being his downfall… In times when honor crimes were normal, this Don Juan had to flee Rome, a city that was natural to him, since they could debut in the same Easter up to a dozen oratories. They were on the verge of killing him twice, until the third time, in Genoa, was the charm.
To the novelistic life of the composer – of whom novels and operas were written – was added the plot of this biblical oratorio. Sabata, who was already beheaded last year by Giuditta in this same square, was beheaded this time by Salomé in her role as Saint John the Baptist… who sings a then-new da capo aria, “Io per me non cangerei.” Called by God, the protagonist approaches the court of King Herod (bass Luigi Donato) in order to convert him to the true faith, while his wife (soprano Elena Copons) and his daughter Salome, a spectacular Giulia Semenzato, chosen by Espasa himself and unforgettable in his aria “Queste lagrime e sospiri”, they convince the king of the opposite. His advisor (tenor Juan Sancho) remains impartial. Salomé cuts off his head without remorse, and the opera ends on point, with a question, in the modern style.
A few cameras wandering around the church nave confirmed that this premiere does not fall on deaf ears. Peralada is building his baroque collection.
