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“Bravo!” Exclamations from Audience for Concerto de' Cavalieri’s Performance of “Erminia”

Date created: 06.08.2014.

“Erminia“ is Alessandro Scarlatti’s  final great serenade for all singing voices and instruments composed in 1723 in the event of the wedding of Ferdinand Colonn, Prince od Stigliano.  Performed with a great pomp in the family palace, it was surely a special social event described in the Gazzetta di Napoli magazine as the most relevant event of the year. However, following the event, “Erminia” was forgotten, only to be rediscovered three centuries later, in October of 2011, after which she was brought back to life on location of her premiere - in the Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano in Naples, with the help of a project initiated by Naples-based foundation Fondazione Pietà de’ Turchini. This upcoming concert at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival is the next step in this project with a goal of revaluating this Scarlatti’s masterpiece, which is of great musical and historical value. The ambient and acustics of the Rector’s Palace Atrium proved to be ideal for the playful “Erminia”. In this, in fact, miniature opera consisting of twenty musical numbers a rhythm of strictly alternating recitals and arias occurs, which therefore requires exceptional technical readiness of the singers, which last night’s soloists - sopranist Gemma Bertagnolli, contra-altist Mary-Ellen Nesi, tenor Magnus Staveland and bas Christian Senn – most surely possessed. A few minor tonality arias served as a lovely contrast to the fast tempo arias, especially the tenor number towards the end of the serenata. This Scarlatti’s serenata for four singing voices and an orchestra was a complete success amongst last night’s audience, as it awarded the performers with a grand applause and escorted them off stage exclaiming: “Bravo!”. 

Concerto de’ Cavalieri gained great reputation thanks to the precisiveness of its style and the warmth and liveliness of its interpretation, and is therefore considered one of the most attractive and exciting Italian ensembles performing 18th century music on original instruments. Their artisic director Marcello Di Lisa obtained his docorate degree in filology, as well as Greek and Latin literature at the University of Pisa, studied composition under Francesco Vizioli, and the harpsichord and fortepiano under Andrea Coena. He founded the Concerto de’ Cavalieri ensemble under the University Scula Normale Superiore in Pisa, and has ever since been conducting it at festivals and on concert stages in Italy and abroad. In his newest musical researches he deals with Alessandro Scarlatti’s unpublished partitures, while enjoying the name of one of the most successful interpreters of the mentioned composer’s music. In April of 2013, the magazine "Musical America" named him Artist of the Month.