My festival (continued)

Monteverdi (<- click to listen) Combattimento (<- click to listen)

This is by far the piece I like best out of everything I have seen performed by Rolando. Although I was quite a long way from the stage, in front of the altar in that huge Saint-Denis nave, I was not disappointed by the colours of the voices compared to the CD I had so often listened to. I discovered a different story altogether when I listened to this work under Emmanuelle Haïm 's vivid direction. I knew this first attempt to make an opera recorded by already an expert in this field, Rinaldo Alessandrini; I had read what he wrote about Monteverdi in "Monteverdi" (Actes Sud Classica). But I must say the way the three singers, Patrizia CIofi, Topi Lehtipuu and Rolando Villazon interpreted this music and text, made it sound more modern and much nearer to my understanding and emotions. E. Haïm revisited this musical testimonial and really brought it to life. I enjoy that long musical arabesque Rolando's voice makes with (to my ears), some El Andalus accents which made me try to discover whether Monteverdi, in this amazing Venezia open to seas and conquests, had not been in contact with other musicians from the middle East; it would suit the story as well, which today sounds even more modern. "Notte, che nel profondo oscuro seno Chiudesti, e ne l'oblio,fatto si grande: degne d'un chiaro sol, degne d 'un pieno teatro opre sarian si memorande! Piacciati ch'indi il tragga, e'n bel sereno alle future età lo spieghi e mande. Viva la fama lor, e tra lor gloria Splenda dal fosco tuo l'alata memoria(...)." As I am not a musician, just a music lover, I only find clues from my listening and reading. While it is not difficult to see Byzantine influences on Venetian architecture, with music I can only rely on what I feel.

Reading Monteverdi's letters, I found one clue which made me happy and perhaps Rolando felt he had to give this melopy this exotic tinge, the way he vocalises...

'Letter to Giovanni Battista Doni' Venice Feb.2nd 1634, at one point, Claudio is talking about new instruments which lead to the discovery of new sounds and therefore new emotions. It is about a cythara or cittern - his sponsor in Rome has a new one and is looking for the newest ones. Claudio is sending him the drawing of one he had seen and heard thirty years before in Mantua:
'' The one I saw in Mantua, thirty years ago, was played and made by an Arabic musician who then came from Turkey, and was staying at the court in Mantua: it was a cythara, the same shape and dimensions as ours, with the same strings, and tuned like ours.

"What was different was its soundboard, half made of wood on the neck side, and on its lower part half made of a sheepskin well stretched and glued round the sound box. The strings were also attached to the sound box and were resting on a bridge situated in the middle of the skin.
"The musician's little finger touching the strings made the sheepskin vibrate and sounds came out with a tremolo most agreable and like I had never heard before...(...)"
I am fascinated by this passage which shows the musician's concern about finding new sounds and emotions. While the poem 'Tancrede and Clorinda ' by Tasso is already moving, this impossible love between a Muslim princess and a Christian knight from the crusades put into music is really amazing.
That the dying princess wants to be baptised is not suprising as conversions were frequent in Venice at that time.
Monteverdi knew Tasso and was looking for new instruments for a new style: opera, with characters and emotions. He knew Arabic musicians and probably Arabic merchants. Being a priest in charge of the music and fêtes at San Marco, he must have been well aware of the number of conversions in Venice by Jews, Turks, Ottomans, for all sort of good reasons, especially business. As early as the XIIth century Ottoman muslims who came to Venice as merchants or slaves underwent conversion. In 1557 the 'catecumeni' were instutionalised, with the church providing religious instruction.

These pictures are in Cannaregio, it is a merchant's house, a rich Arabic merchant with his camel. Not far away is the Campo dei Mori.

Venice inspired Shakespeare: Othello and the Merchant of Venice.
Both reveal this important religious and ethnic problem.
Turks and Venitians had a sort of love-hate relationship for centuries.
La Serenissima needed the Byzantine empire for its richness and fame.
Constantinople wanted to rule Europe.

Rolando's voice and exotic accents open the door to all these ancient dreams.