Doriclea
Music by Alessandro Stradella · libretto by Flavio Orsini
La Doriclea is a 1672 opera in three acts by Alessandro Stradella, first performed in Rome. It was Stradella's first opera. The libretto is probably by the Roman aristocrat and scholar Flavio Orsini. Giovanni Filippo Apolloni may also have been involved. The manuscript score was lost, rediscovered in 1938, then lost again until its recent re-discovery. According to Brian Robins, writing in the British magazine Opera, the libretto "is a brilliantly sardonic and sharply observed depiction of the vicissitudes and pleasures of love as seen through the joys and misadventures of three couples." The first modern performance was on 8 May 2004 at the Fifth Festival Luci e Tintinnii at the Teatro dei Varii in Colle di Val d'Elsa, a semi-staged production by the Alessandro Stradella Consort conducted by Estevan Velardi. A recording was made, but the conductor Velardi and the record producer Concerto Classics failed to obtain the necessary rights for wide release from the diocesan archive of Rieti, the owner of the manuscript score. In 2017, a double ruling by the Civil Court of Rome awarded the rights to the Arcana company and conductor Andrea De Carlo. The latter conducted a semi-staged performance on 2 September 2017 in the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, as part of the Festival Barocco Alessandro Stradella, and recorded it immediately thereafter. As of 2022, both recordings are available as digital downloads.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Doriclea (Stradella)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Antonio Alessandro Boncompagno Stradella (Bologna, 3 July 1643 – Genoa, 25 February 1682) was an Italian composer of the middle Baroque period. He enjoyed a dazzling career as a freelance composer, writing on commission, and collaborating with distinguished poets, producing over three hundred works in a variety of genres.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Alessandro Stradella", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.