Vivaldi: Cessate, omai cessate, RV 684 (2/2) - Mingardo

High resolution and stereo sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFd2N4ZbuLY&fmt=18

Antonio Vivaldi
Cessate, omai cessate, RV 684
cantata for contralto voice, instruments and basso continuo


In this recording:

Sara Mingardo, contralto
Concerto Italiano
Rinaldo Alessandrini
Opus 111


The cantata follows the typical scheme of Recitative--Aria--Recitative--Aria (RARA). There is a variant of this cantata (RV 684a), an earlier version without the first recitative and quite different from this one.

The only source of the text, by an unknown author, is the autograph score. One observation is that a similar text was used in an aria from Vivaldi's opera "L'incoronazione di Dario", at the opening of the second act. The text by Adriano Morselli is as follows:

Cessa tiranno amor
di tormentarmi più.
Già barbaro e crudel
quest'anima fedel
hai posta in servitù.

"... if one examines the content, one sees that in the first aria the aggrieved singer resolves to kill himself; in the following recitative he prepares to die; in the last aria he pictures himself as the "shade of a Bacchante" on the gloomy banks of Acheron, ready to take revenge. So we have a conventional, but complete plot.
...

As for the content, there is a mixture of ferocity and commiseration arising from the fact that the singer addresses two different objects: his "cruel memories" and his "wretched, injured and forsaken heart". Only in the last two verses does cruelty pertain no longer to the memories but to the beloved's "pitiless countenance" and "faithless soul", Dorilla's cruelty being emphasized, in the score, by a unison of all the instruments."
...

The first recitative makes the work more expressive and, by virtue of its double character, seems to have been given the function of introducing the cantata as a whole rather than just its first aria."

- Luigi Cataldi


Original text:

Recitativo

A voi dunque ricorro,
orridi spechi, taciturni orrori,
solitari ritiri ed ombre amiche;
tra voi porto il mio duolo,
perché spero da voi quella pietade
che Dorilla inumana non annida.
Vengo, spelonche amate,
vengo, spechi graditi,
alfine meco involto
in mio tormento in voi resti sepolto.

Aria

Nell'orrido albergo,
ricetto di pene,
potrò il mio tormento
sfogare contento,
potrò ad alta voce
chiamare spietata
Dorilla l'ingrata,
morire potrò.

Andrò d'Acheronte
su la nera sponda,
tingendo quest'onda
di sangue innocente,
gridando vendetta
ed ombra baccante
vendetta farò.


Translation (by Luigi Cataldi):

Recitativo

So it is to you,
gloomy places, silent horrors,
lonely caves and friendly shades,
that I come and bring my grief,
because I hope to obtain from you a pity
that is not to be found in ungrateful Dorilla.
Beloved caves, I come,
I come, welcoming places,
until finally, racked by my pains,
I will bury myself in you.

Aria

In this horrible refuge,
sheltering from my pains,
I shall be able to give vent
to my grief,
to call out:
'Dorilla heartless and ungrateful',
and to die.

I'll go to the gloomy banks of Acheron,
staining that stream
with my blameless blood,
crying for revenge
and, like the shade of a Bacchante,
I will take my revenge.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Antonio
• Vivaldi
• Cessate
• omai
• Sara
• Mingardo
• Concerto
• Italiano
• Rinaldo
• Alessandrini
• cantata
• contralto

[3F93]

There is something I can’t understand. In some sources I find written «Potrò ad alta voce chiamare spietata Dorilla, l’ingrata morire potrò», that means «I’ll be able to call fierce Dorilla, the ungrateful (= Dorilla) I will able to kill», but in this score and in other sources there is written «Potrò ad alta voce chiamare spietata Dorilla, l’ingrata, morire potrò», which is «I’ll be able to call the ungrateful Dorilla fierce, I will able to die (= kill myself)», that coma is driving me mad. :(

[tpzvn]

nice exemple to laern score-reading for my young students, thanks!

[supermariop2007]

really nice, thanks for the videos!

[dominiquedv]

C'est dans ma tessiture, je vais pouvoir le chanter si vous laissez la partition suffisamment longtemp!

Belle voix que celle de Sarah Mingardo, et j'adore Vivaldi.

[margotlorena]

actually there are several parts that remind me of dov'e la figlia, by the way, any chance of finding a webpage with all of vivaldi scores?? his scores are so hard to get.

[margotlorena]

2.14 to 2.16 reminds me of dov'e la figlia ;)

[OedipusColoneus]

And continue the recitative parts... :) Bach made many copys from arias or chorales from cantata to cantata and other works, but never made a copy of a recitative. I love particulary the last one of the BWV 170 (Scholl version) that is a heavenly minute. I make the uploads of most of the cantatas with the recitative parts, but with the scores maybe the people start to look at them with other motivation. In that, and so many others, your work with Eser in the Handel cantatas its marvellous.

[OedipusColoneus]

Hello Marc,

Yes it is. I allways love the recitative parts in the same way that I love the arias. Not to talk about the obvious ones, I particulaty love the Schutz ones: I don't know if you already listen Martin Hummel doing the Evangeliste in Auferstehungs Historie conducted by Rene Jabobs. It's really beautiful.