Performance on 3 5/7/14 - 'Il Diluvio Universale'

[doversoul1]

No Lunchtime Concert this coming Saturday but the live evening concert will be interesting.

Cappella Mediterranea perform Il Diluvio Universale by the Sicilian composer Michelangelo Falvetti, live from Fribourg
[…]
The Flood in music: Michelangelo Falvetti, maestro di cappella at Messina Cathedral during the 1680s, is today a relatively neglected figure but his compositions burst with imagination and gripping drama (*here we go again). Il diluvio universale is a sacred 'dialogue' oratorio, in which there is no joined-up narrative (*whatever this means), but in which the soloists and chorus take roles in a sequence of dramatic tableaux. The subject is The Flood, and the cast includes God, Noah and his wife and a chorus of drowning folk, as well as Death, Divine Justice, Human Nature and the Four Elements (* not in the original).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b048bgj8

A highly theatrical concert performance (one of the characters in costume) here. With English subtitles. The video has a generous encore and an extensive promotional section. This is a performance at Ambronay with the same performers as this broadcast. You may prefer to watch before, after (or instead of) the broadcast. Either way, it is worth a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOE2A-A6yfs

Here is some more background information of the work.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Oct11/Falvetti_Diluvio_AMY026.htm

Incidentally, Cappella Mediterranea’s Il Nabucco also by Falvetti was played on CD Review somewhile ago. Some of us were very impressed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugoYVhFc5zI

[Radio64]

Thanks for the heads-up and for all the info.

A highly theatrical concert performance (one of the characters in costume) here. With English subtitles. The video has a generous encore and an extensive promotional section. This is a performance at Ambronay with the same performers as this broadcast. You may prefer to watch before, after (or instead of) the broadcast. Either way, it is worth a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOE2A-A6yfs

Love how the Lady springs up from the audience behind the conductor! Never seen that before..is it done often?

[Flosshilde]

Performance on 3 5/7/14 - 'Il Diluvio Universale'

Cappella Mediterranea performing Falvetti's Il Diluvio Universale, a late 17th century sacred 'dialogue' oratorio about the Flood. The cast includes God, Noah and his wife and a chorus of drowning folk, as well as Death, Divine Justice, Human Nature and the Four Elements.

A chorus of drowning folk? I wonder what they will sound like - "glub glub glub"?

[doversoul1]

Starting soon.

[doversoul1]

It sounds like this.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?11577-Il-diluvio-universal-by-Falvetti-Saturday-Live-in-Concert

[Barbirollians]

Give Radio 3 credit for broadcasting something out of the way like this - not my idea of Saturday night cloudless skies summer listening .

Thus a glass of wine and Barbirolli's Viennese album here

[Flosshilde]

I didn't listen to all of it, and it was one of those things where you needed the libretto to understand what was going on. It sounded rather lively for a piece about the Flood, but I missed the first 45 minutes so perhaps the deluge & drowning had happened by the time I got to it & it was rejoicing after the flood had subsided. Very enjoyable anyway - but sounding rather earlier than the late 17th century.

[Flosshilde]

Apologies ds - I hadn't seen this before I started my thread. I was a bit surprised that you hadn't brought it to our attention - I obviously didn't look hard enough.

[doversoul1]

Apologies ds - I hadn't seen this before I started my thread. I was a bit surprised that you hadn't brought it to our attention - I obviously didn't look hard enough.

Oh, no need to apologise, Floss. I should have posted it for the wider world to see, but if you have a chance, do look at the video. It’s quite a fun. As for the work sounding like an earlier Baroque, Falvetti was probably not one of those who pushed the frontier, and I imagine the musical taste in Sicily where he was living was probably not as progressive as, say, Venice.