I love the way events--history, if you will--appear and disappear, changing in ever unexpected ways. Such is the case with George Frideric Handel’s comic cantata Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno: Cor fedele in vano speri ("A faithful heart hopes in vain"). Handel wrote this piece in 1707 when he was quite young and living in Italy. There is a record of its existence, but no record of it ever having been performed, although it surely would have been. As a cantata it’s possible it was never staged as an opera, but the early Italian love of theater makes it likely it was staged as well as sung in a concert. Other than that one record of the work being written, it disappeared from history, leaving nothing but a fragmentary manuscript score at the British Museum.
And then, wonder of wonders, in 1960 a musicologist announced he had found a complete score in a collection at Münster. It’s the only score in existence, now published, and we can hear this delightful piece in its entirety--a piece of formerly lost history, if you will.
Which brings me to Chicago’s newest opera company, The Haymarket Opera. This last weekend they staged, for the first time in Chicago, Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno. And what a delight it was, too! Haymarket tries to reproduce, as closely as possible, Baroque performance practices, including costumes, sets, choreography, and even hand movements. The orchestra uses period instruments, using, in this performance, the harpsichord, the recorder, and the beautiful archlute (image below), performed by the renowned lutist Michael Leopold.
There are only three vocal parts, two being “pants roles,” roles sung by women acting as the shepherdess Clori’s suitors. The story is the slight and mostly silly, but one doesn’t go to a performance like this for the story; Aida it ain’t. One goes for the music and this was excellent. The Haymarket performs at the intimate Mayne Stage in the northern suburb of Rogers Park, and sitting in this 300 seat venue it’s hard not to imagine that I was watching a performance much as Handel himself would have seen it done over 300 years ago. History indeed!
And then, wonder of wonders, in 1960 a musicologist announced he had found a complete score in a collection at Münster. It’s the only score in existence, now published, and we can hear this delightful piece in its entirety--a piece of formerly lost history, if you will.
Which brings me to Chicago’s newest opera company, The Haymarket Opera. This last weekend they staged, for the first time in Chicago, Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno. And what a delight it was, too! Haymarket tries to reproduce, as closely as possible, Baroque performance practices, including costumes, sets, choreography, and even hand movements. The orchestra uses period instruments, using, in this performance, the harpsichord, the recorder, and the beautiful archlute (image below), performed by the renowned lutist Michael Leopold.
There are only three vocal parts, two being “pants roles,” roles sung by women acting as the shepherdess Clori’s suitors. The story is the slight and mostly silly, but one doesn’t go to a performance like this for the story; Aida it ain’t. One goes for the music and this was excellent. The Haymarket performs at the intimate Mayne Stage in the northern suburb of Rogers Park, and sitting in this 300 seat venue it’s hard not to imagine that I was watching a performance much as Handel himself would have seen it done over 300 years ago. History indeed!
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