IT JUST SO HAPPENED: I had met my landladys Mother at a lecture on 16th century Italian artists from Conegliano, but I had no idea that she was an author. Liana Martones published a book last year, DONNE CONEGLIANESI TRA SOGGERZIONE E POTERE (Secoli XVI e VII) I think it translates Conegliano Women: Between Constraint and Power in the 16th and 17th Centuries). We had Easter lunch together, and she is taking me to a library in Venice tomorrow where hopefully we will find letters of Collaltino. It just so happens that she has an interest in my topic, and she is well-known to the librarians. It would be difficult for me to get permission to have access to the secret stacks in the libraries on my own, as I am not a researcher. So, good fortune is a faithful friend in this fairy tale that I am living. I am hopeful that we find a letter or two or six. Today is a monumental day. I have just finished Gasparas last recitative and aria started the first of April. (It is the first written but appears at the end of the cantata.) It has been like giving birth in many ways. The poem is so painful, and it made me remember something that my dear friend Thelma Hall (Rome, GA) said during the last days of her life, I must feel all of the pain. All of it...... Her words were printed into the very fabric of my being, even though her intent was not fully known, it was palpable as grief to quote her in her own words.. In writing this recitative and aria, I had to feel all of Gasparas pain, and it was significant. She had found the love of her life, and he ignored her and wounded her terribly. She was a woman who lived way before her time, and she was celebrated in her days for her willingness to reveal her feelings, for the subtle psychological study to which she subjected herself, and for her spontaneous freedom of expression. (Stortoni xxiv) For many years, she was portrayed as a naive and tragic victim of love, but, in reality, she was at all times, a true artist, fully aware of her poetic goals and fully conscious of the value of her endeavors. (Stortoni xxiv) Stampas poems circulated and were read and admired in Venetian salons. The madrigals were surely performed and sung. Thus, the literary story became well-known and started to run parallel to the love story. Her words: VIVER ARDENDO E NON SENTIRE IL MALE (To live burning and not to feel the pain) will be part of a prayer in THE DIVINE SIREN. One doesnt know if she was calling out to the Almighty, or whether she is talking to herself as she felt she was Gods equal or was God. This movement will be scored for choir, and she, during the intimate choral prayer, will erupt violently with the words above and, LASSA, CHIO SOLA VINCO LINFINTO! Thus, I alone conquer infinity. A chamber choir will sing against the larger choir at the interval of a tritone.......O SACRED HEAD NOW WOUNDED. It will be dramatic......so dramatic. Cant wait to see how it unfolds. 175 measures into my projects....... :) I am making progress. I am just slow. Pressing onward. J
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 12:51:02 +0000
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