RADIO LIVE (30’)
Francesco Cavalli
Il Giasone, 1649
A pupil of Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli is a key figure in the early history of music theatre, a genre that became “public” in 1637 with the opening of the Teatro di San Cassiano in Venice. It was, in fact, for the San Cassiano that in 1649 Cavalli composed Il Giasone, a dramma musicale that perfectly exemplifies the features of seventeenth century music theatre. The lecture considers a number of these features: the mythological subjects, the orchestral ritornelli, the ariosi over a basso ostinato, the choruses, the spectacular magical and “other-worldly” scenes. All these elements contribute to creating a varied dramaturgy that never fails to surprise and which sounds very modern to our ears.
