Search - Stradella, Minkowski :: San Giovanni Battista (St John the Baptist)

Not the Same Old Johnny!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 03/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"John the Baptist has the first word in this curious oratorio. First in recitativo and then in aria, the Baptist bids farewell to the "friendly forests" of peace and tranquillity where he has found refuge amid scenes of delight. Huh? Forests in the deserts of the Holy Land? John's disciples, singing in chorus, beg him not to leave, but John tells them that no voyage and no north winds can frighten him, with God as his pilot.



That's only the beginning of the strangeness of Alessandro Stradella's 1675 "San Giovanni Battista." Don't expect the story to be exactly what you learned in Sunday School. You WILL need the libretto to appreciate the dramatic logic of the singing, especially of Salome, who is a cold-hearted vengeful gold-digger, and of Herod, who is patently 'mad' in the Medieval tradition of 'Mad King Herods.' Soprano Catherine Bott, who sings Salome, has the iciest coloratura this side of the Queen of the Night, and a knife-like precision with her displays of quick notes and ornamentations. Basso Philippe Huttenlocher, as Herod, rumbles and bellows comically, as befits his hapless character.



The oratorio genre of Stradella's era was essentially a back-door intrusion of operatic music into the pious world of Counter-reformation Catholicism. Oratorios were in Latin and were performed in the 'oratories' of churches, as a kind of semi-opera 'at the altar.' This oratorio is in Italian. The music, especially the arias of the Baptist, sounds remarkably pastoral. In every way, this is as much a 'mixed genre' theatrical event as a play by Shakespeare. One of the surprising glories of this work is the large number of ensemble pieces - duets, madrigals for five, arias split into dialogues - all of which relieve the Baroque predictability of recitativo and da capo solo aria. That's all the more reason, by the way, for needing the libretto.



Giovanni Battista is sung by male alto Gerard Lesne, with his usual palette of emotional subtleties. Such a sweet, soulful, velvety Prophet he is, this Baptist of Stradella's! Not the same voice in the wilderness that Richard Strauss heard! Lesne's arias and his ensemble pieces with the rest of the cast are the most luscious musical moments of the performance.



Stradella the man was something of a 'mixed genre' himself. Born into the minor Italian aristocracy in 1644, he was for a while one of the intimate circle of artistic types surrounding Queen Christina of Sweden in Roma. In 1669 he was part of a scheme to embezzle money from the Church, a criminal act that didn't interfere with his composition of numerous cantatas on sacred themes. When Pope Clement X declared 1675 a "Holy Year", Stradella was chosen to compose one of fourteen oratorios paid for the a confraternity of wealthy Florentines in Roma; San Giovanni Battista is that composition. From Roma, Stradella moved on to Venice, where he seduced his patron's mistress and fled with her to Turin. The patron, Alvise Contarini, hired assassins to kill Stradella for revenge, but they bungled the job, merely wounding him. Stradella took refuge in Genova, where another romantic escapade earned him another attack by thugs in the street, this time successful. He was 38 years old.



Stradella may have been the most famous of Baroque composers during the 19th Century, even though his music was never performed. At least two popular novels and three operas were composed around the tale of his life.



Superb singing, excellent orchestral support, and a unique dramatic concept make "San Giovanni Battista" quite an interesting recording. Get it in this 1992 package, before you're stuck with the current re-release."

Yoo-hoo! Here's the libretto to this masterpiece!

Greenlight | Vermont | 07/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Everyone raves about Minkowski's revival of "San Giovanni Battista," a fairly obscure 1675 vocal masterpiece by one Alessandro Stradella. And if you waited too long to be convinced to listen to it, you're stuck buying a budget reissue with (of course!) no libretto.



The simple solution is to buy the original pressing, which thoughtfully included the complete Italian libretto. As of this review, it's still available on Amazon.



Plus, the first pressing has that racy, oh-so-baroque cover art. One could almost call the anonymous 17th century painting Boccaccio-esque, but that's about as ugly and anachronistic a neologism as one might devise in remarking on this very cool painting.



While technically San Giovanni Battista (St. John the Baptist) is classed as an oratorio (with its Biblical theme, its intermission for a sermon, and its static rather than dramatic staging for the soloists) in other ways it breaks completely out of the church-music mold: It is sung in Italian, not in Latin; in its pacing, tension and fireworks the piece winds up somewhere closer to opera; and it was composed by a man whose real-life foolishness, romantic escapades and joie de vivre could make Tom Hulce's Amadeus look like a choir boy. Hence, this potentially incongruous choice of cover art is exactly appropriate here. The exotic flavor of the painting gives you a foretaste of the entirely different musical world that you'll hear summoned up. Who knew? The earlier the opera, the more revolutionary! It's all utterly delectable -- yes, even with that notorious beheading.



To sum up, this performance lives up to the reputation. It is, as promised, a blast, and it continues to bear up very well under repeated -- even repetitive -- listening. Catherine Bott has been this generation's most dazzling baroque soprano, and she was at her peak here. For all of these reasons, Minkowski's revival of this gem shouldn't be missed."