Manuel García’s annotated works form the backbone of this concert, a celebration both of García and the art of nineteenth-century bel canto. The concert is research in action supported by an Australian Research Council-funded Discovery Project entitled “The shock of the old: Hearing the sounds of bel canto 1700–1900,” now in its final stages at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The project has excavated evidence of singing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through the lens of early recorded evidence, brought to life in experimental artistic interpretations by an expert team and disseminated across the globe. This concert also enhances the ecosystem of research-led education at Sydney Conservatorium with collaboration between the bel canto research project and SCM’s Early Music Ensemble – a training ground for period instrument and performance style.

We present an imagined opera commencing with the Sinfonia (overture) to Domenico Cimarosa’s opera Il matrimonio segreto (1792), widely regarded as the finest Italian comic opera of the late-eighteenth century. Premiered in Vienna at the Burgtheater under Emperor Leopold II’s patronage, it was so successful that the emperor commanded an immediate repeat performance—the only known encore of an entire opera in history. The work’s witty libretto, centered on a secretly married couple navigating familial pretensions and romantic misunderstandings, sparkles with Cimarosa’s graceful melodies, deft ensemble writing, and warmth of character reminiscent of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. This sets the scene for our imagined opera exploring the themes of love, loss, madness and death.

Performed by Jordan Sarkis and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Early Music Ensemble, conducted by Neal Peres Da Costa

The wranglings of love are explored in Cimarosa’s aria “Pria che spunti” from Il matrimonio segreto, tonight sung by tenor Jordan Sarkis. García’s tells us that: Carolina, the daughter of a rich merchant, has been asked in marriage, at the moment when she has just secretly married Paolino, an employee of her father. At the point of fleeing with his wife, Paolino tells her of the plans he has made to assure their withdrawal, and seeks to overcome her scruples by the keenest tenderness and the softest persuasion. A gracious and tender voice, ornaments and accents imitative of the delicate or vigorous nuances: such are the means which will give to this admirable piece its true color and will make evident all the charm of it.

Recitative and Aria “Che per pietà mi dice … Ah! Parlate” from Sacrificio d’Abramo

Performed by Claire Burrell-McDonald and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Early Music Ensemble, conducted by Neal Peres Da Costa

After such a gracious aria we are immediately plunged into the depths of despair in which the anguish of loss and death are portrayed in Cimarosa’s recitative “Che per pieta mi dice” and aria “Ah! Parlate” from his opera Sacraficio d’Abraham, first performed in Naples 1786 and sung tonight by soprano Claire Burrell-McDonald. García explains: Abraham has left to go to carry out the order which he has received, to immolate his son. Sara, whom the poet supposes has been warned of his misfortune, looks for Isaac everywhere; the … piece includes the eloquent depiction of her torments. The most dangerous pitfall in the expression of energetic feelings is exaggeration or triviality; one avoids above all this last fault, by setting off by the purity and perfect correctness of style what the expression would have of excessive simplicity and vulgarity.

Performed by Anna Fraser, Jacob Lawler, Hannah Lane, and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Early Music Ensemble, conducted by Neal Peres Da Costa

From despair and anguish we visit an intimate world of lost love depicted through the ethereal sounds of the glass harmonica imitated by Anna Fraser (soprano), Jacob Lawler (flute) and Hannah Lane (harp) in Francesco Morlacchi’s (1784–1841) aria “Morir ciel qual concento” from the opera Tebaldo ed Isolina, premiered in Venice in 1822. According to García:

Performed by David Greco and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Early Music Ensemble, conducted by Neal Peres Da Costa

Opera is nothing without its moments of madness. In Giaochino Rossini’s recitativo “Si, vi sarà vendetta” and aria: “Deh ti ferma” from the opera Semiramide, first performed Venice 1823, baritone David Greco portrays the insanity of the character Assur. According to García: Assur, devoured by ambition and arrogance, pursues with an implacable hatred of the one whose rise has just annihilated his power. He has already poisoned the old King Ninus in the hope of securing the sceptre, and he is contemplating the assassination of the newly chosen king. At the moment of entering the tomb of the Assyrian monarch, where he hopes to take his victim by surprise, he suddenly experiences a mysterious uneasiness; his imagination presents to him some frightening phantoms. The desire for vengence, anger, profound terror, bewilderment, the fear of death, supplication, such is the series of different shades with which this impassioned scene is stamped by turns.

Performed by Anna Fraser and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Early Music Ensemble, conducted by Neal Peres Da Costa

The final vocal number in our imagined opera tells the tale of resounding love in Girolamo Crescentini’s (1762–1846) aria “Idolo del mio cor” sung (likely by Crescentini – a famous castrato and singing teacher) and premiered at La Scala Milan in 1796. The aria was inserted into the opera Romeo e Giuletta (1796) by Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli Sung tonight by Anna Fraser. This exquisitely lyrical cavatina epitomises the bel canto ideal of the late- eighteenth century, marrying refined sentiment with elegant melodic ornamentation. Its poised simplicity and expressive nuance made it one of the most admired examples of Crescentini’s art and a model for later vocal style.

© Neal Peres Da Costa