CONCERT FOR THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN

Every year on 15 August the Basilica S. Maia Gloriosa dei Frari the Feast celebrates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, which includes a concert of sacred music. Above the altar is the magnificent painting by Titian depicting the moment of the assumption of the Virgin on clouds supported by angels. This year the concert will be performed by the Ensemble Musica Venezia with arias drawn from a masterpiece rarely present in the repertoire: the oratorio “The Triumph of the Virgin assumed into Heaven,” with music by Alexander Scarlatti to a text by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. It is a “dramatic oratorio” with an unusual structure, since it is without a choir or a narrator – there is only a dialogue among four participants: Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and two allegorical figures, Love and Eternity.

Scarlatti, a central figure in the introduction of innovations in the oratorio genre, was in Rome when Cardinal Ottoboni, born in Venice of a noble family in 1667, grandnephew of Pope Alexander VIII and already in 1689 at the age of 22 invested with the cardinal’s purple by his granduncle the pope, reigned as a patron of music and the arts in Rome. Ottoboni’s patronage extended to other great musicians such as Vivaldi, Handel and Corelli.

Scarlatti composed other oratorios to texts by Ottoboni: “The Passion of Jesus Christ” and “Saint Ursula”, but those dedicated to the virgin are different: “The Annunciation”, “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin” and “The Tirumph of the Virgin Assumed into Heaven.” Arias from the “Triumph” and works of sacred music by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Pergolesi an Gallo will be performed by Diana Trivellato, soprano and Sara Tommasini, contralto, with the accompaniment of Ensemble Musica Venezia. There will be an introduction in Italian by Federica Zagatti and in English by Roberta Reeder. The concert will take place at the Basilica dei Frari on 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption, at 4.00 p.m. Admission free.