Sebastiano Moratelli (1640-1706) – La Faretra Smarrita (The Lost Quiver) - Brunner

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Sebastiano Moratelli (1640-1706) – La Faretra Smarrita (The Lost Quiver) - Brunner

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Not much is known about Sebastiano Moratelli’s life, and his entire oeuvre, which is supposed to have included a number of operas and serenades, until recently was thought to have been lost. The rediscovery of the score of La “faretra smarrita” in the library of the Counts of Toerring-Jettenbach therefore amounts to a sensation. It finally allows us to form an impression of Moratelli’s compositional capabilities in their mature stage and of the “expressive power and naturalness” of his music so greatly esteemed by his contemporaries.

Moratelli, who came from Italy to Vienna before 1660, served as imperial chamber music director and music teacher to the Archduchess Anna Maria Josepha. On her marriage to Johann Wilhelm, Moratelli went along to Düsseldorf in 1679 and remained a member of the court there until his death.

Only the libretti of his operas remain extant, and they were written by Johann Wilhelm’s secretary Giorgio Maria Rapparini. It is also to Rapparini that we owe a large part of the little information that we have about the composer’s life. Rapparini may perhaps also have been the librettist of “La faretra smarrita”.

Since no printed libretto for the serenata has been transmitted to us (as is often the case in this genre) and Rapparini himself does not mention the work in a manuscript extant in Düsseldorf, his authorship of the work must remain a hypothesis.

Moratelli could look back on a career extending over almost fifty years when he finally requested that he be relieved of his duties as court music director. He then retired to Heidelberg, where he died in 1706.

• 1 Introduction (1:27)
• 2 Aria "Chi avesse trovato" (0:55)
• 3 Rec "Cercai di sfera in sfera" (0:50)
• 4 Rec "O gran figlio di Giove/Cerchi indarno a queste arene" (2:54)
• 5 Aria "Povero misero amor" (2:35)
• 6 Rec "Ma come quando e dove la gran dote/Dirò: già stuol di Ninfe" (2:17)
• 7 Aria "Superbetto pargoletto" (2:16)
• 8 Rec "Deh perche si feroce" (2:25)
• 9 Aria "Chi avesse trovato" (0:55)
• 10 Rec "Chiedi perle e tesori, Aria Quest’Amor" (2:45)
• 11 Rec "De' piu Barbari petti/D’all America ignuda" (0:59)
• 12 Aria "Legno sterile plebeo" (1:59)
• 13 Rec "Del America ignuda eccoci" (0:26)
• 14 Aria "Chi avesse trovato" (0:57)
• 15 Rec "Al dio amore" (0:56)
• 16 Aria "Lungi dai nostri cor" (3:13)
• 17 Rec "O di barbara terra" (1:23)
• 18 Aria "Giove a tutti e sempre Giove" (1:30)
• 19 Rec "Ogn' amator di te si lagna e duole" (2:26)
• 20 Aria "Chi avesse trovato" (0:55)
• 21 Aria "Ben venga Amor" (2:21)
• 22 Rec "Ma del turgasso aurato" (0:09)
• 23 Rec "Misero dove mi volgero" (5:09)
• 24 Tutti "Allegrezza/ Aria Amor più vago" (2:32)
• 25 Aria "Il candore di volto si vago" (1:24)
• 26 Aria "Tanta grazia ha il bel sembiante" (1:49)
• 27 Rec "Oggi quest'oggi appunto" (0:54)
• 28 Rec "Tuoi facondi cinabri" (1:12)
• 29 Tutti "Viva si lieto di" (1:33)