La passione di Gesù Cristo, originally designated La passione di Nostro Signore for its première in Florence, is an Italian oratorio by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. The text is an oratorio libretto by Metastasio that was frequently set in the 18th century, first performed with music by Antonio Caldara in Vienna in 1730.For details about the original performance, see [Corago Corago project Eventi La passione of 1730]. The setting by Mysliveček was first given in Florence in 1773. It is perhaps the finest setting of Metastasio's La passione ever produced in the 18th century and was revived with some frequency during Mysliveček's lifetime and about a decade after his death in 1781.
Performance history Josef Mysliveček visited Florence a number of times in the 1760s, beginning soon after he moved to Italy from Prague late in 1763. At first, it was a valuable location for him to cultivate his activities as a teacher and violinist.Mysliveček's earlier periods of residence in Florence in 1765 and 1766 are detailed in Freeman (2022), pp. 29-33. Later, he was able to mount three productions of his operas in Florence (Ipermestra in 1769, and Motezuma in 1771 and Adriano in Siria in 1776) and three oratorios that marked his greatest period as a composer in that genre (Adamo ed Eva of 1771, La passione of 1773, and Isacco, figura del redentore of 1776).
The performance of La passione in Florence during Lent of 1773 was unknown until the results of a bibliographic study by Robert Lamar Weaver and Norma Wright Weaver were published in 1993.Robert Lamar Weaver ad Norma Wright Weaver, A Chronology of Music in the Florentine Theater, 1751-1800, Warren, Mich. 1993, p. 312. No libretto for the production survives; it is known only from mention of it in issues of the journal Gazzetta toscana that appeared in the spring of 1773. The names of the cast members are recorded in the Gazzetta toscana, but they are not matched to roles. The Gazzetta toscana reports that La passione was performed in the Porta Rossa of Florence first on 24 March 1773, then on 6 April before “an extraordinary gathering.” Earlier, the first performance was believed to have been in Prague at the church of St. Francis Serafin, as documented in librettos printed in Prague that record its performance at the church of St. Francis Serafin in the Old City on the morning of Good Friday of 1773 (9 April).Libretto for Mysliveček La passione 1773 Clearly, Mysliveček carefully coordinated performances of La passione almost simultaneously for presentation in Florence and Prague during Lent of 1773. A number of revivals of Mysliveček's La passione took place before the end of the 18th century, including a reprise in Florence during Lent of 1774 that is recorded in the Gazzetta toscana, with much the same cast as in 1773.Weaver & Weaver (1993), p. 323. A performance in Bologna is known to have taken place in 1777 and another performance in Prague in 1782, whereas the possibility of a performance in Munich during Mysliveček's stay in that city in 1777-78 is uncertain. A complete list of known performances of Mysliveček's La passione in the 18th century is found in Freeman (2022), pp. 488-89. The most notable revivals, however, took place in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome between 1780 and 1791.See Joyce L. Johnson, Roman Oratorio, 1770-1800: The Repertory at Santa Maria Vallicella, Ann Arbor 1987, p. 154. They functioned somewhat like companions for the performances of Mysliveček's oratorio Isacco that were even more popular at the Vallicella between 1779 and 1791.Johnson (1987), p. 152. Mysliveček probably brought the score of La passione with him to Rome in 1780 at the time of the performances there of his last two operas, Medonte and Antigono. He never left Rome before his death in the city in 1781. Perhaps the most important revival of La passione in the 21st century was a performance given by the early music ensemble Collegium 1704 in Prague as part of the Prague Spring International Music Festival of 2013.Mysliveček's La passione in Prague 2013.
Notes on the music Mysliveček's La passione is typical in many ways for an Italian oratorio written in the 1770s, with many stylistic traits borrowed from contemporary Italian opera seria.Discussion of the musical style of La passione is found in Freeman (2022), 226–27. As pointed out by Joyce L. Johnson, Mysliveček appears to have sought out the setting of Metastasio's La passione by Niccolò Jommelli, originally performed in 1749, as a stylistic model.Johnson (1987), p. 55. The “Mozartian” character of the score overall has been noted by Joyce L. Johnson.See the Introduction to her facsimile edition of Mysliveček's La passione, Johnson (1986).
Very similar to the conventions of opera seria, the dramatic presentation of a typical oratorio of the 18th century consists of recitatives that set up emotional states for which singers project their feelings in highly developed arias. The stories of oratorios in Italy of the 18th century were usually based on incidents drawn from the Old Testament that were built around family relationships, as would be normal in opera seria. The sacred content of oratorio texts mandated the avoidance of the kind of amorous intrigues that were a central preoccupation of opera seria. The musical settings tended to be conservative, with archaic devices such as counterpoint much more prominently deployed than in opera seria and also the inclusion of choruses in sacred style. Difficult passagework for the singers could find outlets, but the extravagant coloratura so beloved by audiences for opera seria was not favored.
The large-scale dramatic sections of oratorios are labeled “parts” instead of the “acts” of an opera, and there would usually be two “parts”. The texts of oratorios were generally much shorter than in opera seria with the typical number of arias just twelve total (six for each part). La passione follows this tradition faithfully.
As in opera seria, the presentation of an Italian oratorio of the 1770s would involve an unfolding of a regular succession of passages that relay the story line with intense expressions of the emotions of the principal characters. The basic story line would be mainly given out with passages in the style of recitative, which resembles the sound of human speech in song, generally without the repetition of words and is mainly caste in blank verse. Broadly speaking, there are two types of recitative: the “simple” type generally referred to in the 18th century as recitativo semplice (now usually referred to by professional musicians as recitativo secco, or “dry” recitative) and the more elaborate “accompanied” recitative. Simple recitative is scored for nothing but a vocal soloist and basso continuo, which would take the form of a bass instrument, especially cello, reinforced by improvised chords executed by a keyboard player (in the 1770s, typically harpsichord or a form of the early piano now frequently referred to as fortepiano). Accompanied recitative would involve the participation of the full operatic orchestra and was considered a special effect to be used only in moments of particularly intense emotional turmoil. The unusually poignant text for La passione invites many passages to be written in the style of accompanied recitative, the outstanding section set to the text “Qual terribil vendetta” in Part 2 as part of a vicious warning to the Jews of Jerusalem from Joseph of Arimathea concerning the eventual destruction of Jerusalem as atonement for the crucifixion of Christ and the rejection of His teachings.
The emotional states of the solo singers in an oratorio, as in opera seria, are highlighted in discrete vocal numbers referred to as "arias", which are set to rhymed verse cast in two stanzas of text. The way that the two stanzas of text were divided up was the object of considerable changing customs in the 1770s. Between 1690 and the early 1760s, Italian arias usually conformed to a pattern known as ABA form (or da capo form), which involved the setting of words from the first stanza of text only in a formalized first section (the “A” section), then the setting of words from the second stanza of text only in a formalized second section (the “B” section), followed by a verbatim repeat of the music for the first section (the “A” section). The “B” section could differ quite radically from the musical style of the “A” section, often sharing neither tempo nor meter. The differences between the two sections were governed by the choice of key words or phrase that were prominent in each of the two stanzas of text (the words of which were not shared between the two sections). By the mid-1760s, the length of arias was getting to be too long, so composers preferred to bring back only a portion of the “A” section after the “B” section was heard. The place at which the abbreviated repetition of the “A” section was supposed to start was indicated by a decorative letter “S”, leading to the terminology dal segno aria.The background and outlines of Mysliveček's development of aria forms (and his style of opera seria in general) is detailed in Freeman (2022), pp. 135-213.
The popularity of dal segno arias did not endure long, only until the mid-1770s. Mysliveček's opera Demetrio and oratorio La passione, both written in 1773, are the last of his dramatic works with dal segno arias in the majority (7 of the 12 arias of La passione are cast in dal segno form). Dal segno arias were mainly replaced by vocal pieces based on the standards of sonata form. In sonata form amalgamations, there would generally not be complete stops at the end of the presentations of each of the two stanzas of text. Instead, there would be a continuous presentation of music with only interim pauses between sections that corresponded to the exposition, development, and recapitulation sections of sonata form. The first stanza of text would be reserved for the sections of aria that corresponded to the exposition and recapitulation sections of sonata form, whereas the second stanza of text would be given to the equivalent of the development section.
Overall, the most beautiful and highly developed arias in La passione were written for the castrato Tommaso Guarducci, who probably sang the role of Joseph of Arimathea: “Torbido mar che freme” and “All’idea de’ tuoi perigli.” Both were carefully designed to highlight the kind of simple and direct vocal expression that was considered to be a specialty of his. In general, Mysliveček's operas and oratorios written for Florence exhibit more adventuresome use of wind instruments than works he wrote for other cities, but the orchestration for La passion is quite restrained, probably an indication that the instrumental ensemble used for the first production did not employ the most highly skilled players available in Florence at the time. Most of the arias are scored simply for oboes and French horns, the most common instrumentation for the arias in operas and oratorios throughout Italy in the 1770s, or else for voice and strings alone. Two of the arias for Saint Peter, “Tu nel duol felice” and “Se la pupilla inferna,” are scored for flutes and strings, and Mary Magdalene's aria “A i passi erranti” features an obbligato part for solo flute along with strings. The sound of flutes was usually introduced at this time to create a mood of tenderness.