Description
overture for orchestra
Edition: score
Publisher: Conrad Misch
Year: 1781
Difficulty: easy to medium difficulty
The oratorio was composed in 1781, based on a textbook written by Pietro Metastasio. Metastasio was a celebrated poet at the court in Vienna – “Poetra Cesareo” – and had written the text as early as 1740. Com-bined with music by Predieri, the oratorio was performed in Holy Week 1740, as the Lent was the time of the year in the 18th century when operas were replaced by oratorios. It had long been musico-religious tradition at the imperial court in Vienna to attend the performance of an oratorio in the court chapel during Holy Week. Naturally, the ‘action’ of the oratorio had to be closely connected to the Passion of Jesus and the text had to be written in Italian language.
The fact that Marianna Martines sets this text to music again – 40 years after the first composition – may be explained from her biography. But only in part, because up to the end of the 18th century Metastasio’s text were repeatedly used as the basis of new compositions. Even Mozart was one of these composers who set Metastasio’s texts to music once again.
The oratorio was premiered just a few months after Metastasio’s death.
