Elizabeth Mortimer
Dramas from Oratorios, Oratorios on the Opera Stage
Translation of an Essays from the International Mozarteum Foundation's Almanach for the Mozartwoche 2007 (excerpt)
The first origins of the oratorio may be found in the musical settings of sacred narrative and dramatic texts in the Middle Ages. However, the real beginnings of the genre are to be found in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, where an ever-increasing interest in settings of dramatic and narrative texts gave rise first to opera and then to oratorio.
The social context from which the oratorio emerged was provided by the spiritual exercises of the Congregazione dell'Oratorio in Rome, founded by Filippo Neri (1515-1595). He regularly used to organise meetings for prayer and the discussion of spiritual matters during which the old art of singing praises (laude) was practised in the oratory (prayer hall) of San Girolamo della Carità. Filippo Neri, son of a notary from Florence, became the director of an association of world priests and was known as a “laughing saint” because he interspersed his sermons with jokes and was a kind of court fool for the Roman clergy. Thanks to his efforts a serious sacred form of music theatre began to develop.
The first work to combine Florentine opera with traditions of liturgical drama and popular forms of portrayal was premiered in 1600 in the oratory at the Chiesa Nuova in Rome. The composer, Emilio de Cavalieri (1550-1602) was a member of the Roman aristocracy, a musician, diplomat, choreographer and dancer. His work Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo (The Play of Mind and Body) exemplifies the difficulties in distinguishing between oratorio and opera, between concert hall, sacred halls and theatres. Cavalieri's expressive songs were written in monodic style, characteristic of opera in Florence at that time. The choruses have the role of a commentary and are important for conveying the message of the work, something already typical of oratorio.
The Kollegienkirche in Salzburg, with its magnificent theatrical and spatial concept created by the great Baroque architect Johann Fischer von Erlach, provided an ideal setting for performances of Cavalieri's “great world theatre” at the Salzburg Festival. For many visitors in the late 1960s it was an unforgettable musical and dramatic experience.