bajazet, a castrato and a trouser role
I recently bought the CDs of Vivaldi’s ‘pastiche opera’ Bajazet, also known as Il Tamerlano. It’s loosely based on the story of the life of the 14th century warrior Timur the Lame and the emperor Bajazeth, as was Marlowe’s play Tamburlaine the Great. I saw the National Theatre’s production of Tamburlaine the Great in 76/77 (Albert Finney was Tamburlaine) and it was grim indeed – Vivaldi’s version is a sunlit picnic by comparison.
I wanted to listen to Bajazet because of the singing of Marijana Mijanovič, my favourite Serbian. I saw her singing Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina in Amsterdam a couple of years ago and was bowled over – I do love a woman in a trouser role. In Bajazet she sings the part of Asteria:
Other highlights of these CDs are Patrizia Ciofi singing ‘Nasce rosa lusinghiera’ (one of the tracks in this mix) and this aria, ‘Qual guerriero in campo armato’, from Vivica Genaux:
Vivica Genaux is a mezzo more famous for singing Bellini etc. apparently. I’d never heard of her, let alone heard her singing – I’m a real ignoramus when it comes to grand opera. This aria was written for the castrato Farinelli by his brother, Riccardo Broschi, who was probably the one who arranged for Farinelli to be castrated at the age of 12 or so. So I guess he owed Farinelli a hit aria.
If you’re wondering how it is that an aria by Riccardo Broschi appears in a Vivaldi opera, Wikipedia’s on hand:
Bajazet is a pasticcio. It was a common practice during Vivaldi’s time for composers to borrow and adapt arias from other composers with their own works for an opera. Vivaldi himself composed the arias for the good characters (Bajazet, Asteria and Idaspe) and mostly used existing arias from other composers for the villains (Tamerlano, Irene, Andronico) in this opera. Some of the arias are reused from previous Vivaldi operas.
Fascinating!
