This year we are set on reviving the figure of Johann Adolph Hasse. After the successful performance of his oratorio Sanctus Petrus e Sancta Maria Magdalena at the Peralada Festival, on August 17th we will appear at the Torroella Festival with an early serenata by the same composer: Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra. Hasse, who was immensely influential in his time and even rivalled with Handel, composed more than sixty operas and stood out for his elegant, balanced and noble style, as well as his remarkable expressiveness.
Premiered in 1725 in Naples, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra tells the story of the final days of the two historic lovers, protagonists of an extraordinary tale of love and political ambition that ends in tragedy. We witness the Roman general Marc Anthony, defeated after the Battle of Actium and preparing to take his own life in order to preserve his honour, while Queen Cleopatra, his beloved, expresses her grief and despair at the loss of both kingdom and lover, before dying herself.
This work, which marked Hasse’s first major success, is a marvel of virtuosity, dialectics and introspection, capable of holding the audience’s attention despite the absence of stage action thanks to its unleashed emotion, melodic beauty and refined galant style. Such a score could not stand without two exceptional voices (remember, it was originally written for Farinelli!), and we are fortunate to offer you precisely that: Anna Bonitatibus and Emőke Baráth, two experts in this repertoire and leading figures in today’s European baroque scene.
