il Gusto Barocco - Brescianello: Tisbe (2014)

An opera was prepared for performance at the court of Duke Eberhard IV Ludwig of Württemberg at the end of 1718. The duke had ordered that it be performed to conclude the Carnival season 1718 / 19 and commissioned his Italian court composer A. G. Brescianello to write a work for this occasion. The action is based on the popular tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, a source of inspiration for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. During the seventeenth century opera productions were regarded as a principal means of magnificent court display. It was thus that a spectacular opera was produced, situated in the vicinity of Vivaldi, Scarlatti, and Handel and requiring virtuoso castrato artistry for its dramatic coloraturas and heartrending laments. Il Giusto Barocco has rediscovered Brescianello’s opera Tisbe in the holdings of the Württemberg State Library, submitted it to musicological examination, and now once again rendered it performable. Musically, this work represents a high point in Stuttgart court culture between 1700 and 1750. Following the concert premiere in 2012, Opernwelt wrote, »Jörg Halubek and the ensemble Il Giusto Barocco founded by him demonstrate with vibrant, supple […] playing that they now have a place in the first ranks of German baroque orchestras.«