PERGOLESI, Giovanni Battista 1710-1736

"Se cerca, se dice" Aria. [Copyist manuscript]

[?]England: ca. 1805.

Folio (239 x 297 mm). [i] (title), 7 pp. Notated in black ink on 16-stave rastrum-ruled paper. Watermark of John Wise dated 1805. Untrimmed.

With small oval handstamp of the Glasgow Society of Musicians to lower inner corner of title and final page of music; "1" and "23" in contemporary manuscript to upper center with "253" in contemporary manuscript to lower inner corner of title.

Slightly soiled; minor loss to blank outer edge of first leaf.

Drawn from the opera "L'Olimpiade," set to a libretto by Metastasio, first performed in Rome at the Teatro Tordinona on 2 January 1735.

The present aria, sung by Megacle in Act II, scene 12 of the opera, was one of Pergolesi's most famous and widely-circulated works.

"L’olimpiade is characterized by idyllic and delicate tone-colours, smooth, expressive melodies with reserved virtuosity, free treatment of the text (for example with verbal repetitions of the kind used in opera buffa) and a greater intensity of feeling. Pergolesi excelled as a dramatic composer in his variety of mood, figure and expression." Helmut Hucke, and Dale E. Monson in Grove Music Online.

Item #40187

Price: $125.00  other currencies