Le Strage degl'Innocenti - Bertali, Antonio 1605-1669; Johnson, Joyce L.; Smither, Howard E. (New York Garland, 1986)
Partial photocopy of the original facsimile edition, which also contained Ziani's "Il sacrifizio d'Isacco"
La strage degl'Innocenti (the slaughter of the children) is Bertali's only surviving oratorio. It has been preserved in a single fair copy in the 'bedchamber collection' of Emperor Leopold I and is now kept in the music collection of the Austrian National Library in Vienna. The work is dated 1665 and was presumably first performed in the Hofburgkapelle of the imperial court. For the oratorio's first part, the anonymous librettist adapted a scene from Giambattista Marino's epic poem La strage degl'Innocenti, although only a single line from it is quoted verbatim. It portrays King Herod amidst his counsellors, in fear of being deposed in favour of the new boy king who was allegedly born in his kingdom. Whilst the first two counsellors confirm Herod's rage and advise him to go ahead with the planned slaughter of the children, the third counsellor warns Herod against the consequences of such cruelty and the folly of acting against the divine plan. Having silenced the third counsellor, Herod and his ministers proceed to the massacre. The second half of the libretto focuses on three mothers lamenting their children's fate whilst Herod's soldiers draw near. All tears being in vain, the killing goes ahead. The final chorus bewails the dying children and submits that heaven will take it's revenge in time. Whilst Bertali tends to write conservatively in his liturgical works, he shows himself as more progressive in his oratorio. He creates extended coherent musical units by using musical cross-references and repeats (e.g. tracks 21-24 and 27); some passages are rhetorically daring such as the short trio (track 29) in which the three mothers' anger is illustrated through noticeable contrapuntal errors. Frequent use of chromaticism and diminished intervals serve as means of text expression, such as the threefold begging gesture "senti, senti, Signore" on a falling tritone which punctuates the recitative of the third counsellor (track 20). Bertali's mastery becomes fully apparent in the remarkable final chorus in which imitative madrigal style is finely balanced by homophonic writing, and chromatic density by harmonic commonplaces.
Keywords: 17th Century (1601-1700); Oratorio; Religion; Vienna (Austria)