Santa Beatrice d’Este
Camilla de Rossi
Musica Fiorita · Daniela Dolci
In 1707 a woman who signed herself simply “Camilla de Rossi, Romana” wrote the first of four oratorios for Emperor Joseph I in Vienna. The scores survive in the Austrian National Library; almost nothing else about her does: no birth date, no payment record, no trace after 1711. Santa Beatrice d’Este sets a libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, the author of Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo. The young Beatrice faces a stark choice: marry the tyrant Ezzelino or bring war on her house. She chooses neither power nor marriage but God, and an angel announces her heavenly reward. De Rossi gives the story a remarkably varied score: dissonant opening harmonies, martial trumpets and timpani, a concertante cello, virtuoso duetting violins, a farewell aria with archlute, and a closing chorus in severe stile antico. Musica Fiorita and Daniela Dolci perform from her own edition of the Vienna manuscripts, with Graciela Oddone as Beatrice, Denis Lakey, Makoto Sakurada and Lisandro Abadie.