This volume is the first modern edition of the only extant works by Rosanna Scalfi Marcello (born 1704 or 1705), the gondola singer whose voice so entranced the Venetian nobleman and composer Benedetto Marcello that he made her his wife. With the notable exception of Barbara Strozzi, we have relatively few cantatas known to be by female composers. This is, then, a welcome addition to the repertoire, issued by a publishing house with nearly thirty years’ experience of promoting women's music. ClarNan editions (so named in homage to Clara Schumann, Nannerl Mozart and Nannette Streicher) has produced editions of music by female composers dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Their catalogue includes some twenty-two editions of music by eighteenth-century female composers, including several that sound particularly interesting and, like Scalfi's cantatas, invite further exploration.
Rosanna Scalfi Marcello's biography makes fascinating reading, and what we know of her life is clearly outlined in Hayes and Paton's informative Preface. Eighteenth-century accounts give a romantic description of her first meeting with the nobleman Benedetto Marcello, who was bewitched by the enchanting sound of the humble gondola singer he heard passing his palazzo. After tracking her down, Marcello took Scalfi as his student and wrote a number of works for her; visitors to Venice document her singing her teacher's music. Five years after becoming his pupil she became his wife, in a ceremony kept secret owing to the difference in their social rank. Tragically, whilst Benedetto's will stated that he wished to leave almost all of his worldly goods to his wife, after his death the family refused to acknowledge Rosanna and denied her claims for financial assistance. Aside from a single recorded operatic role, she otherwise disappears without a trace, leaving only reports of her accomplishment as a singer and these twelve cantatas to posterity.
The fact that in the only extant source (now housed in the library of Rome's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia) the poetry of three of the cantatas is also ascribed to Scalfi has led to the assumption that she was the author of both text and music for all twelve. The poems are written from a range of different perspectives: four employ a female voice, and five that of a male speaker, whilst three are gender-neutral; this is not unusual for cantata poetry, however, where such approaches are commonly adopted by both male and female authors. The musical settings give a fascinating insight into the vocal ability of this renowned singer. All twelve are for alto – Rosanna's voice type – but contemporary reports indicate that she had an extremely wide range; Hayes and Paton quote an account of her singing from d to a2, and another that praises her vibrato and ‘silvery high notes’ (xii). This range is exploited in the music; a noteworthy example is the aria ‘Clori ho sempre nel core’ from Quand'io miro. The text employs the poetical image of the lover keeping his beloved in his heart wherever he is, whether it be in high mountains or on flat plains. This contrasting geography is vividly illustrated musically as the singer rapidly ranges across two octaves, including leaps of up to a twelfth. The other cantatas contain some attractive moments, including moving arias in the pathetic style such as ‘Non partite, vi prego, o pastori’ from Ecco il momento. Elsewhere Scalfi responds particularly well to texts that provide obvious opportunities for word painting, as is demonstrated by the runs that depict the breezes in ‘Ma l'aura passeggera’ from Dunque fia vero. Whilst her settings do not demonstrate the artistry of masters of the genre such as Alessandro Scarlatti or her teacher Benedetto Marcello, they are nevertheless pleasing works. Similarly, whilst the texts are not poetic masterpieces, their Arcadian settings, depictions of unrequited love, references to Cupid's arrows and streams of tears are entirely typical of cantata poetry of the period.
Hayes and Paton's edition is eminently practical, designed to encourage much wider performance of Scalfi's music. This is immediately evident from its appearance: whilst the basic cardboard covers are not particularly aesthetically pleasing, the ring-bound spine means that the volume sits easily on a music stand, and it is easy to navigate what is a fairly weighty tome. Equally, the adoption of carefully placed blank pages in the separate continuo part avoids awkward page turns. This practicality is also evident in the editorial approach, resulting in an edition that is less ‘hands off’ than is often the case with this music. Given that the source is readily available online, it might be imagined that those used to performing this music will consult it directly, whilst this edition provides more guidance for those less familiar with the performance practices of the eighteenth-century cantata.
The most obvious example is in the notation of implied appoggiaturas. In the Preface Hayes and Paton give a useful summary of the practice of adding appoggiaturas in recitative (one quibble might be that, given the essentially didactic approach taken here, it would have been helpful to have quoted directly from contemporary authors, rather than simply stating that ‘there are a number of reliable modern sources for this information’ (xviii) and pointing the reader in the direction of Agricola). They take this one step further, writing in the implied appoggiaturas as letters above the stave, a feature to which it takes a while to become accustomed. Whilst this approach undoubtedly encourages the adoption of stylish appoggiaturas, there is a danger when one kind of unwritten ornament is consistently notated that the addition of any other kind of ornamentation can easily be overlooked, as one falls into the habit simply of following what is written. In the Preface the editors recommend the addition of cadential trills, but, given the amount of space afforded to their discussion of appoggiaturas, they are curiously silent about any other sort of ornamentation, including the elaboration of the return in da capo arias, about which Tosi (elsewhere in the Preface taken as the authority on matters of performance practice) is very clear. Instead they simply state that ‘the performer must make a personal decision’ (xix) whether or not to ornament, with no indication as to where guidance on the issue might be found.
Hayes provides a useful continuo realization. However, whilst the Preface makes clear that ‘the performer may change [it] according to taste and circumstance’ (xx), particularly in the fast arias, the realizations are relatively complex and do not invite the performer to add to or adapt them; a simpler version might lend itself more readily to a more spontaneous or personal approach. The addition of some sympathetic editorial figures (as is common for Italian music of this period, the bass is unfigured) might also serve to guide performers seeking to create their own realization, as well as being of use to those shaping the bowed continuo line.
Paton provides a transcription of the poetical texts, accompanied by a good line-by-line translation. He adopts a system of placing in brackets any words that have changed position in order to make sense of the English syntax, an approach that is somewhat fussy and initially distracting. Similarly, whilst there are a number of useful footnotes that elucidate the use of archaic terms, others seem unnecessary, such as those that point out the use of the subjunctive. It would, however, have been helpful to have outlined the editorial approach towards the texts, particularly with regards to accents. Some appear to have been modernized, conforming to modern Italian usage, yet others (for example, ‘così’, given here as ‘cosí’) seem to correspond neither to their appearance in the source nor to their modern spelling.
Given the enormous number of surviving cantatas from the period and the relatively small number of modern editions, any contribution is to be welcomed. Whilst these works are perhaps not the finest examples of the genre, the context in which they were written and the history of the composer are bound to make them appealing, and they are attractive enough to inspire hope that this edition will encourage more performances of Scalfi's music.
