Tommaso Traetta (1727-1779)
Rex Salomon (1766, 1776 version)
Salomon – Suzanne Jerosme (soprano)
Abiathar – Eleonora Bellocci (soprano)
Regina di Saba – Marie-Eve Munger (soprano)
Sadoc – Grace Durham (mezzo-soprano)
Adon – Magdalena Pluta (contralto)
NovoCanto
Theresia/Christophe Rousset
rec. live, 2023, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Haus der Musik, Innsbruck
Latin text with English and German translations available online
cpo 555 654-2 [111]

The Ospedale della Pietà at Venice is famous for its connection with Vivaldi, but it wasn’t the only such institution in the city at that time. The Ospedaletto dei Dereletti was a similar orphanage in providing secure lodging and education for girls and young women, with a renowned musical ensemble. The appointment of Tommaso Traetta as its maestro di coro in 1766 was marked by the premiere of his Latin oratorio Rex Salomon, but the only manuscript which survives comes from its revival a decade later, and that is what is performed here.

Traetta is notable for his reform of opera, along with his contemporaries Jommelli and Gluck, but this oratorio is structured along the more formal lines of an older-fashioned opera seria, alternating da capo arias, and a final duet, with recitative. There are, however, three choruses, sung here with lucidity by the dozen female voices of NovoCanto. The Overture – already used by Traetta in earlier operas – has all the festive bustle of a theatrical production in this performance by the ensemble Theresia, led by Christophe Rousset, with pounding, rocking octaves in the harpsichord for considerable sections in its opening Allegro which give it an almost hypnotically hyperactive energy. Repeated bass notes and figures – typical of the Neapolitan music tradition from which Traetta came – feature in some of the subsequent arias, which the players execute vigorously but not crudely.

The performance otherwise tends to be marked with a degree more sobriety, suiting its sacred nature and the quite long, expansive structure of each aria (none of which lasts less than six minutes) though the recitatives receive some dramatic impetus here to create tension between the more substantive musical numbers. Cadenzas near the end of the arias also allow the singers some opportunity for more extravagant vocal display. There is not much narrative in any case, the work based on episodes from the Bible’s First Book of Kings, which also largely served as the source for Handel’s earlier oratorio. Here, the Ark of the Covenant triumphantly enters the Temple at Jerusalem, Solomon’s wisdom is praised, and a heathen Ammonite Adon is won round and converts to Judaism.

Given the institution it was written for, all the vocal roles are set for women, and taken as such in this recording. If the singers don’t have the last degree of polish in tonal production, they certainly display firm technical control of the often virtuosic settings of the text. As the king, Suzanne Jerosme is the most commanding and consistent in handling the long lyrical lines of his first aria, and then the faster coloratura of the second, with triumphant horns and a thrillingly driven pace by Theresia. Where Grace Durham projects well as Sadoc (Zadok) Eleonora Bellocci and Marie-Eve Munger have lighter, more agile voices in executing the florid lines set for Abiathar and the Queen of Sheba respectively, if they are a touch brittle at times and Bellocci is a little under pressure in higher notes. Magdalena Pluta’s contralto voice cultivates a darker, woodier timbre for Adon, expressing well his earnest character as a Jewish neophyte.

Rousset draws some refined and brilliant string playing from Theresia, more sumptuous and brightly coloured than the subtler shades of much of the French repertoire with which he and his usual ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques are typically associated. The performance is always engaged with the generally vivid character of the music, making the oratorio seem more dramatic than its text would suggest. Any shortcomings in the vocal interpretations are minor and need not preclude discovering a little known work with rich melodic invention.

Curtis Rogers

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