ORATORIO IN TWO ACTS

Libretto by Giovanni Granelli

When Baldassare Galuppi wrote La caduta di Adamo in Rome in 1747, performances of operas in the pope’s city were strictly prohibited. Consequently, his oratorio about the fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Paradise features no stage effects whatsoever – although its music strongly resembles a genuine opera seria. Galuppi, the foremost Venetian opera composer of the generation after Antonio Vivaldi, portrays the Fall with exquisitely virtuoso coloraturas as well as the sentimental melodies of the Neapolitan style that was fashionable at the time. The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra led by Aapo Häkkinen has long established itself as one of the leading Baroque orchestras with its emotion-laden and energetic playing, and has elected to specialise particularly in unpublished pearls from the history of music.

Concert performance in Italian with German surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up