For a musician boasting a string of prestigious appointments – maestro di cappella at Mantua, to Charles III (pretender to the Spanish throne) in Barcelona, Ruspoli in Rome, and finally Vize-Kapellmeister at the Imperial Court in Vienna – Antonio Caldara (1670–1736) is strangely overlooked in our own time. He held these positions precisely because he was an outstanding composer, both of opera and oratorio. Instruments of Time & Truth, as part of its tenth anniversary season, will offer a unique opportunity to hear one of Caldara's finest oratorios, Maddalena ai piedi de Cristo, a dramatic telling of the struggle between Good and Evil for the soul of Mary Magdalena. Such libretti were the stuff of Lenten observance in European Courts, but there is nothing Lenten about Caldara's treatment, vivid, intense, compact and compelling. Six solo voices take on six dramatic roles; one fabulous aria follows another; all enriched by highly original writing for string orchestra. A rare treat is in store.

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