Pedro Antonio Avondano: Morte d’Abel (Oratorio sacro ca. 1780)

Paris, London, Naples, Venice… and Lisbon! The cartography of the (late) baroque music of Europe gives an ever better overview also of the musical happenings in the Portuguese capital in the 18th century. The revival of the Portuguese musical heritage is one of the main activities of the Divino Sospiro orchestra under its director Masssimo Mazzeo. A particularly worthwhile discovery is the composer Pedro Antonio Avondano (1714-1782), descended from a dynasty of musicians of Italian origin who were active in Lisbon in the 18th century. His oratorio “Morte d’Abel” (c. 1780) is based on a popular material by Pietro Metastasio, which was set to music some 40 times in the Baroque period and thereafter. Avondano’s feverish drama fully explores the souls of the protagonists of the story’s first murder. In doing so, he employs all the expressive possibilities of the baroque musical language, which already points to the classical period. A brilliant cast of singers rounds off this meritorious world premiere recording.