Apollo e Dafne
Cantata for soprano and baritone
with flute, 2 oboes, bassoon, violin solo, violins 1 & 2, cello solo, continuo
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Apollo e Dafne is a youthful work, dating from about 1708, when Handel was nearing the end of his apprenticeship in Italy. It is one of more than 100 cantatas that he composed for private gatherings and academies at the homes of patrons, but it is unusual among his cantatas. Not only does it have a more extended drama than most cantatas, but it calls for more instruments than most and is written for two singers instead of the usual solo voice. It is also unusually theatrical, almost operatic, in the interplay between the two characters, as well as in the colorful effects in the orchestra--the sighing flute representing Apollo's pipes, the extraordinary solos for oboe, cello and violin, and the dramatic tremolos in the strings. The cantata has no overture but opens with a recitative, although performances often open with an instrumental piece, one generally chosen from one of Handel's other works.
The librettist was the Roman Cardinal Pamphili, who was one of the composer's patrons and who had earlier written the libretto for Handel's oratorio, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, as well as libretti for Alessandro Scarlatti and others. Pamphili follows the most popular version of the Apollo and Daphne story, the one that comes from Ovid. Apollo, the great god of music and poetry, has destroyed the monster Python at Delphi and established there the center of his own cult. As the cantata begins, he is boasting of his great victory and ridiculing the boy Cupid, whose arrows are mere toys next to his. Cupid can only inflame lovers, a trivial business compared to killing a dragon. In response, Cupid wounds Apollo with a golden arrow, and the latter immediately falls in love with the first creature he sees, the nymph Daphne. However, the god of love has wounded Daphne with a leaden arrow, and she rejects Apollo's advances. Failing in his attempts to woo her, Apollo becomes more persistent and the nymph flees, but she cannot outrun a god. As he is about to catch her, Daphne cries out to her father, a river god, who saves her by transforming her into a laurel tree. The laurel would ever after be sacred to Apollo, and its leaves would form his crown.
Boston Baroque Performances
Apollo e Dafne
October 28, 1994
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Kevin McMillan - Apollo
Sharon Baker - Dafne