The Haymarket Review

Vanessa Tonelli on Grimani’s La decollazione di San Giovanni Battista

During the summer of 2023, Haymarket Opera Company’s Artistic Director Craig Trompeter approached me with the idea of reviving a little-known oratorio composed by an eighteenth-century woman. I was thrilled for the opportunity, and I quickly located a digitized score of Maria Margherita Grimani’s La decollazione di San Giovanni Battista, which is now kept at the Austrian National Library. It had not been performed since its premiere in 1715. The original manuscript was beautifully inscribed, obviously intended for the collection of the Holy Roman Empire’s ruling aristocratic family. So, besides occasionally correcting misplaced notes or rhythmic inaccuracies, I had to make few editorial interventions while engraving the score for a modern historically-informed ensemble. The most difficult process, besides double checking the consistency of all sharps, flats, and bass figures, was to interpret the hand written lyrics and ensure the syllables were correctly aligned to the vocal parts. 

I studied the piece for almost a year, until March 2024, when Haymarket’s performance finally revealed to me the emotional expression contained within the notes and words that had been spinning through my mind. Notably, before I heard the music live, I had not truly understood why Grimani’s oratorio ended without depicting the beheading of John the Baptist, for which the piece had been named. Grimani instead chose to conclude her piece with the Baptist somberly accepting his martyrdom before it occurs. Upon hearing the final aria, however, I was left with tears in my eyes. Even though Grimani originally composed the Baptist’s part for an unnamed castrato vocalist, Haymarket Opera Company featured Fleur Barron’s warm mezzo-soprano voice. The orchestra’s nuanced accompaniment supported Barron, as her emotive singing imparted deep sincerity and holy sacrifice. Their performance choices – such as adding a bassoonist to the bass instruments to balance the timbre of the obbligato oboist – helped to amplify sentiments of spiritual devotion: the pastoral rhythms emphasized virtue and innocence, the mezzo-soprano voice floated away from earthly realms, and the oboe soloist uplifted the blissful harmonies with tasteful Baroque ornamentation. 

It was not only Barron, but all the performers who illuminated Grimani’s musical setting of John the Baptist’s beheading. I am especially grateful to Haymarket Opera Company’s General Director Chase Hopkins for his insightful selection of vocalists, as they each revealed the passions and meanings behind Grimani’s musical characterizations. It can often be a risk to revive a work by a little-known composer, but Haymarket Opera Company unmistakably succeeded, receiving a standing ovation after the final aria. Overall, their performance was a beautiful contribution to the larger project of restoring the forgotten and ignored musical works of past women or other marginalized figures.

Learn more about Haymarket’s 2024 concert presentation of Grimani’s La decollazione di San Giovanni Battista.

About the author

Vanessa Tonelli is a musicologist who specializes in the study of women musicians of the early modern era. She regularly collaborates with historically-informed ensembles, including the Haymarket Opera Company, the Australian Chamber Choir, and the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, to revive works of these historical women in modern performances. Her primary research project is to publish a book about the figlie di coro, poor and orphaned female musicians who played and taught music for Venetian charitable institutions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. You can read more about her research and contact her at www.vanessatonelli.com.

About The Haymarket Review: This new digital publication including thoughts about  the work produced by Haymarket is designed to deepen our connection to audiences, nurture and feed audience curiosity about historical performance, offer critical opinions and thoughtful reflections on our performances, and provide a forum for Haymarket and its audience to connect through sharing insights, opinions, learning, and expertise.