Tonight was Early Music Hawaii’s dress rehearsal for tomorrow night’s concert: Rome 1600! The Glories of the Italian Baroque. The concert features the Early Music Hawaii Ensemble of Singers and Players, conducted by Scott Fikse.

The great dramas of early Baroque Rome were the Oratorios—operatic illustrations of biblical stories, the lives of martyrs or principles of Catholicism, and an important contribution to the Counter-Reformation. The Last Judgment is one of the most powerful works by the acknowledged master of the early Oratorio, Giacomo Carissimi. 

At the same time, the sumptuous court of the Barberini hosted many of the leading romantic composers in Italy. Come, hear the songs and budding popular dramas by Stefano Landi, Giovanni Kapsberger and Luigi Rossi. 

It’s been quite a week for me, with rehearsals for this EMH concert on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights (You may remember from my last post that our first rehearsal was held a week ago in Kaneohe on the windward side.)

(I also had a Thursday night choir rehearsal last night with St. Mark’s Choir. I’ve been a busy beaver!)

The Wednesday rehearsal this week was actually held on the campus of Brigham Young University which we allowed two hours to drive to, but we made it there in only one hour. It has been decades since I’ve been the BYU-Hawaii campus and there are many new buildings.

The major work on the concert is Carissimi’s Judicium extremum. Here’s what Ian Capps wrote in the program notes about this piece:

The true pioneer of the Oratorio was Giacomo Carissimi. The only one of tonight’s composers born in the 17th century (1605), he brought the oratorio to its true destination as “sacred opera” and mentored many international students, notably Charpentier. Judicium extremum, “The Last Judgment,” is for me the most dramatic. Christ orders his angels to gather together the dead and metes out praise or punishment according to their behavior on earth. The real drama comes from the extraordinarily complex interplay and excitement of the three choruses with the same text. 

At that time, minimal accompaniment for such a composition would have been laid out by the composer as “high instruments and continuo,” but augmentation was optional and even expected. The text emphasizes “thundering noise, resounding trumpets and the trumpet’s blast.” Trumpets are included in most performances when available.

Here are scenes from our dress rehearsal. Everything went smoothly tonight and all indications are that it is going to be a fabulous concert and not to be missed!

In addition to the ensemble pieces on which I am playing continuo, I am also playing Frescobaldi’s Quattro correntes, four short organ pieces.

Early Music Hawaii President Ian Capps and baritone Keane Ishii were interviewed on Hawaii Public Radio this morning by Gene Schiller which you can hear here.

My houseguest, Jonah Heinen, is a visiting tenor from Seattle. I found out we know many people in common, including Marisa Castello, Naomi and Karyn Castro, Jimmy and Olivia Castro — all from the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and (surprise, surprise!) even my nephew, baritone Daniel Au in Portland, Oregon! (Jonah used to live in Portland.)

Tickets are available at the door and on the Early Music Hawaii website.