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American Record Guide: (09/2017) 
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Arcana
A431



Code-barres / Barcode : 3760195734315

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In this oratorio Alessandro Stradella (1639-82) tells the story of Pelagia of Antioch’s conversion from a life of self-indulgent pleasure to one of solitary contrition. Powerful allegorical figures pick sides and compete to sway Pelagia to change—or not—her way of life: Mondo (the World) cautions that youth fades away; Nonno (Reason, personified by Bishop Nonnus) disputes Il Mondo’s power; and Religione (Religion), describing herself as “warlike”, enters the fray with an aria about lightning bolts and arrows from God. Religion wins out, but not before the composer leads us through many moods and contrasts. For instance, Pelagia plays the coquette preoccupied with braiding flowers into her hair and boasting of her allure; then Religion responds with name-calling (“you barbarous

woman!”) and insistence that love will torment, mock, and kill.

All the performers here interpret Stradella’s fine dramatic music very well. Mare Nostrum is most adept at depicting the delicate, the carefree, the arrogant, the prayerful, and the resolute. John Barker praised two other Stradella oratorios recorded by Mare Nostrum and Andrea De Carlo (Santa Edita Arcana 396, N/D 2016 and San Giovanni Crisostomo Arcana 389, M/A 2016), finding the latter to be the finer composition of the two.

Notes, texts, translations in a 44-pagebooklet.
 

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