Julije Bajamonti: Aria di Arbace nell’ Artaserse for Soprano and Orchestra (1776)

Julije Bajamonti’s Aria di Arbace nell’ Artaserse (1776) (Per quel paterno amplesso) was composed for soprano accompanied by a standard Classicist orchestra consisting of strings, flutes and horns a due. Although Bajamonti (1744-1800) composed it in Venice, he probably intended it for performance in his native town of Split. Its text reveals the Metastasian spirit, well-known on the Venetian musical scene. It might have been inspired by the aria of the same title from the opera Artaserse, composed by Ferdinando Bertoni based on Metastasio’s text, which had been performed in Venice during the spring of 1776. The autograph score is kept in the music collection of Don Nikola Udina/Algarotti (1791-1838), a priest from the island of Krk, who was schooled in Split and Vienna, and later lived in Salzburg and Vienna.

The dramatic Aria di Arbace nell’ Artaserse was performed by the soprano Monika Cerovčec and the Croatian Baroque Ensemble at the final concert of the HERA MusMig concert Migrant and travelling composers of the late 18^th century held in Zagreb in May 2016. Just like Bajamonti’s Frena, mio bene, aria for soprano and orchestra composed in 1775 and published by the HERA MusMig Croatian group in 2013, it will be available to the all musicians interested in the 18^th-century music.