![]() "Vivaldi wrote about 75 per cent of the material for Bajazet but the other 25 per cent is by other composers in the period."Īnother unusual feature of this tragic story of marriage and murder plots set during a time of clashing eastern empires is that the lead role is sung by a baritone. "We think of mash-ups as being modern but they have existed for ages," Helyard says. Helyard describes Vivaldi's opera as a "mash-up". The detective work also extends to the provenance of the opera. Pitch standards have varied over the centuries, Helyard explains, adding that Baroque pitch was typically a semitone lower than the modern standard. ![]() We use period instruments rather than modern instruments and play the music in the pitch it would have been heard in at that time." "We try to re-create the work so it sounds as the composer intended. Pinchgut is the only company in the Southern Hemisphere to do 17th and 18th century opera in such a historically informed way. The objective is to present the music as it would have sounded to Vivaldi's audience. When I re-edit an original score, it gives me a great opportunity to hear how the work is put together. When painters of that time learned how to paint, they literally copied a great master. "At Pinchgut, we always go back to the original score and reinvent it. "It's like discovering a lost treasure," says Helyard, who spent hours poring over the manuscript on a microfilm reader. Pinchgut Opera has lured New Zealand baritone Hadleigh Adams to sing the title role in Vivaldi's Bajazet. ![]()
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