Alessandro Scarlatti - Cain overo Il primo omicidio (1707) - "La fraterna amica pace" video free download

After hearing Scarlatti's secular work, "Griselda", a triumph on almost all possible levels, my expectations for the oratorio, "Il primo omicidio", based upon the familiar Biblical legend of Cain and Abel, were very high, and I can honestly say that they were fulfilled to a great extent, as the composer sets the story with due attention to its numerous details, incorporating one beautiful number after the other. However, I found myself especially drawn to the brothers' duet that occurs just after Cain (mezzo-soprano) has asked Abel (soprano) to accompany him to a brook near which he plans to commit the crime.

There are various inconsistencies in the story itself (I had to return to the Bible to reevaluate it) - in particular, why is Cain's gift to God rejected (the allusion that the former did something wrong before the murder (including disbelief in God, as this would be impossible considering their numerous encounters) (004:007) is given no proof in the text), while Abel's sacrifice of what is the symbol of God accepted? - that pose problems for the composer (Scarlatti's libretto incorporates Lucifer as the chief instigator of the crime but his role seems tacked on, rather than naturally developing from the plot itself) but the one important notion that I find missing in the Bible is the earlier relationship that once was between the brothers, before Cain's undeniably unforgivable crime (it almost seems as though he is symbolically sacrificing his pure brother, "a lamb", if there ever was one, to avenge his anger at being seemingly rejected by God): why would Abel go with his brother, if he did not love him unconditionally? Scarlatti's work develops this theme with almost perfect dramatization. Cain and Abel share several duets, and one of them, closing the first part of the oratorio, seems to me one of the work's finest pages: the ironic "La fraterna amica pace". The main A section is a most striking and slightly disconcerting piece: virtuoso string lines accompany a similarly elaborate tender exchange between the siblings. However, Scarlatti goes further than simply giving us appealing music and manages to gloriously present both Cain's malice and insincerity and the tragedy that is about to unravel: it is Abel who leads the duet, indeed, only he does state the full lines of the piece while Cain echoes them in a lower variant, as if he is preoccupied with the notion of murder; the minor setting almost prepares us for the crime that is going to occur in the second part. The B section is an altogether more mundane (suitably so, as Cain's soul has completely blocked out the fact that he is thinking of murdering his own flesh and blood) passage, as Cain, in excited coloratura lines, dripping with limitless anger, relishes the thought of vengeance.

To complete the upload I also added Abel's gentle arioso, as the young man celebrates the beauty of the brook to which Cain has brought him, blissfully unaware of his brother's intentions. The recording notes mark it as a recitative, though the vocal lines, heard over the simple but infinitely elegant guitar ground bass line, suggesting the murmur of the brook, proposes itself the title "arioso". The piece stunningly progresses through the enlightened lines of the beginning to the more subdued ending, as though Abel is preparing to face his fate and die at his brother's hand.

Fabio Biondi has recorded the complete work but I infinitely prefer Rene Jacobs' (leading the Akademie fur Alte Musik) more dramatic recording, especially considering how much pleasure the voices of Bernanda Fink and Graciela Oddone as Cain and Abel respectively bring the listener.

Hope you'll enjoy :).