Anna Maria Strada, Prima Donna of G. F. Handel. Judit Zsovár

dʺ (b. 19) which has to be intense enough to involve the surprise jump to the sixteenth aʺ as smoothly as possible (b. 20). The second half of the aria deals with sixth- (bars 23‒24 and 26) and seventh leaps (bars 33‒34), as well as with an extended chromatic legato line on ‘tormenti’ again (bars 27‒30).

      A new vocal quality, a new colour emerged here which did not appear in Strada’s earlier repertoire. I would suggest that this was a milestone in her vocal development and career. By this time, she has already shown everything of a fine soprano’s qualities: flexibility, agility in coloraturas, leaps, trills, and divisions. From the very beginning, her arias reveal a free voice that can reach high notes like aʺ with ease. In the spring of 1725, at the age of twenty-two, she attained a new level of vocal maturity. In view of her repertory, her voice became stabilised; its volume became extended, thicker, and more sonorous without losing its brightness. ‘Placarti dovresti’ can be considered as a glimpse of the future Alcina. Aspasia’s temper does not fall too far from the enchanted queen’s either.

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      This way, both the libretto structure and music describes Aspasia’s situation in very dramatic terms. Farnace is released and free to return to Persia; he asks Aspasia to go with him. He represents the innate wish of the king’s daughter to meet social requirements and thus achieve acceptance by her father. Aspasia, however, has fallen some time ago for Decio, the Roman General in Persia, who devotes his legions to defending Palmyra, and therefore becomes the princess’s enemy. We can thus see a captive noblewoman who is torn between her task and the desire of her heart.

      It is very important to see that opera seria ‒ similarly to the spoken theatre of the era, particularly in the tragedies of Pierre Corneille ‒ functioned as a reminder for the nobility. Mirroring society and giving high-quality entertainment is just the first layer. It is all about the high responsibility they had as persons of rank. To face the fact over and over again, namely that every decision they make is never theirs alone, for the future of their nation and the lives of people under them hang on their destiny. For the character’s inner life, duty and love – representing mind and emotion – are constantly in conflict with one another (passim Metastasian libretti).¹⁹⁷ Being torn between the two, the protagonists are in search for the better decision, weighing up which value should have priority and which one has to be sacrificed along with its inherent beauties. Yet deep down lies the overwhelming faith that in an ideal world these two could never oppose each other. On the contrary, duty should intensify true love and vice versa. To strengthen belief in the existence of a solution which can be found to establish or re-establish complete harmony in life, as well as to unite the social and private sides of it, is the very ars poetica of opera seria. Likewise, for a performer to catch the essence of this duality and to find a way to true expression meant the greatest artistic accomplishment. For Strada specifically, the role of Aspasia was probably the first experience of a character of which musical elaboration was deeply rooted in its high dramatism.

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      This very first impression of Aspasia has a substantial psychological significance, because she is presented as a donna fragile, so that the audience could gain insight into her weaknesses. Everything authentic in her character is based here, a feature which has to be recalled from time to time because, just in the next moment when the music changes into recitative, she awakes from her dream of being feminine and proves herself to be a regina, a donna forte. The pride of the princess emerges as an additional factor one has to reckon with and her pique guides her to take revenge by any means.

      When her two suitors, Decio and later Farnace, appear, Aspasia goes at them furiously. She holds back her love until she gets full vengeance on Odenato and finally rules Palmyra. Since Decio wants her to stay, while Farnace wishes her to return to Persia with him, she offers her affections to the one who fulfils her political desires (I/8).¹⁹⁸ Herewith, Aspasia makes her private life depended upon her social status, just like Zenobia in the Venetian version of the plot:

      Vuoi, ch’io parta? Partirò. (a Far.) / Vuoi ch’io resti? Resterò. (a Dec.) / Ma vendetta, io vò da te. / Vuoi amore? Vuoi tu affetto? / So, che ardir tu chiudi in petto. / So, che in sen tu vanti fe.

      Do you want me to leave? I will leave. (to Farnace) / Do you want me to stay? I will stay. (to Decio) / But revenge, I will invoke you. / Do you want love? Do you want affection? / I know the daring you embosom. / I know that you boast about fidelity in your heart.

      At this point in the work Aspasia is on stage since first entering in Act I, scene 6. After ‘Placarti dovresti’, there were recitative dialogues with Farnace and Decio together but no aria. As the next aria is also sung by Aspasia, she rules the stage during a substantial ten-minute long scene. ‘Vuoi ch’io parta’ (I/8; D major, C, Larghetto e cantabile‒Presto), a bravura number, contrasting with the preceding cantabile,¹⁹⁹ also does not have a simple da capo form: the A section is made up of two contrasting materials alternating with each other. Two completely diverse musical characters can be heard: for the first part of the text ‒ ‘Vuoi, ch’io parta? Partirò. / Vuoi ch’io resti? Resterò’ ([To Farnace:] ‘Do you want me to leave? I will leave. / [To Decio:] Do you want me to stay? I will stay’) ‒ there is a syllabic aria parlante episode in D major, Larghetto e cantabile (bars 1‒5 and 13‒16), as she addresses each suitor individually. Then, it is suddenly interrupted by the Presto section (bars 6‒13 and 17‒27) ‒ ‘Ma vendetta, io vo da te’ ([To both:] ‘But ←81 | 82→vengeance is what I want from you’). Virtuoso violin idioms occur on the word ‘vendetta’, reaching aʺ four times within three bars (Ex. 2.12).

      Example 2.12 Section A2 of ‘Vuoi ch’io parta?’, bars 14–25, vocal part

      In the first measure of the introductory ritornello (Ex. 2.13), the violins show the different themes by creating interference rhythmically: the dotted semiquavers and ornamental demisemiquavers against the semiquaver-triplets may represent Aspasia’s unbalanced and undecided feelings towards the two men (which one is to leave and which one to stay), versus the only thing she surely wants: to take revenge.

      The vocal part and bass are stuck together in a complimentary fashion, while motivically they are mirroring each other. The prevalent dotted octave-leap motif on a‒A in the bass is recurrent in the soprano part on aʺ‒a′ both in the Largo (bars 15‒16) and in the Presto sections (bars 16 and 23), making the artistic ‘patchwork’ coherent. This frequent occurrence of aʺ, many times on metrical accents connected with large leaps, is very informative about Strada’s ←82 | 83→vocal flexibility and agility. It also indicates just how surely and easily her voice could move within the upper register, where she felt comfortable and secure.