Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica di Vicenza “Arrigo Pedrollo”

Abstract: Premiered at the Teatro San Cassiano in 1645, Doriclea was the first Venetian opera ever to feature as its title character an Amazon warrior woman. The opera is a product of the librettist Giovanni Faustini (ca. 1615–51) and the composer Francesco Cavalli (1602–76), whose highly influential creative partnership in the 1640s solidified many conventions of the emerging art form of opera in Venice. The manuscript score, now in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, preserves a five-part orchestral accompaniment, rare expression and dynamic markings, and a rather full set of continuo figures. In the scope of Francesco Cavalli's output, Doriclea stands out with its unusual, long-range tonal connections that pertain to the portrayal of the opera's heroine.