Il Giardino d’Amore

In Rome during the baroque period, opera and oratorio were in the summer months replaced by the serenata, a genre similar to the cantata that rang out in the outdoor evening air. Alessandro Scarlatti’s serenata Venere e Adone has the most appropriate overall title of Il Giardino d’Amore: it is not only the characters of Venus and Adonis that come emphatically to life, but also nature. Forests, fields, rocks and a chorus of chirruping birds, seemingly inspired with life, listen to the two sweethearts as they sing of how they miss and are reunited with one another in Arcadian arias, recitatives and duets. In 2015 the Postdam Sanssouci festival will combine music with idyllic gardens. In addition to the divine Garden of Love in Scarlatti’s serenata, B’Rock will also be presenting the secular vegetable garden in the form of Bach’s burlesque Bauernkantate, an eccentric work packed with folk dances and melodies that reveals a surprisingly light-hearted side to this German master.