Sacred Incandescences in Naples

Show & Culture

In the 18th century, the Virgin Mary inspired composers with contrasting emotions, from the joy of the Nativity to the sorrow of the Crucifixion. In Naples, sacred music became a vibrant, almost operatic drama. Among these voices, that of Johann Adolf Hasse, husband of the divine Faustina Bordoni, rose through motets of unparalleled lyricism. But it is Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, written in the urgency of his premature end, that reaches a moving purity. Under the direction of Florent Albrecht, Sandrine Piau and Stéphanie d'Oustrac reveal all its tragic grace.