The Role of Madame Europa

In my last post I spoke about the Rossi-Monteverdi relationship and the several historical and musical commonalities between them. As pointed out in the post as well as my term paper, one of those commonalities was a figure named Madame Europa.

Formally known as Europa Rossi, Madame Europa is just a stage name most likely derived from one of the theatrical roles she has played, the character Europa from Guarini's L'Idropica.

Scholars debate wether Madame Europa was Salamone Rossi's sister, wife, or some other relative. Regardless of the relation, she was often used as a soprano and actress in the operas of the court composers, mainly that of Claudio Monteverdi. Based on this, it could be speculated that she also sang in Rossi's choir(s) when his Hebrew works were performed in the court (but not in the synagogue).

One of Madame Europa's most well known roles was Dorilla in Monteverdi's lost opera L'Arianna. The only surviving music from this opera is Lamento d'Arianna (Arianna's Lament) which contrary to popular belief was NOT sung by Madame Europa in the original production but may have possibly been sung by her in subsequent performances of the aria itself.

It is also speculated that Madame Europa was a member of the original cast of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with a high possibility of having played the role of La Musica either in the original production or in the revival that was performed one year later. What we know for certain is that Madame Europa was one of the underlying connections between Rossi and Monteverdi.

Lamento d"Arianna has gone through a number of re-writes and editions since its first publication. Even the first publication is a blind spot since the absolute original is lost. This piece alone survives since Monteverdi was persuaded to publish the piece separately as a 5 voice madrigal which was then restored to its original solo setting years later.

Here is an excerpt from the score of the original 1614 publication of Lamento d'Arianna as the 5 part madrigal. As was common with the original publications of sheet music during this time period, each voice part was printed as a separate part book. This is the excerpt from the Canto book:

Compare the above score with the solo version edition:

Lasciatemi morire! is the most famous section of Lamento. It is often used by young singers for concerts, recitals, and auditions and can be found in multiple editions and anthologies for multiple voice types. And to think that at some point in her life, Madame Europa may have been one of the first singers to sing this piece, and most certainly the first Jew!

And lastly, here is a Youtube video of Per Passione singing the 1614 5 part edition of Lasciatemi morire!

Fino alla prossima volta!

*All scores, documents, videos, and audio clips found in this post, previous posts, and subsequent posts originate from public domain websites and/or are the original work of the author of The Italian Red Head and as such are free to be distributed and shared publicly with the permission of the author of this blog.