Soprano voice, violin &
basso continuo
SKU:
HH.HH456-FSP
Composed
by Maurice Greene. Edited
by Michael Talbot.
Sopano, Violin & Basso
Continuo. Full score and
parts. Edition HH Music
Publishers #HH456-FSP.
Published by Edition HH
Music Publishers
(HH.HH456-FSP).
ISBN
9790708146636.
La
Libertà is the most
original, and among the
most attractive, of
Maurice Greene’s
secular vocal
compositions on Italian
texts. Strong
circumstantial evidence
indicates that he wrote
it as a composition for
the celebrated operatic
singer Faustina Bordoni
to sing as a grateful
farewell to her English
patrons and admirers just
before her final
departure from London in
the summer of 1728. The
song commemorates not
only Faustina but also
her constant companion
and reputed lover, the
violinist Mauro
d’Alay, who is
likely to have been the
original player of the
obbligato violin part
with which the vocal part
interweaves. Greene took
the text from an Italian
translation of A Letter
from Italy, a famous poem
by Joseph Addison
extolling liberty, which
was at the time seen as a
distinguishing
characteristic of
England.
Joseph D. Greene
