A survey of Spanish music prepared by Roberto Gerhard and Lionel Salter

An opera in three acts by Dominigo Terradellas
Text by Apostolo Zeno (Italian)
(sung in Italian)
The Welbeck Orchestra
(Led by Reginald Morley)
Conducted by Patrick Savill
Harpsichord, Basil Lam
Cello continue, George Roth
Introduced by Roberto Gerhard

Merope was first performed in Rome in 1743. To eighteenth-century opera audiences the name of Domingo Terradellas (born Barcelona 1713, died Rome 1751) was as familiar as that of Tomelli or Traetta. He belongs as much as they to the second Neapolitan school, whose characteristics are establishment of the 'solo-opera,' consisting mainly of da capo arias and recitative; overriding authority of prima donna and primo uomo (male singers were usually castrati); and the subordinate position of the composer. The best of the Neapolitans, however, pave the way for the reform-work of Gluck and foreshadow Mozart. (R.G.)