October 25, 2023

The absence of a chorus in Il Secreto reminds me of the significance of choruses in ancient Greek tragedy where they are vehicles for expressing the sentiments, the thoughts and the experiences of the audience. I notice that in Bach's Passions and Oratorios, choruses and chorales have just that function.  Probably the absence of choruses diminishes the artistic quality of Il Secreto. I can imagine, supplementing the existing score of Il Secreto, English texts for choruses, possibly to be translated into Italian, alternatively countenancing a bilingual opera, to be sung to the melodies of existing arias and recitatives, thereby introducing into the existing opera choruses which would fulfill the same function, namely that of lending a cosmic perspective to the private quarrels and laments of the individual soloists entrapped in conflicting erotic relationships.