This ‘mystic tale’ in oratorio form by Milhaud’s disciple, the Neapolitan composer Antonio Braga, was written about 30 years ago to celebrate the foundation of the city of Santo Domingo, the first settlement in the New World. Its subject is the thirteenth-century St Dominic: to furnish backgrounds appropriate to the events of the saint’s life – his suppression of the Albigensian heresy, the foundation of his order in Toulouse, his meeting with St Francis, his death in Bologna – Braga incorporates, among other things, a melody from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a theme by Bernart de Ventadorn, recitation over chorus and percussion (as in Milhaud’s Orestiade), a fifteenth-century strambotto and a Parisian chanson into his curiously eclectic style; the work ends with a plea for the wronged Indians. There is a lot of narration (in Italian), and the only good soloist is Ezio di Cesare in the title-role. For curiosity only.'