No, not the Giovanni Battista Draghi who worked alongside Purcell in London, but Antonio, possibly his brother, who spent 20 years as Kapellmeister at the Viennese court, yet of whose music we scarcely hear a note. La vita nella morte (“Life in Death”) is a sepolcro, a type of sacred oratorio popular at the Habsburg Court and designed to be performed in costume during Holy Week, in this case on Good Friday 1688. The libretto abounds with allegorical figures, and shows Humanity moving from grief and repentance following the Fall, to redemption through hope and trust in God and, of course, Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.
If that sounds more worthy than exciting, more sententious than sensuous, then fear not because the music has all the qualities of emotiveness and dramatic life that you are entitled to expect from a man who composed over 120 operas. It is also, in some places, extraordinarily beautiful. The orchestra are a lush-textured, typically Austrian ensemble of three violas, three violas da gamba and continuo, and there is one aria for Mary Magdalene which has an enchanting accompaniment for baryton, that peculiar bowed and plucked viol that was later to turn up in the hands of Haydn’s princely employer.
The performance, too, is first-rate. As ever, Christophe Coin draws a loving sound from his instrumentalists, while the singers all show a keen declamatory sense in recitative and sensitive musicality in their short arias. I particularly enjoyed the contributions of Roberta Invernizzi and Antonio Abete, but the star is undoubtedly Rodrigo del Pozo as Humanity, a tenor with a light and agile voice, but with an exquisite and affecting quality of his own (it would be good to hear him singing Monteverdi’s Orfeo). Quite a discovery then, this work; when, like the figure of Humanity, I find myself toiling in the field, it is refreshing to know that I too can hope for such a pleasant surprise.'