Forma Antiqua

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Image courtesy of L'auditori.

Antonio de Literes, born in Artà, Mallorca, began composing while still young and at the age of nineteen presented his opera Los Elementos (1705), a harmonic opera in Italian style for the birthday of Her Grace, the Duchess of Medin de las Torres, "My Lady," dedicated to the wife of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. The symbolic work is based on a debate between Water, Air, Fire and Earth (the four elements) about who will replace the Sun, who is absent. In the end, Time, acting as judge, announces the Sun's triumphant return. The score is kept in the National Library of Madrid and the opera was revived in Granada in 1985. Performed now by the Forma Antiqua ensemble, it is a crucial work for understanding the origins of opera in Spain.

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