History and Evolution of the Musical Oratorio in Italy

From Sacred Origins to Modern Spectacle

On this page we will retrace the fascinating path of the oratorio, a genre that for centuries represented the meeting point between faith and dramatic art. Born as an instrument of spiritual elevation in Counter-Reformation Rome, the oratorio was able to transform and evolve, surviving changes in taste and society without ever betraying its double devotional and entertaining nature.

Through a journey touching the Baroque courts, Arcadian culture, the Age of Enlightenment, the mysterious Venetian Ospedali, and the concert halls of the nineteenth century, we will discover how composers such as Carissimi, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, and Perosi shaped this musical form. We will see how, even without scenery and costumes, the oratorio was able to match the emotional power of opera, becoming a privileged vehicle for telling great biblical stories and human dramas through the force of voices and instruments.

Finally, our gaze will extend to the present day in order to understand how the legacy of this theatre of the spirit did not disappear, but found new pulpits and new forms of social gathering. From church naves to television screens, the need to unite music, word, and spirituality continues to resonate, demonstrating the extraordinary vitality of a tradition that joins the past of the great masters to the present of our culture.

Definition and General Characteristics

The oratorio is a dramatic-narrative musical genre performed in concert form, distinguished from opera not only by its subjects but also by the absence of stage representation, costumes, and acted action. It is generally written for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, and sometimes includes a narrator. Although its subjects are predominantly religious, drawn from the Bible or hagiography, there are also examples of oratorios on secular, mythological, or allegorical themes.

They are in fact very similar to operas, both in structure and in their succession of songs on sacred or religious topics, held together by a plot. It is the alternative to opera on secular subjects, used especially during the Lenten season.

Formally, the oratorio shares many structures with the cantata and opera, unfolding as a succession of sinfonias, recitatives, arias, and choruses. It is usually performed without costumes, with the singers holding the musical libretto in their hands. A distinctive feature in comparison with Opera, especially in its early phases, is the presence of a narrator, called Testo, Historicus, or Storico, who presents the background and comments on the action. In the oratorio, the chorus retains greater importance than in the first phase of contemporary opera, representing collective voices or expressing moral judgment on the narrated events. Later, with Calzabigi’s reform, the chorus also gained importance in opera, frequently intervening as commentator or even as protagonist of the action.

From Place to Music

The term oratorio derives from the Latin orare, to pray, and originally referred to a physical space, a non-canonical place of worship where members of a confraternity or religious community gathered for prayer. The genesis of the musical genre is closely linked to the religious movement born in Rome in the second half of the sixteenth century through the initiative of Saint Philip Neri. Thus the birth of the Oratorio took place in the same period as opera, and indeed it shares with it the structure of songs separated by recitatives. At the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, Neri’s followers established spiritual gatherings that included the reading of sacred books, sermons, and the singing of laude.

Opera and Oratorio coexisted at the moment of their birth, almost like twin siblings. These gatherings were first called exercises of the oratory, but over time the musical component became predominant and the term came to designate no longer the place, but the specific musical genre intended for those performances. The first attestation of the term in this musical sense is due to the poet Francesco Balducci, who in 1646 called two of his poetic texts for music, La Fede and Il Trionfo, oratorii.

The Birth of Two Traditions

During the seventeenth century, the oratorio developed into two main branches distinguished by language and social context: the Latin oratorio and the vernacular oratorio. The Latin oratorio, or historia, arose and developed mainly in Rome, especially at the Arciconfraternita del Santissimo Crocifisso of San Marcello. Its origins go back to the sixteenth-century custom of performing polyphonic motets during Fridays in Lent. These motets evolved into dialogic forms, in imitation of operatic recitative, and later into true sacred dramas in recitative style on Latin texts.

The French composer André Maugars, an eyewitness in 1639, described these performances as spiritual comedies on Old Testament stories such as Judith or David, introduced by sinfonias and psalms, and separated by a sermon. Musically, the Latin oratorio maintained a balance between polyphonic and solo sections, and was characterized by the essential presence of the Historicus, the narrator. The central figure of this genre was Giacomo Carissimi, author of masterpieces such as Jephte, Jonas, and Judicium Salomonis, which united theatrical intensity and spirituality. The Latin oratorio remained an elite genre, confined to noble confraternities, and its practice in Rome came to an end at the beginning of the eighteenth century, although it survived elsewhere, such as in Venice in the Ospedali.

The Italian Oratorio

The oratorio in the Italian language, derived from the tradition of polyphonic Laude, originated in Rome around the middle of the seventeenth century and spread rapidly to cities such as Bologna, Naples, Ferrara, Florence, and Venice. Compared with the Latin model, the Italian oratorio acquired characteristics that brought it even closer to contemporary opera.

Structurally it was divided into two parts, instead of the three acts of opera, separated by a sermon. The librettos were written in verse, metrically identical to operatic ones. Here too there was room for Arie, understood as that series of songs which suspend the action, exactly as in opera, in order to comment on states of mind. A substantial difference from the Latin tradition was the gradual disappearance of the Testo, with the action entrusted entirely to the dialogue between the characters and their emotional reflections, along with a more limited use of the chorus. Exactly as in secular production.

The Italian oratorio became the principal entertainment during Lent, when opera theatres were closed, functioning as a moral alternative to secular spectacle. Among the major composers of this period were Alessandro Stradella, author of the powerful San Giovanni Battista, Bernardo Pasquini, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Alessandro Scarlatti.

Diffusion and Social Contexts

The spread of the oratorio was encouraged by the network of the Oratorian congregations and religious colleges, but it also penetrated courts and noble palaces. In Rome, cardinals such as Benedetto Pamphilj and Pietro Ottoboni, or princes such as Francesco Maria Ruspoli, promoted sumptuous performances in their palaces, transforming the oratorio into a fashionable event of the highest artistic level.

One especially important center was Vienna. At the Habsburg imperial court, the Italian oratorio acquired a political and ceremonial value, being used to celebrate dynastic events or religious solemnities. Italian composers such as Antonio Draghi and Antonio Bertali adapted the Italian style to the solemn taste of the Empire.

The Early Eighteenth Century, Arcadia, and the Reforms

In the eighteenth century, the oratorio was influenced by the literary and musical reforms of the age. While opera conquered Europe, the genre experienced a season of profound transformation under the impulse of the Arcadian movement. The need to restore order, reason, and morality in art, eliminating the excesses of the Baroque, also affected the sacred genre. The great librettists of reform, Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Metastasio, applied to the oratorio the same principles of dramatic coherence and literary dignity that they had imposed on melodrama.

Zeno, author of 17 oratorios, and Metastasio, who wrote 8, abandoned purely hagiographic subjects to focus on Old Testament figures of high tragic and heroic profile. In this context, the oratorio became a school of ethics, where the conflict between virtue and passion was resolved in the light of reason and faith. On the musical level, figures such as Alessandro Scarlatti — who left an immense corpus of oratorios and sacred cantatas — defined the style of the age, characterized by the alternation between recitatives that carry the action forward and da capo arias that express the affections.

Two Faces of a Masterpiece: Scarlatti’s Judith

When one speaks of Judith (La Giuditta) in the context of the Arcadian oratorio, Alessandro Scarlatti’s setting immediately comes to mind. The Palermo master approached the subject of the biblical heroine on two separate occasions, composing two completely different oratorios, both in scoring and libretto, a testimony to his inexhaustible creative force.

The First Version is for five voices (1693) and was performed in Rome. Written to a libretto by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, this work was conceived for a broader and more “theatrical” ensemble, with strings and basso continuo as accompaniment. Scarlatti himself considered this oratorio among his finest. Its dramatic force is remarkable, capable of rapidly interweaving the scenes that take place in Holofernes’ enemy camp with those inside the besieged city. Alongside the protagonists, we find here secondary figures essential to the narration, such as Ozias, prince of Bethulia, and Captain Achior, a soldier who, disgusted by the brutality of his commander, decides to desert.

The Second Version was performed in 1697 in Rome or perhaps in Naples. Scarlatti returned to the same subject with a completely new approach, not a simple revision. Known as the Cambridge Judith (because the manuscript is preserved at King’s College), this score is more intimate and chamber-like. The libretto was written by Prince Antonio Ottoboni, father of the Cardinal who authored the first version, and reduces the action to its psychological essentials. The ensemble is reduced to only three voices: Judith, Holofernes, and the Nurse. The chorus of soldiers or citizens is absent, concentrating all the pathos on the seductive and deadly duel between the protagonists.

Both versions draw on the apocryphal texts of the Bible. The Hebrew city of Bethulia is under close siege by the Assyrian troops commanded by the ruthless general Holofernes. To save her people from destruction, Judith, a widow of deep faith and courage, devises a risky plan. She goes to the enemy camp pretending that she wishes to betray her own people. Holofernes, seduced by her beauty and her words, invites her to a banquet. Taking advantage of the general’s drunkenness, Judith beheads him with his own sword. The oratorio concludes with the heroine’s return to Bethulia, carrying the tyrant’s head as proof of the liberation accomplished by divine hand.

Whereas the 1693 version aims at spectacle and the alternation of narrative planes, the 1697 version is a jewel of introspection. Scarlatti uses the form of the oratorio not only to edify the faithful, but to explore the emotional nuances of the characters, demonstrating how the sacred genre, now fully within Arcadia, had absorbed the expressive power of opera.

New Horizons in Venice

While in Rome and Naples the oratorio flourished in the palaces of cardinals and princes, refining itself under the impulse of Arcadian reform, in Venice the genre found an unusual and extraordinary cradle, unique in the European panorama: the four Great Ospedali (the Pietà, the Mendicanti, the Incurabili, and the Ospedaletto). These institutions, originally created as places of assistance for orphans, foundlings, and the needy, gradually transformed themselves into true female musical conservatories of the highest level. Here, music was not merely entertainment or devotion, but the very center of the girls’ education.

The peculiarity of these performances lay in the performers: the “putte” (or fiole). They were exclusively women and covered all the musical parts, including the male vocal lines of tenor and bass (often transposed or sung in a low register), and played every kind of instrument. During concerts, the girls performed hidden from the audience behind the thick grilles of the choir lofts, creating an atmosphere of mystery and spirituality that fascinated travelers from all over Europe. Famous is the testimony of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who confessed himself enraptured by the celestial perfection of those invisible voices.

For composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, but also Porpora, Galuppi, and Cimarosa, the Ospedali represented an unparalleled experimental laboratory. Unlike court orchestras, often bound to standard forces, the Ospedali possessed an incredible instrumental variety. The girls were trained on rare and unusual instruments, such as the viola d’amore, the salmoè (a precursor of the clarinet), the theorbo, and the mandolin, allowing the masters to dare with timbres and orchestral colors that would have been impossible elsewhere.

Vivaldi’s Sacred Masterpiece

It is in this unrepeatable context of enclosure and virtuosity, of faith and sonic experimentation, that Vivaldi conceived his sacred masterpiece. Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie (RV 644) represents a milestone in Antonio Vivaldi’s output, being the only one of the four oratorios composed by the “Red Priest” to have survived complete. Written to a Latin libretto by Iacopo Cassetti and inspired, like Scarlatti’s, by the same Book of Judith, the work came into being in Venice in November 1716. The first performance took place at the Ospedale della Pietà, symbolic site of the musical culture of the time. Testifying to the institution’s richness of resources, Vivaldi employed an orchestra of sumptuous and unusual timbral variety, in order to highlight the gifts of his pupils.

The work was not merely a spiritual exercise, but a powerful vehicle of political propaganda. The Republic of Venice had just achieved a crucial victory against the Turks in the siege of Corfu in August 1716, thanks in part to the leadership of General Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg. The oratorio must therefore be read as a great historical allegory, in which the biblical city of Bethulia represents Venice, while the tyrant Holofernes symbolizes the Ottoman Empire. Judith’s victory thus celebrates the triumph of Christianity and of the Serenissima over the barbarian invader.

The Nineteenth Century, between Melodrama and Symphonic Writing

During the nineteenth century, the hegemony of melodrama in Italy tended to overshadow other genres, but the tradition of the oratorio and sacred music did not disappear; rather, it absorbed the dramatic and orchestral language of the age. Composers such as Teodulo Mabellini, a central figure in the Tuscan musical Risorgimento, kept sacred music and cantata production alive, blending academic solemnity with a typically Romantic narrative sensibility.

Toward the end of the century, with the advent of musical Realism, sacred music sought a new way of expressing emotional truth, distancing itself from purely operatic rhetoric. A monumental example of this phase is Giovanni Sgambati’s Messa da Requiem (Op. 38). This work reproduces within the sacred sphere the spectacle of the theatre, but transfigures it into a language of authentic faith and sorrow: the dramatic effect does not arise from virtuosity for its own sake, but from direct and realistic confrontation with the mystery of death.

The true turning point for the rebirth of the Italian oratorio, however, came with Lorenzo Perosi. At the end of the nineteenth century, Perosi, a representative of the Cecilian Movement, sought to purify sacred music from excessive theatrical influences, placing biblical text and choral writing back at the center. His oratorios, such as The Resurrection of Christ (1898) and The Last Judgment (1904), achieved enormous success, blending the recovery of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony with a modern orchestral sensibility.

The Last Judgment, or Perosi’s Apotheosis

Among the most significant works of Lorenzo Perosi, Il Giudizio Universale (1904) marks the meeting point between the tradition of the classical oratorio and the modern symphonic poem. Based on texts by Pietro Metastasio and Giuliano Salvadori, the composition had an itinerant genesis. Sketched during a train journey in Tuscany in 1902, it was completed in the Vatican, in rooms offered by Pope Pius X, a great admirer of the musician. The premiere, which took place on 8 April 1904 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome for the celebrations of Saint Gregory the Great, was a spiritual and social event of enormous resonance, playing to a full house. The work deeply impressed contemporaries, including Pietro Mascagni, for its ability to unite choral grandeur and mysticism.

One especially memorable performance was the 1950 execution at the Pontifical Gregorian University. It was a true spiritual testament conducted by Perosi himself, now elderly, and enriched by the voices of operatic stars such as Beniamino Gigli and Gianna Pederzini. This version, broadcast by Vatican Radio, and the subsequent revival in 1964 in the presence of Paul VI, consecrated this oratorio as one of the pillars of twentieth-century Italian sacred music.

The Twentieth Century, between Ancient Roots and the Avant-Garde

The tradition of the Italian oratorio and sacred music split into two paths in the twentieth century, following the complex dynamics of the age. On the one hand came the recovery of ancient roots, on the other radical experimentation. Composers of the “Generation of the Eighties,” such as Ildebrando Pizzetti, sought an Italian road to sacred modernity. Pizzetti developed a vocal style based on declamation and ancient liturgical modes, creating works of severe and introspective spirituality.

On the side of the avant-garde, Luigi Dallapiccola adopted the twelve-tone system, following a path now far removed from the Italian tradition. He struggled to bend that rigid form toward humanity and lyricism, running up against the intrinsic limit of conceptual languages which, in order to function, often require instruction manuals. Works such as the Cinque Canti or the sacred representation Job show how serial technique could be used to express a kind of universal existential anguish, in practice incomprehensible to anyone not belonging to the restricted club of initiates.

Goffredo Petrassi too gradually moved away from the tonal system, a choice that ended up placing limits on the communicative power typical of the genre. His choral works such as the Psalm IX and the Magnificat, composed when he still moved within the tonal sphere, nevertheless remain works of great power.

The Legacy of the Genre, from the Avant-Garde to Song

What remains genuinely religious today, exactly as happened with opera, which was in fact replaced by the arrival of television and new media, are modern songs on religious themes. These have taken the place of the religious songs, that is, the Arie, which made up the oratorios, following one another to form the plot of sacred or edifying stories. Today songs take the place of oratorios, since there is no longer an avant-garde capable of speaking to the public.

Conceptual language has now exhausted its momentum, declaring that everyone is free to write as and whatever they wish: the important thing is the idea, and silence and noises are welcome too, provided they are accompanied by an instruction booklet to justify them.

The Legacy of the Oratorio and Television as a New Pulpit

If we look at the deeper structure, opera was nothing other than a succession of songs, the Arie, held together by a plot and spoken or recited parts. In the same way, the Oratorio was a “necklace of songs” on sacred subjects, which the public often listened to more for the pleasure of melody than for devotion. From there, the road to modernity was very short. The “detached song,” isolated from its narrative context, became the atom of contemporary music.

Today, that social and ritual function once fulfilled by opera theatre and the oratorio has been absorbed by television. The small screen has replaced both pulpit and stage. Major television festivals are nothing other than modernized secular or sacred oratorios: a sequence of pieces performed by soloists before an audience, exactly as happened in the seventeenth-century confraternities or in the Venetian theatres.

The Sanremo Festival is the direct, secular, popular-national heir to that tradition of “songs for everyone.” But the religious sphere too has adopted the same format, transforming the ancient lauda and the oratorio into festivals of sacred songs, where spirituality passes through microphone and camera.

The Tradition Continues through Festivals

Here are the principal Italian festivals that today continue, in different forms, the tradition of religious and social song.

The Sanremo Cristian Music Festival, founded in 2022 with the support of the Diocese, is the explicit counterpart of the secular festival. It takes place on the same days and in the same city, offering songs of Christian inspiration in a format that mixes faith and television spectacle.

Also in the Ligurian city we find Jubilmusic, an International Christian Music Festival active since 1999 at the Teatro Ariston. It is a historic event that brings together international artists and young people for evangelization through Christian pop and rock music.

In Assisi takes place Assisi Suono Sacro, a festival that gathers the spiritual legacy of Saint Francis, using music as an instrument of interreligious dialogue and peace (through the “Baton for Peace” project), blending the sacredness of the place with musical performance.

In Lazio and Rome the Festival Musica Sacra is active, a series spread across various churches which keeps alive the bond with the great sacred polyphonic and instrumental tradition, from Palestrina to Verdi, bringing it back into places of worship.

Finally, La Musica dei Cieli, between Milan and Lombardy, is a festival that explores spiritual music from different religious traditions, bringing voices and musicians from around the world into sacred spaces and theatres, promoting the meeting of different cultures.