The Anonymous Venetian

movie poster
(JomLand Movie DB)

De vreme ce el moare, de vreme ce Venetia moare, de vreme ce ea, iubita lui, este pierduta pentru dansul - compozitorul venetian se va pierde si el in lumea anonima a mortilor...O scurta intalnire de-a lungul unei Venetii tot atat de frumoase ca iubirea si moartea.

D. I. Suchianu

(Since he is dying, and Venice is dying, and she, his love, is lost for ever - the Venetian composer will also let himself loose, in the anonymous world of the dead... a brief encounter along Venetian ways, that Venice as beautiful as only love and death can be)

A movie made in 1970, Anonimo Venetiano (The Anonymous Venetian), directed by Enrico Maria Salerno, featuring Tony Musante and Florinda Bolkan. The two are married, life have separated them for many years, they meet now in Venice for a day. For her is to discuss the last details of a divorce too long delayed. For him is to get the courage to tell her the secret of his terminal illness. And they discover again their love, now that it's too late. The last scene shows him conducting a concerto written by a baroque composer whose name nobody knows any more, the Anonymous Venetian. For her this will be his last image.

Actually the name of the composer is known. The movie used the second part of the Oboe concerto by Benedetto Marcello (Adagio dal Concerto per Oboe e Orchestra d'Archi in Do Minore). And more recently scholars have discovered that the author of the concerto was actually Benedetto's brother, Alessandro Marcello.

A concerto Alessandro Marcello wrote in D minor for oboe, strings and basso continuo is perhaps his best-known work. Its worth was affirmed by Johann Sebastian Bach who transcribed it for harpsichord (BWV 974). A number of editions have been published of the famous Oboe Concerto in D minor. The D minor version based on the Concerto No.2 in the 1716 Roger print is credited to Alessandro Marcello. The C minor version is based on a manuscript from Schwerin and was misattributed to Alessandro's brother, Benedetto Marcello in the Lauschmann edition. According to Haynes several c3's in the last movement suggest c minor was the original key.

(http://imslp.org/wiki/Oboe_Concerto_in_D_minor_%28Marcello,_Alessandro%29)

(video by Blan Merce)

Un homme arrive au paradis. Il demande à un ange, à son ange, de lui montrer le chemin qu'ont dessiné ses pas sur terre. C'est par curiosité. L'homme contemple la trace de ses pas sur cette terre, depuis son enfance jusqu'à son dernier souffle. Quelque chose l'étonne, parfois le chemin s'interrompt et ne reprend que bien plus loin. L'ange dit alors parfois votre vie était trop lourde pour que vous puissiez la porter. je vous prenais donc dans mes bras, jusqu'au jour suivant où la joie vous revenait, et alors vous repreniez votre chemin.

(Christian Bobin, La Vie Passante)

(Italian Movies)

(Old Masters)