Both these works are anonymous in their manuscript sources, located in the Barberini collection of the Vatican Library. In 1954 the Italian scholar Alberto Ghislanzoni attributed these compositions, on circumstantial evidence, to Luigi Rossi (1598-1653), a composer working in Rome in the service of Cardinal Antonio Barberini—a lavish patron of music who helped support Rome'sprayer halls and a nephew of Pope Urban VIII. Recent research by the American scholar Margaret Murata has cast doubt on the attributions to Luigi Rossi, but it is generally agreed that these oratorios were composed by one of Rossi's Roman contemporaries in the service of the Barberini family —possibly Marc'Antonio Pasqualini — if not by Rossi himself. Oratorio per la Settimana Santa: recorded WDR, february 1984.

Un Peccator pentito: recorded july 1986

Artists

Agnès Mellon, Jill Feldman, Marie-Claude Vallin (sopranos), Dominique Visse, Vincent Darras (hautes-contre), Ian Honeyman, Michel Laplénie (ténors), Philippe Cantor, Antoine Sicot (basses), Monique Zanetti (sopranos), Gérard Lesne (haute-contre), Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (ténor), Michel Laplénie (baritone), François Fauché (bass)

Les Arts Florissants, William Christie