Franck-Emmanuel Comte, artistic director of the "Concert de l'Hostel Dieu", an orchestra founded in 1992 while studying at the Conservatoire de Lyon, has made a specialty of bringing new or unknown works back to life, the scores of which are preserved in the region.

In particular at the Municipal Library of Lyon, endowed with rich collections from the 17th and 18th centuries, with a strong Italian tone, inherited from the city's Music Academy created at the time.

"I have been haunting the shelves of the library for a long time," joked Franck-Emmanuel Comte in February, during a conference on the upcoming concert.

In 2017, a manuscript libretto in Italian, very well preserved, caught his attention: it bears neither title, nor signature, nor trace of a past performance.

On the cover page there is only a date, 1713, and a mention, "Du Manssa": the name of the composer?

To solve the enigma of this oratorio, which deals with Genesis, the director of the Concert at the Hostel Dieu calls on a musicologist from the Frederick II University in Naples, Marco Bizzarini.

This baroque specialist goes back to the trail of a "Luigi Da Mancia", born around 1660 in Brescia.

The manuscript of an Italian oratorio, discovered in the old funds of the municipal library of Lyon, March 3, 2022 JEFF PACHOUD AFP

Contemporary of Corelli or Scarlatti, this composer "was little known in France but highly esteemed at the time" in Italy, and also in Germany where he was very active thanks to important patrons, explains the expert.

Comparison of the Lyons score to other works by Mancia reveals an identical style.

But it is not an autograph: the manuscript is a copy, betrayed by errors and the absence of text for the last chorus.

According to biographical research by Marco Bizzarini, the composer created this oratorio around 1698, in a college in Modena where he taught music to young nobles who probably played it during Lent, a period during which no one gave no operas but only oratorios - without staging, costumes or sets.

This private purpose could explain the orchestration of the work, according to Franck-Emmanuel Comte.

Recorded in the booklet, it arranges the musicians in two choirs facing each other on stage: enough to satisfy all the students...

Another singularity, the dialogue between Adam and Eve is written for two female voices, the male character having the higher pitch (soprano).

The manuscript of an Italian oratorio, discovered in the old funds of the municipal library of Lyon, March 3, 2022 JEFF PACHOUD AFP

And "there are plenty of bizarre instruments", finally observes the musician from Lyon: muted trumpets, a first for the time, thus accompany the entry of the character of Death and an air has been written for three cellos, " which also remains unique to the 17th century".

"Il Paradiso Perduto", a title chosen three centuries later, is on the program of the Auditorium of Lyon on Monday evening before a disc and, perhaps, a tour.

© 2022 AFP