edited by Luca Lévi Sala, Bologna, Ut Orpheus Edizioni, 2017 [Opera Omnia – Vol. VI], ISMN: 979-0-2153-2378-0, ISBN:978-88-8109-498-1, BCE 6.
Towards the end of the 1790s, Luigi Boccherini revised numerous works that he had composed many years before, whilst in the service of the Infante of Spain, Don Luis de Borbón y Farnesio (1770-1785). Among these works is the Stabat Mater Op. 61 (G 532), for three voices, in all probability composed between the end of 1800 and 1801.
The textual history of the Stabat Mater Op. 61 is complex. It consists of fourteen sources derived from a total of sixty-two witnesses, including manuscripts and prints.
Opus 61 is not the only known version of the Stabat Mater, being an arrangement of a previous chamber version for solo voice and strings with cello «obbligato», composed twenty years earlier, in 1781.
This primary version of the Stabat Mater is never mentioned in any of Boccherini’s own catalogues, and bears no opus number, as clearly attested by the unique source containing its music: the Spanish manuscript US-Wc M. 2103.3 B 65.
