Stanislao Mattei, a Conventual Franciscan friar, theorist andcomposer from Bologna, was maestro di cappella at S. Francesco and S. Petronio. His Oratorio della Passione, described by Carlo Gervasoni as his "masterpiece," was first performed on 6 April 1792 in the oratory of S. Maria della Morte in Bologna, to great acclaim. Ludovico of Bourbon-Parma requested and praised the score. The work wasperformed until 1799 and again in 1806 at the Liceo Filarmonico, with illustrious performers including the fourteen-year-old Gioachino Rossini in the role of Mary Magdalene. Three manuscript scores survive, attesting to at least two authorial versions, with significant differences in the vocal parts. The second version, complete with Sinfonias, forms the basis of the recording edition. The score, of great expressive and technical impact, demonstrates the openness of Bologna's musical context to the contemporary European language.