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Personalities | Antonio Cesti | Early Baroque | Classical

(An-ton’-yo Chas’-te) c. 1623–69
Italian composer

Cesti was a Franciscan monk who studied music in Rome. Employed as a singer at the Florentine and Sienese courts, he then travelled to Venice, where his first opera Orontea (1649) was successfully performed at the Teatro di SS Apostoli. Following an affair with a singer, Cesti moved to Innsbruck, Austria, where further operas were performed. In 1658 Cesti revisited Rome and joined the papal choir. Released from his Franciscan vows in 1661, he returned to Innsbruck as a secular priest. In 1666 he was appointed to a post at the Vienna court. There his greatest works, Le disgrazie d’Amore (‘Love’s Misfortunes’, 1667) and Il pomo d’oro (‘The Golden Apple’, 1668), which celebrates the marriage of Leopold I and the Infanta Margherita of Spain, were performed.

Recommended Recording:
Cantatas, Nicholas Isherwood, Guido Morini (dir) Luciano Contini (Accord)

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

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