Personalities | Stefano Landi | Early Baroque | Classical
c. 1586–1639
Italian composer
Although Stefano Landi was active as a church musician in his own time, he is chiefly remembered nowadays as one of the most gifted and successful opera composers of the period between Monteverdi’s Florentine dramas and those that the composer wrote for Venice. During the 1630s, the focus on dramma per musica (‘drama through music’) shifted from Florence to Rome where, in 1632, Landi’s most impressive opera, Il Sant’Alessio (‘Saint Alexius’) inaugurated the Teatro Quattro Fontane. This drama, recounting the story of the modest, self-effacing St Alexius, was among the first of its kind to be based on factual history rather than legend. The machinery it required for its extravagant scenic effects conforms with the Roman taste of the time.
Recommended Recording:
Il Sant’Alessio, soloists, Les Arts Florissants (dir) William Christie (Erato)
Introduction | Early Baroque | Classical
Personalities | Henry Lawes | Early Baroque | Classical
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