has now been driven mad, but Clori’s heart is softened by his suffering. All four lovers return to their original pairs through the power of Amor. Personalities | Francesco Cavalli | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera ...
1602–76, Italian Francesco Cavalli was in the right place at the right time when the first opera house, the Teatro San Cassiano, opened in Venice in 1637. The following year, Cavalli, with Orazio Persiani (fl. 1640) as librettist, produced La nozze di Teti e di Peleo (‘The Wedding of Teti and Peleo’, 1638) for the ...
(Fran-ches’-ko Ka-val’-le) 1602–76 Italian composer Cavalli was born Caletti but took the name of his first patron. His life was centred on the basilica of St Mark’s, where his teacher, Monteverdi, was maestro di cappella. He became second organist there in 1639, principal organist in 1665, and maestro di cappella in 1668. He was the most gifted ...
b. 1933 English mezzo-soprano Baker studied in London, and made her debut in Smetana’s The Secret in Oxford in 1956. She sang Handel roles early in her career, and made a particular impression as Purcell’s Dido, a role she recorded several times. At Covent Garden, where she first appeared as Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream ...
1639–82, Italian Alessandro Stradella was in his native Rome, writing intermezzi and other music for revivals of operas by Cavalli and Cesti, when he became embroiled in a quarrel with the Catholic authorities. He then had to leave Rome and decamped to Genoa, where he arrived in 1678. By that time, Stradella had composed several operas ...
1630–80, Italian Nothing is known of the first 30 years of Antonio Sartorio’s life, except that he was Venetian. He made his first appearance in the historical records in 1661, when the first of his 15 operas, Gl’amori infruttuosi di Pirro (‘Pirro’s Hopeless Love’, 1661) was performed in Venice. In 1664, Sartorio was appointed Kappellmeister at ...
Accademia degli Unisoni, established by her adopted (or perhaps natural) father, the poet Giulio Strozzi, to provide a forum for her renowned vocal performances. A pupil of Cavalli, she published eight volumes of over 100 madrigals, motets, arias and cantatas; she probably wrote most of them to sing herself. Her music is characterized by lyricism ...
c. 1627–98, Italian Poet and librettist Count Nicolo Minato wrote 11 texts for the Venetian opera houses, including Cavalli’s Pompeo Magna (‘Pompey the Great’, 1666). In 1669, the Emperor of Austria, Leopold I, appointed Minato his court poet, and some very exciting opportunities opened up for the count. At that time, the court composer ...
Introduction | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera Major Operas | La Rappresentatione di Animo e di Corpo by Emilio de’ Cavalieri | Early & Middle Baroque Personalities | Francesco Cavalli | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera Performance | The Florentine Intermedi of 1589 | Roots of Opera ...
with figured-bass instrumental parts. Recommended Recording: La Rappresentatione di Animo e di Corpo, soloists, L’Arpeggiata (dir) Christina Pluhar (Alpha) Introduction | Early Baroque | Classical Personalities | Francesco Cavalli | Early Baroque | Classical ...
1606–51, Italian Florentine librettist Giacinto Cicognini followed in a famous father’s footsteps. Jacopo Cicognini (1577–1633), had been among the pioneers who introduced Spanish theatre to Italian audiences. Jacopo was also a librettist; he wrote Andromeda (1618) for another Florentine, the composer Domenico Belli. Giacinto Cicognini initially intended to become a lawyer, but the stage proved much more seductive ...
only five or six in all, starting with Cavalli’s Gli amore di Apollo e di Dafne (‘The Love of Apollo and Daphne’, 1640). Busenello provided libretti for three other Cavalli operas, but his greatest achievement was his work for Monteverdi in L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642). Introduction | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera Personalities | Francesca Caccini | Early ...
in Venice, wrote 11 libretti for Venetian opera houses in nine years – between 1642 and 1651 – and 10 of them were set to music by Francesco Cavalli. Cavalli owed a great deal to Faustini’s skill and to his unerring ‘feel’ for the pseudo-historical subjects of most of his libretti. Faustini also possessed an instinct for devising plots that ...
1653–97, Italian Castrato Siface made his singing debut in Rome in 1672. He enjoyed considerable early success in Italy and created a sensation in Venice as Syphax in Cavalli’s Sciopine affricano (‘Scipio Africanus’, 1685). Siface became so identified with the part that ‘Syphax’ became his nickname. Siface was taken up by many important personalities, including ex-Queen Christina of Sweden ...
abandoned the theatre and instead confined himself to instrumental and church music. The Venetian operatic tradition culminated with Legrenzi’s works, which were partly modelled on those of Monteverdi and Cavalli and included an ingenious genre, the heroic-comic opera, including Totila (1677), Giustino (1683) and I due Cesari (‘The Two Caesars’, 1683). In all these operas, Legrenzi provided ...
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