1810–76, Italian Although Francesco Maria Piave’s fame rests on his libretti written for Verdi, he produced texts for several other composers of the Romantic era. These included Michael Balfe, Antonio Cagnoni (1828–96), Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870) and Giovanni Pacini (1796–1867): Piave supplied Pacini with the libretto for his Lorenzino de’ Medici (1845), which was first performed in Venice. By ...
(Fran-cha’-sko Lan-de’-ne) c. 1325–97 Italian composer Blind as the result of an attack of smallpox as a young child, Landini turned to music, learning to play the organ and several other instruments. He also sang and wrote poetry. Over 150 musical works by him survive, forming over one quarter of the known repertory of the fourteenth century. Most of ...
(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 ...
(Fran-chas’-ko Ja-men-ya’-ne) 1687–1762 Italian composer and violinist Geminiani was born in Lucca and studied in Rome with Corelli. In 1714 he went to England, where he remained for the rest of his life. Geminiani established a fine reputation as a teacher, composer and violin virtuoso. His earliest concertos – arrangements of Corelli’s celebrated sonatas for violin and continuo (op. 5) ...
(Kârl Ma-re’-a fun Va’-ber) 1786–1826 German composer Weber was a central figure in the growth of the Romantic movement in Germany, and one of its most important composers. He resuscitated and spread an enthusiasm for German opera, to which his own three-act opera Der Freischütz (‘The Free-shooter’, 1812) contributed. A gifted Kapellmeister and astute critic, he raised standards of ...
(Organ, b. 1971) The son of jazz organist Papa John DeFrancesco, Joey’s keyboard skill and enthusiasm were well-recognized even before 1987, when he was a finalist in the annual Thelonious Monk Competition. Indebted in style to Jimmy Smith, DeFrancesco played with Miles Davis and recorded on Columbia Records prior to his graduation from high school. His prodigious ...
(Composer, arranger, bandleader, b. 1960) Schneider studied several instruments and composition prior to an internship with arranger Gil Evans in New York City in 1985. After further work with Bob Brookmeyer and Mel Lewis, she established a jazz orchestra that performed weekly in Greenwich Village from 1993–98 and recorded three albums. In 2004 she self-produced Concert In ...
1598–1659, Italian Venetian-born librettist Gian Francesco Busenello had a particular talent for the commercial operas that became fashionable in Italy in the first half of the seventeenth century. Busenello possessed a certain cynical realism about life that served him and his composers well when it came to insights into human behaviour. Busenello was never judgemental in his treatment of his ...
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 ...
Premiered: 1643, Venice Libretto by Giovanni Faustini Background Egisto and Clori, two lovers from Delos, have been captured by pirates and sold to different masters. On the day of her marriage to Lidio, Climene has also been captured and sold to the same master as Egisto. Act I One year later, Egisto and Climene have escaped ...
1574–1620, Italian Composer and tenor Francesco Rasi took part in the first performances of Peri’s Euridice and Caccini’s Rapimento di Cefalo in Florence in 1600. By then he was already an experienced and much-admired performer, after 10 years in the service of aristocratic patrons, including Duke Fernando I of Tuscany before 1594, and, after 1598 the ...
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 ...
1678–1729, Italian Haym was the skilful literary adaptor who prepared several of Handel’s best opera libretti, including Radamisto, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Tamerlano and Rodelinda. Rather than writing new texts for Handel, Haym’s talent was reorganizing old Italian texts so that they were adequately dramatic and balanced while also reducing the amount of simple recitative for ...
c. 1680–c. 1759, Italian Francesco Bernardi was nicknamed ‘Senesino’ after his birthplace, Siena. His first known performance was at Venice in 1707–08, and he sang for Caldara at Bologna in 1709. He was dismissed from Dresden in 1720 because he refused to sing an aria during rehearsals for Johan David Heinichen’s (1683–1729) Flavio Crespo (1720). He joined the ...
c. 1660–c. 1728–44, Italian Little is known about Silvani’s life, but he was an abbot who issued his earliest works under the anagram Frencasco Valsini. Silvani regularly produced libretti for Venice between 1691 and 1716, and the title pages of the printed wordbooks state that he served the Duke of Mantua between 1699 and 1705. Silvani identified with ...
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