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 ...
(A-lel’-san’-dro Stra-del’-la) 1644–82 Italian composer By the age of 20 Stradella was composing for the exiled Queen Christina of Sweden, who appointed him servitore di camera (servant of the chamber). He enjoyed the patronage of several leading families, but was forced to leave Rome briefly in 1669 after attempting to embezzle money from the church. An ill-judged affair with one ...
and later by his friendships with Charles Gounod (1818–93) and Jacques Offenbach (1819–80). His early operas are in the French lyric style, but his most successful works, Alessandro Stradella (1844) and Martha (1847), combine a German text with Italianate melodic traits. The first production of Martha, in Vienna, was a triumph, and the next production was ...
Though German-born, Friedrich von Flotow studied in Paris and became largely identified with French opera. His first operas in the French style were written for private salon performances. Alessandro Stradella (1844), his first international success, revealed his penchant for building a work around one ‘hit tune’, in this case ‘Jungfrau Maria’. After leaving Paris for Vienna, von Flotow ...
Ferrara by thugs hired by the family of a girl with whom he had been having a love affair. Introduction | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera Personalities | Alessandro Stradella | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera The Voice | The Castrati | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera The Voice | The Training of the Castrati | Late Baroque ...
1660) also demonstrates his talent for orchestration. Recommended Recording: Weihnachtshistorie, Taverner Consort, Choir and Players (dir) Andrew Parrott (Virgin/Erato) Introduction | Early Baroque | Classical Personalities | Alessandro Stradella | Early Baroque | Classical ...
Perhaps the most important developments in music around the year 1600 were the emergence of the basso continuo and the fashion for virtuosity. The presence of an independent bass line moved composition away from the flowing polyphony of the Renaissance, in which all voices played an equal role in the texture, leaving the upper voices free to indulge in ...
are also found. Alessandro Scarlatti’s 600 or so cantatas (written mainly for the solo voice, usually soprano) built on those of his predecessors such as Giacomo Carissimi (1605–74), Alessandro Stradella (1644–82) and Barbara Strozzi (c. 1619–64). Scarlatti bridged the change between recitatives and arias with arioso passages (a style of singing half way between recitative and aria). In his arias ...
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