Alessandro Scarlatti, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: April 28, 2025. Alessandro Scarlatti. It was only a month in the past that, whereas writing in regards to the music of Naples, we illustrated it with a beautiful aria from considered one of Alessandro Scarlatti’s operas, Tigrane, which premiered in that metropolis, in Teatro San Bartolomeo, in February of 1715 (the aria, Sussurrando il venticello, or Whispering the breeze, might be discovered right here; the soprano is Elizabeth Watts). Scarlatti was born in Palermo on Might 2nd of 1660. After transferring between Palermo, Rome, and Naples, Alessandro’s household settled in Rome in 1672. The plain musical expertise of the younger Scarlatti attracted the eye of many necessary Romans; Gian Lorenzo Bernini invited him to dwell in his palazzo, whereas Bernini’s son was the godfather of Scarlatti’s first baby. Cardinal Pamphili, one of the necessary patrons of music in Rome, offered Scarlatti together with his poetry to be set to music and launched him to Queen Christina, one other necessary particular person within the arts scene. In brief order, Christina made Scarlatti her Maestro di capella. His first opera, Gli equivoci nel sembiante, was composed in 1679 and was profitable not simply in Rome but additionally in different Italian cities. By 1683, he had written six operas (right here’s the aria O cessate di piagarmi from his opera Il Pompeo from 1683). Pope Harmless XI disliked opera, and due to that, new productions had been staged solely within the personal theaters of the the Aristocracy, like Queen Christina’s, or international dignitaries, who might flout the Pope’s displeasure. One such patron was a Neapolitan duke of Maddaloni, who, in 1683, satisfied Scarlatti to maneuver to Naples.
Naples was then a Spanish possession. The Viceroy, Gaspar Méndez de Haro, beforehand served because the Spanish ambassador to Rome, the place he turned a devotee of Scarlatti’s music. Thus, Scarlatti was assured of crucial patronage within the metropolis. This relationship was additionally the reason for nice jealousy among the many Neapolitan musicians, because the Viceroy made Scarlatti his Maestro di capella. Scarlatti was writing about two operas a 12 months; first they might be staged on the royal palace after which produced within the Teatro San Bartolomeo. Virtually single-handedly, Scarlatti made Naples into an opera heart to rival Venice. In 1685, his first of the eventual 5 Neapolitan youngsters was born: the boy was named Domenico, and he would change into a composer, at the very least as well-known as his father.
Whereas in Naples, Scarlatti continued to take care of a relationship with many Roman patrons. In 1689, Queen Christina died, however quickly a brand new necessary patron would seem, Pietro Ottoboni. Cardinal Ottoboni was the grandnephew of Pope Alexander VIII (see our entry on this illustrious patron of the humanities right here). Pope Alexander got here from Venice, the place opera was king. He eliminated many restrictions imposed by his predecessor, Pope Harmless XI. Pietro Ottoboni, the Cardinal, wealthy off the nepotism of his granduncle, lavished a lot of his wealth on arts and music, Scarlatti being considered one of his predominant beneficiaries. Ottoboni wrote the libretto for considered one of Scarlatti’s operas, La Statira (two extra libretti would observe). One other cardinal, Benedetto Pamphili, wrote the libretto for one act of La santa Dimna and staged it on the theater of his personal Palazzo Doria Pamphili. A few of Scarlatti’s patrons got here from afar; considered one of them, Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, was himself a wonderful musician. Sadly, all operas written by Scarlatti for Ferdinando are misplaced. Right here, however, is an aria from the identical interval, S’io non t’amassi, from the 1697 opera La Caduta de’ Decemviri. The countertenor Dmitry Egorov is accompanied by La Stagione Frankfurt below the route of Michael Schneider.
