Alessandro Scarlatti

Alessandro Scarlatti (May 2, 1660 – October 24, 1725) was a Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of Domenico Scarlatti, also a Baroque composer.

Life

Scarlatti was born in Sicily, either in Trapani or Palermo. He is generally said to have been a pupil of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome, and there is reason to suppose that he had some connection with northern Italy, since his early works show the influence of Stradella and Legrenzi. The production at Rome of his opera Gli Equivoci nell’amore (1679) gained him the protection of Queen Christina of Sweden (who at the time was living in Rome), and he became her maestro di cappella. In February 1684 he became maestro di cappella to the viceroy of Naples, through the influence of his sister, an opera singer, who was the mistress of an influential Neapolitan noble. Here he produced a long series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency and expressiveness, as well as other music for state occasions.

Related Topics:
Trapani - Palermo - Giacomo Carissimi - Rome - Stradella - Legrenzi - 1679 - Christina of Sweden - February - 1684 - Viceroy - Naples - Opera

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In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians. In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of Ferdinand III of Tuscany, for whose private theatre near Florence he composed operas, and of Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his maestro di cappella, and procured him a similar post at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.

Related Topics:
1702 - Ferdinand III of Tuscany - Florence - Cardinal Ottoboni - Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore - 1703

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After visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, Scarlatti took up his duties at Naples again in 1708, and remained there until 1717. By this time Naples seems to have become tired of his music; the Romans, however, appreciated it better, and it was at the Teatro Capranica in Rome that he produced some of his finest operas (Telemaco, 1718; Marco Attilio Regolò, 1719; Griselda, 1721), as well as some noble specimens of church music, including a mass for chorus and orchestra, composed in honor of Saint Cecilia for Cardinal Acquaviva in 1721. His last work on a large scale appears to have been the unfinished serenata for the marriage of the prince of Stigliano in 1723. Scarlatti died in Naples.

Related Topics:
Venice - Urbino - 1707 - 1708 - 1717 - Teatro Capranica - 1718 - 1719 - Griselda - 1721 - Mass - Saint Cecilia - Cardinal Acquaviva - Serenata - Stigliano - 1723

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