Francesco Cavalli

Francesco Cavalli, actually Pier Francesco Caletti - Bruni ( born February 14, 1602 Crema, † January 14, 1676 in Venice) was an Italian composer and organist who is primarily known for his operas today.

Life

Cavalli's father and first teacher Giovanni Battista Caletti ( 1577 - to 1642) was Director of Music and organist at Crema. The Venetian governor of Crema Federigo Cavalli became his patron, who took him to Venice and whose name he later took over as an opera composer. 1616 dedicated Claudio Monteverdi Cavalli as a singer at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, first as a boy soprano, then tenor. In 1620 he became organist at the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo, which he only gave up when he 1630, the wealthy widow Maria Schiavina married. The marriage remained childless, and his wife died in 1652.

1639, he was following a competition second organist at San Marco and led his first opera Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo on at the Teatro San Cassiano, the first public opera house, which had been formed two years earlier. 1641 La Didone was performed, the libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, the librettist of Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi comes. 1642 began with La virtu de ' strali d' Amore his collaboration with librettist Giovanni Faustini ( 1615-1651 ). Their last work was the opera La Calisto in his death in 1651. Meanwhile Cavalli had also become internationally known: his opera Egisto was performed in 1646 in Paris, Giasone ( 1649) was one of the most performed operas of the 17th century. Antonio Cesti ( with l' Orontea ) was now his biggest rival.

1651, he traveled to Naples and performs three of his works. His opera Orione in 1653 was staged in Milan in the election of Ferdinand IV King of the Romans; Hypermestra ( 1658) was appointed by Carlo de ' Medici.

April 1660 he traveled at the invitation of Cardinal Mazarin to Paris to perform operas occasion of the marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa of Spain. The stay in Paris was traveled there for the success-spoiled Cavalli, but the ailing and only to political pressure ( Mazarin wanted to have that ), to great disappointment. After his arrival died his patron Mazarin. Performance problems or intrigue that arose mainly as a ballet by the composer to the opera add towed Florentine Jean -Baptiste Lully, were added. They meant that the occasion of the wedding opera Ercole amante composed ( The enamored Hercules ) was not ready in time. Because the new theater at the Tuileries was not ready, was listed in the Picture Gallery of the Louvre in their place on November 22, 1660 Cavalli's successful opera Xerxes. She had a French overture and choruses instead of ballets by Lully.

The performance of Ercole Amante took half years later held in the Palais des Tuileries and took more than six hours. In between, there was dancing and eaten. There were at least 21 ballet interludes, composed and directed by Lully, in which participated also the Sun King. The ballet Hercule amoureux should be one of the most memorable events in the history of music, because here the king now appeared for the second time to Apollo. In the last act, the ballet of the Royal sept Planetes Louis XIV took three times as a dancer: as Mars, Pluto, and finally as the sun. The court chanted during his dance Long live the Sun King! This nickname was Louis XIV keep his life. Lully's ballets were hailed Cavalli's opera received much more subdued, partly because it was in Italian, and possibly also because a castrato sang it.

As Cavalli in 1662 again returned to Venice, he no longer wanted to write for the opera after the Paris disappointment, then composed but until 1673 six operas. He was the first organist in 1665, when Massimiliano Neri left for Bonn. Only in November 1668, when Giovanni Rovetta died, he was maestro di cappella of San Marco, which he remained until his death. 1669 he composed Coriolano for the theater in Piacenza. At the end of his life he composed only religious music, including a requiem to his funeral. Cavalli is buried in the church of San Lorenzo.

Afterlife

Cavalli was the most successful composer of opera in the mid-17th century, at a time when in primarily in Venice in the wake of Monteverdi out was the opera house and there a real "boom" experienced, which also extended to the rest of Europe, as the ruling class often met at the Carnival in Venice. Together with the librettist Giovanni Faustini, with whom he wrote most of his operas in the 1640s, he made the opera a popular entertainment. Cavalli reduced Monteverdi's extravagant orchestra for the directors to ( and cheaper ) practical extent, led bel canto, with melodious arias such as the lament in the music and popular types into his comic operas.

Of the approximately 40 operas Cavalli are 30 hands down, the most preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice ( from the collection of Marco Contarini ). Cavalli's operas have all the characteristic exaggerations and absurdities of the 17th century, but they also have a remarkable sense both for dramatic effect as well as for musical ease, and a grotesque humor which was characteristic of the great Italian opera until the death of Alessandro Scarlatti. His operas were all former opera generally listed as only one season. First revivals were conducted by Raymond Leppard at the Glyndebourne Festival in the 1960s. Since then, several operas Cavalli's been re- listed, in particular La Calisto, among others, by René Jacobs.

Works

Operas

Unless otherwise noted, the mentioned theater in Venice.

• Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo ( The Wedding Thetis and Peleus, premiere Teatro San Cassiano in January 1639 ), libretto Orazio Persiani.
• Gli Amore di Apollo e Dafne di ( premiere Teatro San Cassiano, Carnival 1640), libretto by Busenello by Ovid. Recorded by Gabriel Garrido and Ensemble Elyma for K617, published in 2008.
• La Didone ( premiere Teatro San Cassiano 1641), libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello Virgil's Aeneid, but with " happy ending " for Dido. Recorded by Michel CORBOZ for Harmonia Mundi in 1998 and by Thomas Hengelbrock for the German Harmonia Mundi.
• Narcisso et Ecco immortalati (first performed in 1642, lost), libretto Persiani
• L' Amore innamorato ( The enamored Amor, in 1642, lost)
• La virtu de ' strali d' Amore ( The Power of Love Arrows, premiere Teatro San Cassiano 1642), libretto by Faustini. 1648 listed in Bologna.
• L' Egisto ( premiere Teatro San Cassiano 1643), libretto Giovanni Faustini. The opera was successful in all of Italy. 1974 listed from Leppard in Santa Fe.
• La Deidamia (1644, lost), libretto S.Herrico
• L' Ormindo ( premiere Teatro San Cassiano 1644), libretto by Faustini. 1967 listed from Leppard at Glyndebourne.
• Il Romolo e ' l Remo (1645, lost), libretto G. Strozzi
• La Doriclea ( premiere Teatro San Cassiano 1645), libretto by Faustini.
• Il Titone (1645, lost), libretto Faustini
• La prosperità infelice di Giulio Cesare dittatore (1646, lost), libretto by GFBusenello
• La Torilda (1648, lost), Libreto PPBissari
• Giasone (Jason, premiere Teatro San Cassiano January 5, 1649 ), libretto by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini. One of the most successful operas of the entire 17th century. Recording by René Jacobs 1988.
• L' Euripo ( 1649, lost music), libretto Faustini
• La Bradamante (1650, lost), libretto P.P. Bissari
• L' Orimonte ( premiere Teatro San Cassiano February 23, 1650 ), libretto by Niccolò Minato.
• L' Oristeo ( premiere Teatro San Apollinare 1651). Libretto by Faustini. With one of the first examples of da capo arias, " Udite Amanti " sung by Corinta (soprano ).
• La Rosinda ( 1651), libretto Faustini
• L' Armidoro (1651, lost), libretto as Castoreo
• La Calisto ( premiere Teatro San Apollinare, November 28, 1651), libretto by Faustini. Recording of Raymond Leppard in 1972 and René Jacobs 1994.
• L' Eritrea ( premiere Teatro San Apollinare January 16, 1652 ), libretto by Faustini. 1975 at the Wexford Festival under Jane Glover listed.
• Il Delio (La Veremonda, l' amazzone di Aragona ) ( premiere December 21, 1652 in Naples, on the occasion of the Spanish victory over Barcelona, ​​premiered in Venice on January 28, 1653), libretto by Giulio Strozzi Cicognini with additions of.
• L' Helena rapita as Teseo (1653), libretto G.Badoaro
• L' Orione ( Milan premiere in June 1653 at the election of Ferdinand IV as King of the Romans ), libretto Francesco Melosio listed again Leppard in Santa Fe in 1983.
• Il Ciro ( premiere Teatro San Giovanni e San Paolo 30 January, 1654), in collaboration with the composer Mattioli (or editing an opera of an otherwise unknown composer by Cavalli ), libretto Giulio Cesare Sorrentino, edited by Aurelio Aureli.
• Il Xerse ( Il Serse, premiere in January 1654 ), libretto Nicolò Minato. The opera was particularly with her ​​aria " Ombra Mai Fu " very popular and was later set to music by Handel and Giovanni Bononcini. In highly processed form, it was also listed in 1660 in Paris. A recording under René Jacobs Harmonia Mundi appeared in 1985.
• L' Erismena ( premiere Teatro San Apollinare December 30, 1655 ), libretto Aurelio Aureli. The first opera, which is known an English translation (possibly listed in 1674 in England) .1670 the opera by Cavalli has been re- edited.
• La Statira ( Statira principessa di Persia ) (premiered January 18, 1655 Teatro San Giovanni e San Paolo ), libretto Busenello
• L' Artemisia ( premiere Teatro San Giovanni e San Paolo January 10, 1657, Naples 1658, Palermo 1659, Milan 1663, Genoa 1665), libretto Nicolò Minato
• L' Hipermestra (L' Ipermestra ) ( premiere Florence June 12, 1658 ), libretto Moniglia
• L' Antioco (1659, lost music), libretto Minato
• Il rapimento d' Helena ( Elena L' ) ( premiere Teatro San Cassiano, dedication of 26 December 1659), libretto originally by Faustini, completed by Minato
• La pazzia in trono, ossia il delirious Caligola (1660, lost), libretto D.Gisberti
• L' Ercole ( Ercole amante ) ( premiere Salles des Machines in the Tuileries Palace, February 7, 1662), libretto by Francesco Buti by Ovid.
• Scipione affricano ( premiere Teatro San Giovanni e Paolo, February 1664 ). Libretto by Minato. Also listed in Rome in 1671 and in a revised version in 1678 by Giovanni Viviani at the Carnival in Venice. Disk recording by Michel CORBOZ 1980.
• Il Mutio Scevola ( Muzio Scevola ) ( premiere Teatro San Samuele, 1665), libretto Faustini, edited by Minato. Also listed in Bologna 1667.
• Il Pompeo Magno (premiered at the Teatro San Salvatore, February 20, 1666), libretto by Minato.
• L' Eliogabalo (1667 composed, premiered at the 1668 Carnival, withdrawn after a few days and replaced by an eponymous opera by Giovanni boretti ). Librettist unknown, possibly edited by Aureli ( topic is the Roman emperor Elagabalus ). 2004 listed by René Jacobs.
• Coriolano ( 1669 lost)
• Massenzio ( 1673 lost)

Other

• Musiche sacre ( 1656) contains, fairs, hymns, a Magnificat and six polyphonic Sonatas