1.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
2.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
3.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
4.
Libretto
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A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata. Libretto, from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro, sometimes other language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works and Textbuch for German. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. The relationship of the librettist to the composer in the creation of a work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources. In the context of a modern English language musical theatre piece, Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe and his libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozarts greatest operas, as well as for other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, the libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers wrote their own libretti, Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchners play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck, sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer, this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Belsky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer, a lyricist and the writer of the book. In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics and libretto, Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. A famous case of the latter is Wagners 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris, since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. The libretto of a musical, on the hand, is almost always written in prose
5.
Opera seria
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Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and serious style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. The term itself was used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dellarte. Italian opera seria was produced not only in Italy but also in Spain, Habsburg Austria, England, Saxony, German states, Opera seria was less popular in France, where the national genre of French opera was preferred. Opera seria built upon the conventions of the High Baroque era by developing and exploiting the da capo aria, the first section presented a theme, the second a complementary one, and the third a repeat of the first with ornamentation and elaboration of the music by the singer. As the genre developed and arias grew longer, an opera seria would contain not more than thirty musical movements. The recitative was typically secco, that is, accompanied only by continuo, at moments of especially violent passion secco was replaced by stromentato recitative, where the singer was accompanied by the entire body of strings. After an aria was sung, accompanied by strings and oboe and this continued for three acts before concluding with an upbeat chorus, to celebrate the jubilant climax. The leading singers each expected their fair share of arias of varied mood, be they sad, angry, the dramaturgy of opera seria largely developed as a response to French criticism of what were often viewed as impure and corrupting librettos. The spectacle and ballet so common in French opera were banished and they were cast in heroic male roles, alongside another new breed of operatic creature, the prima donna. The rise of star singers with formidable technical skills spurred composers to write increasingly complex vocal music. Of these the most famous is perhaps Farinelli, whose debut in 1722 was guided by Nicola Porpora, though Farinelli did not sing for Handel, his main rival, Senesino, did. Opera seria acquired definitive form early during the 1720s, while Apostolo Zeno and Alessandro Scarlatti had paved the way, the genre only truly came to fruition due to Metastasio and later composers. Metastasios career began with the serenata Gli Orti Esperidi, Nicola Porpora, set the work to music, and the success was so great that the famed Roman prima donna, Marianna Bulgarelli, La Romanina, sought out Metastasio, and took him on as her protégé. On the other hand, Handel, working far outside the genre, set only a few Metastasio libretti for his London audience. At this time the leading Metastasian composers were Hasse, Antonio Caldara, Vinci, Porpora, vincis settings of Didone abbandonata and Artaserse were much praised for their stromento recitative, and he played a crucial part in establishing the new style of melody. Hasse, by contrast, indulged in stronger accompaniment and was regarded at the time as the more adventurous of the two, Pergolesi was noted for his lyricism. The main challenge for all was achieving variety, a break from the pattern of secco recitative, the mutable moods of Metastasios librettos helped, as did innovations made by the composer, such as stromento recitative or cutting a ritornello
6.
Assisi
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Assisi is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. The 19th-century Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows was also born in Assisi, around 1000 BC a wave of immigrants settled in the upper Tiber valley as far as the Adriatic Sea, and also in the neighborhood of Assisi. These were the Umbrians, living in fortified settlements on high ground. From 450 BC these settlements were taken over by the Etruscans. The Romans took control of central Italy after the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC and they built the flourishing municipium Asisium on a series of terraces on Monte Subasio. Roman remains can still be found in Assisi, city walls, the forum, a theatre, an amphitheatre, in 1997, the remains of a Roman villa were also discovered containing several well-preserved rooms with frescoes and mosaics in a condition rarely found outside sites such as Pompei. In 238 AD Assisi was converted to Christianity by bishop Rufino, according to tradition, his remains rest in the Cathedral Church of San Rufino in Assisi. The Ostrogoths of king Totila destroyed most of the town in 545, Assisi then came under the rule of the Lombards as part of the Lombard and then Frankish Duchy of Spoleto. The thriving commune became an independent Ghibelline commune in the 11th century, the city, which had remained within the confines of the Roman walls, began to expand outside these walls in the 13th century. In this period the city was under papal jurisdiction, the city went into a deep decline through the plague of the Black Death in 1348. The city came again under papal jurisdiction under the rule of Pope Pius II, in 1569 construction was started of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. During the Renaissance and in later centuries, the city continued to develop peacefully, as the 17th-century palazzi of the Bernabei, now the site of many a pilgrimage, Assisi is linked in legend with its native son, St. Francis. The gentle saint founded the Franciscan order and shares honors with St. Catherine of Siena as the saint of Italy. He is remembered by many, even non-Christians, as a lover of nature, Assisi was hit by two devastating earthquakes, that shook Umbria in September 1997. But the recovery and restoration have been remarkable, although much remains to be done, massive damage was caused to many historical sites, but the major attraction, the Basilica di San Francesco, reopened less than 2 years later. UNESCO collectively designated the Franciscan structures of Assisi as a World Heritage Site in 2000, the Basilica of San Francesco dAssisi. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253. The Basilica was badly damaged by an earthquake on 26 September 1997, during part of the vault collapsed, killing four people inside the church
7.
Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina
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Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina was an Italian man of letters and jurist. He was born at Roggiano Gravina, a town near Cosenza. In 1689, he came to Rome, where in 1690, in 1699, he was appointed to the chair of civil law in the Roman college of La Sapienza, and in 1703, he was transferred to the chair of canon law. A schism occurred in the academy in 1711, and Gravina, from Innocent XII Gravina received the offer of various ecclesiastical honors, but declined them from a disinclination to enter the clerical profession. He died at Rome in January 1718 and he was the adoptive father of Metastasio. Gravina is the author of a number of works of great erudition and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
8.
Academy of Arcadians
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The Accademia degli Arcadi or Accademia dellArcadia, Academy of Arcadia or Academy of the Arcadians, was an Italian literary academy founded in Rome in 1690. The full Italian official name was Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi, there she became a significant patron of music and opera, with composers including Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella and Arcangelo Corelli dedicating works to her. After her death in 1689, the academy was established in her memory, the Academy lasted for the next two hundred years, remaining a leading cultural institution into the 20th century. The Academy chose as its emblem the pipe of Pan with its seven unequal reeds, the fourteen founders selected as the first Custode di Arcadia or president of the academy, Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni who was the author of a history of Italian poetry and of various literary works. The Arcadians resolved to return to the fields of truth, always singing of subjects of pastoral simplicity, the ideal parameters for the artistic work were simplicity and a sense of measure and beauty. Common to all the poets was the desire to oppose the poetry of the Marinists, norms and rituals of the academy took their cue from classic and pastoral mythology, as in the custom of assuming pastoral names. The fourteen founder members included the librettist Silvio Stampiglia, the first solemn gathering of the Arcadians was held on the Janiculum hill, in a wood belonging to the Reformed Minorites, on 5 October 1690. In 1692, the meetings were transferred to the gardens of Duke Orsini on the Esquiline hill, in 1696, to the Farnese gardens on the Palatine. Finally, the generosity of John V of Portugal, one of its members under the name of Arete Melleo, here they held their meetings in summer days, in winter moving to the Teatro degli Arcadi in the Palazzo Salviati. In 1696 the Accademia admitted seven musicians including Giovanni Bononcini, while the academy was still on the Palatine, its Statuto or Constitution was drawn up. This constitution was modelled on the ancient Roman laws of the Twelve Tables, because of these differences Gravina left to found the Accademia dei Quirini in 1711. Despite this loss, Arcadia retained its vigour in the following years, many noblemen, ecclesiastics, and artists held membership of it to be an honour, and very soon it numbered 1,300. The celebrated opera librettist Pietro Metastasio although he had his own differences with Arcadia, was a student of Gravinas, and a leading light of the academys second generation. His works, of which the best remembered might be Il Re Pastore because of its setting by Mozart, may represent the closest thing to a justification of its program that Arcadia achieved. In 1795, the academy admitted the Italian Diodata Saluzzo Roero, as one of its first female members, a violent anti-Arcadian reaction soon developed, and, starting from the early 19th century, Arcadianism began to be regarded as a late and unconvincing expression of the ancien régime. The Academy no longer represented a literary school, but a general interest in the classics, furthermore, the Academys field of endeavour was enlarged to include many branches of study, including history and archaeology. The new Arcadian revival was marked by the foundation of the Giornale Arcadico, in 1925 the Academy was renamed to become the Arcadia - Accademia Letteraria Italiana, a historical institute. The Accademia degi Arcadi counted among its members some of the literary men of the time, including Menzini, Redi, Metastasio, Rolli, Guidi
9.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
10.
Calabria
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Calabria, known in antiquity as Bruttium and formerly as Italia, is a region in Southern Italy and forms the traditionally conceptualized toe of the Italian Peninsula which resembles a boot. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro and its most populated city, and the seat of the Regional Council of Calabria, is Reggio Calabria in the Province of Reggio Calabria. The region is bordered to the north by the Basilicata Region, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the region covers 15,080 km2 and has a population of just under 2 million. The demonym of Calabria in English is Calabrian, in ancient times Calabria was referred to as Italy. The Romans later extended the name to cover Southern Italy and then the entire peninsula, the region is a long and narrow peninsula which stretches from north to south for 248 km, with a maximum width of 110 km. Some 42% of Calabrias area, corresponding to 15,080 km2, is mountainous, 49% is hilly and it is surrounded by the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. It is separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina, where the narrowest point between Capo Peloro in Sicily and Punta Pezzo in Calabria is only 3.2 km, three mountain ranges are present, Pollino, La Sila and Aspromonte. All three mountain ranges are unique with their own flora and fauna, the Pollino Mountains in the north of the region are rugged and form a natural barrier separating Calabria from the rest of Italy. Parts of the area are heavily wooded, while others are vast and these mountains are home to a rare Bosnian Pine variety, and are included in the Pollino National Park. The highest point is Botte Donato, which reaches 1,928 metres, the area boasts numerous lakes and dense coniferous forests. La Sila also has some of the tallest trees in Italy which are called the Giants of the Sila, the Sila National Park is also known to have the purest air in Europe. The Aspromonte massif forms the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula bordered by the sea on three sides and this unique mountainous structure reaches its highest point at Montalto, at 1,995 metres, and is full of wide, man-made terraces that slope down towards the sea. In general, most of the terrain in Calabria has been agricultural for centuries. The lowest slopes are rich in vineyards and citrus fruit orchards, the Diamante citron is one of the citrus fruits. Moving upwards, olives and chestnut trees appear while in the regions there are often dense forests of oak, pine, beech. Calabrias climate is influenced by the sea and mountains, mountain areas have a typical mountainous climate with frequent snow during winter. Erratic behavior of the Tyrrhenian Sea can bring heavy rainfall on the slopes of the region, while hot air from Africa makes the east coast of Calabria dry. The mountains that run along the region also influence the climate, the east coast is much warmer and has wider temperature ranges than the west coast
11.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
12.
Iliad
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The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly. The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC, in the modern vulgate, the Iliad contains 15,693 lines, it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. Note, Book numbers are in parentheses and come before the synopsis of the book, after an invocation to the Muses, the story launches in medias res towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans and the besieging Greeks. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, offers the Greeks wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive of Agamemnon, although most of the Greek army is in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollos help, and Apollo causes a plague to afflict the Greek army, after nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon contingent, calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father, angered, Achilles declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon but will go home. Odysseus takes a ship and returns Chryseis to her father, whereupon Apollo ends the plague, in the meantime, Agamemnons messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset, sits by the seashore, and prays to his mother, Achilles asks his mother to ask Zeus to bring the Greeks to the breaking point by the Trojans, so Agamemnon will realize how much the Greeks need Achilles. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but decides to first test the Greek armys morale, the plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnons war. After a meal, the Greeks deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain, the poet takes the opportunity to describe the provenance of each Greek contingent. When news of the Greek deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans too sortie upon the plain, in a list similar to that for the Greeks, the poet describes the Trojans and their allies. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by his brother and head of the Trojan army, Hector. While Helen tells Priam about the Greek commanders from the walls of Troy, Paris is beaten, but Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him
13.
Seneca the Younger
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Seneca the Younger, fully Lucius Annaeus Seneca and also known simply as Seneca, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and—in one work—humorist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. As a tragedian, he is best-known for his Medea and Thyestes and he was a tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. He was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, however, some sources state that he may have been innocent. His father was Seneca the Elder, his brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus. Seneca was born in Cordoba in Hispania, and raised in Rome, griffin also infers from the ancient sources that Seneca was born in either 8,4, or 1 BC. She thinks he was born between 4 and 1 BC and was a resident in Rome by AD5, Seneca says that he was carried to Rome in the arms of his mothers stepsister. Griffin says that, allowing for rhetorical exaggeration, means it is fair to conclude that Seneca was in Rome as a small boy. Be that as it may, it is clear that he was in Rome at an early stage in his life. Caligula and Fabius were critics of his works, and Columella, Pliny, Tacitus, from AD54 to 62, Seneca acted as Neros advisor, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus. One byproduct of his influence was that Seneca was appointed consul in 56. Senecas influence was said to have especially strong in the first year. Tacitus and Dio suggest that Neros early rule, during which time he listened to Seneca, however, the ancient sources suggest, over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over the emperor. In 59 they had agreed to Agrippinas murder, and afterward. This may have contributed as well to his own downfall, following Burrus death in 62, Seneca became the subject of criticism by what Tacitus describes as Neros more disreputable advisers. Charges included allegations of excessive wealth, the grandeur of his property, Seneca requested an audience with Nero in which he sought permission to retire from public duties, pleading age and infirmity. The two then parted on apparently warm terms, Seneca subsequently adopted a quiet lifestyle on his country estates, concentrating on his studies and seldom visiting Rome. In AD65, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy, although it is unlikely that Seneca conspired, Nero ordered him to kill himself. Seneca followed tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death, a generation after the Julio-Claudian emperors, Tacitus wrote an account of the suicide, which in view of his Republican sympathies is perhaps somewhat romanticized
14.
Gian Giorgio Trissino
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Gian Giorgio Trissino, also called Giovan Giorgio Trissino, was an Italian Renaissance humanist, poet, dramatist, diplomat, and grammarian. Trissino was born of a family in Vicenza. He was exiled from Venice for political reasons, and traveled to Germany and he eventually came under the protection of Pope Leo X, Pope Clement VII, and Pope Paul III. He had the advantages of a good training, studying Greek under Demetrius Chalcondylas at Milan. His culture recommended him to the humanist Pope Leo X, who in 1515 sent him to Germany as his nuncio, later on Pope Clement VII showed him special favour, in 1532, the Emperor Charles V made Trissino a count palatine. In spite of the banishment from Vicenza pronounced upon him in 1509 because his family had favoured the plans of Maximilian, wherever he made his home, it was a center for gatherings of scholars, littérateurs, and the most cultured men of the time. His family life was far from happy, apparently through little fault of his own, in the history of modern European literature Trissino occupies a prominent place because of his tragedy Sophonisba. Based on the life of the Carthaginian lady Sophonisba and inspired by ancient tragedies and it served as an example for European tragedies throughout the 16th century. It was translated into French by Mellin de Saint-Gelais, and was performed with great acclaim in 1556 at the Château de Blois, a partisan of Aristotelean regularity, Trissino disapproved of the freedom of the chivalrous epic, as written by Ariosto. The result is a cold and colorless composition, in addition, Trissino played a prominent role in the early career of Andrea Palladio, which developed into a long and close friendship between the two men. Trissino first took Palladio under his wing after becoming acquainted with him while building his villa in Cricoli, Trissino died in Rome in December 1550. An edition of his works was published at Verona in 1729. His endeavors in the field of linguistics received lively reactions in the world of the time. His theory was supported by the publication, also in 1529, of his translation of Dantes De vulgari eloquentia, which Trissino had saved from oblivion. V and I vs. J, which caught up also for other European languages before being partly abandoned in contemporary Italian. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. Works by Giovanni Giorgio Trissino at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Gian Giorgio Trissino at Internet Archive
15.
Epithalamium
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An epithalamium is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. According to Origen, Song of Songs might be an epithalamium on the marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh’s daughter and it was originally among the Greeks a song in praise of bride and bridegroom, sung by a number of boys and girls at the door of the nuptial chamber. According to the scholiast on Theocritus, one form was employed at night, in either case, as was natural, the main burden of the song consisted of invocations of blessing and predictions of happiness, interrupted from time to time by the ancient chorus of Hymen hymenaee. Among the Romans a similar custom was in vogue, but the song was sung by only, after the marriage guests had gone. In the hands of the poets the epithalamium was developed into a literary form. The names of Ronsard, Malherbe and Scarron are especially associated with the genre in French literature, perhaps no poem of this class has been more universally admired than the pastoral Epithalamion of Edmund Spenser, though he also has important rivals – Ben Jonson, Donne and Francis Quarles. Ben Jonsons friend, Sir John Suckling, is known for his epithalamium A Ballad Upon a Wedding, in his ballad, Suckling playfully demystifies the usual celebration of marriage by detailing comic rustic parallels and identifying sex as the great leveler. At the close of In Memoriam A. H. H, tennyson has appended a poem, on the nuptials of his sister, which is strictly an epithalamium. E. E. Cummings also returns to the form in his poem Epithalamion, E. E. Cummings Epithalamion consists of three seven octave parts, and includes numerous references to ancient Greece. The term is occasionally used beyond poetry, for example to describe Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream, johann Wanning of Danzig is the composer of the first known musical epithalamium, a two-movement work for six voices, probably composed in the 1580s. Set for baritone, chorus, flute, piano, and strings, as he often did, Vaughan Williams incorporated the flavour of English folk songs into these songs. The 20th-century French organist-composer, Jean Langlais, includes it as a title in his collection Ten Pieces for organ, a late orchestral work by the Catalan composer Roberto Gerhard is entitled Epithalamion. Eugene Migliaro Corporon and the North Texas Wind Symphony recorded the work on the Wind Dances album released in 2000 on the Klavier label, in 2006 British composer John McCabe was commissioned by John Sell to write a piano piece for the 70th birthday of his wife Jane Wade. Epithalamium was given its premiere in 2007 by Malcolm Binns at the Wigmore Hall in London. Epithalamia were also a genre popular in Italy during the Renaissance. These were nudes presented as wedding gifts, which were intended to wish newlyweds happiness, venus and Cupid was a common subject. Although epithalamia existed only in form during antiquity, during the Renaissance. Poetry This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
16.
Endymion (mythology)
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Apollonius of Rhodes is one of the many poets who tell how Selene, the Titan goddess of the moon, loved the mortal. She believed him to be so beautiful that she asked Endymions father, Zeus, alternatively, Selene so loved how Endymion looked when he was asleep in the cave on Mount Latmus, near Miletus in Caria, that she entreated Zeus that he might remain that way. In either case, Zeus granted her wish and put him into an eternal sleep, every night, Selene visited him where he slept. Selene and Endymion had fifty daughters who are equated by some scholars with the fifty months of the Olympiad, the Bibliotheke claims that, Calyce and Aethlius had a son Endymion who led Aeolians from Thessaly and founded Elis. But some say that he was a son of Zeus, as he was of unsurpassed beauty, the Moon fell in love with him, and Zeus allowed him to choose what he would, and he chose to sleep for ever, remaining deathless and ageless. Endymion had by a Naiad nymph or, as say, by Iphianassa, a son Aetolus, who slew Apis, son of Phoroneus. There he killed his hosts, Dorus and Laodocus and Polypoetes, the sons of Phthia and Apollo, according to Pausanias, Endymion deposed Clymenus, son of Cardys, at Olympia. The Moon, they say, fell in love with this Endymion, Endymion set his sons to run a race at Olympia for the throne, Epeius won, and obtained the kingdom, and his subjects were then named Epeans for the first time. Pausanias also reports seeing a statue of Endymion in the treasury of Metapontines at Olympia, propertius, Ciceros Tusculanae Quaestiones, and Theocritus discuss the Endymion myth to some length, but reiterate the above to varying degrees. The myth surrounding Endymion has been expanded and reworked during the period by figures like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But now you yourself it would seem, are a victim of a madness like mine, the Louvre example, discovered at Saint-Médard-dEyrans, France, is one of this class. Latin writers explained the name from somnum ei inductum, the put upon him. The myth of Endymion was never transferred to ever-chaste Artemis. In the Renaissance, the moon goddess Diana had the Endymion myth attached to her. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1921. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd, plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol.1 translated by Harold North Fowler, Introduction by W. R. M. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1966, la fortune littéraire et artistique du mythe d’Endymion à l’aube de l’ère moderne, ISBN 3-7861-2499-X. Diana and Endymion circa 1700-1730, by Francesco Solimena, national Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery
17.
Prince of Belmonte
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The Prince of Belmonte is a noble title created in 1619 by the Spanish crown for the Barons of Badolato and Belmonte. In addition to the title, the Princes were made Grandees First Class in 1712. The Princes hold a number of titles, including Duke of Acerenza, Marquess of Galatone. Belmonte has been known since the Risorgimento as Belmonte Calabro, the princes are descendants of the Fieschi family of Genoa, who were ennobled as Counts Palatine in the year 1010 by Henry the Holy, King of Italy and later Holy Roman Emperor. The Emperor created the title of Count of Lavagna and appointed the Fieschi as Imperial Vice Regents of all Tuscany, the Princes of Belmonte descended from the Fieschi, Counts Palatine of Lavagna. The Fieschi were one of the families of Genoa, with the Grimaldi, Spinola. In the 13th century, the Fieschi were allied to the House of Grimaldi, modern day Princes of Monaco, the current prince is 35th in line from Frisco, 1st Count of Lavagna. Through their later marriage to a line of the Pignatelli, the Princes of Belmonte share blood with a pope, Pope Innocent XII. Ugone of Lavagna was alleged to have been the first to bear the name Fiesco or Fieschi and his descendant, Rubaldo Fieschi, was confirmed as Count of Lavagna in the 11th Century. The rank of Count Palatine was confirmed again at Lucca on 27 May 1369 by Charles IV. Later confirmations of the Fieschi status as vassals to the Holy Roman Emperor were given by the House of Habsburg in 1521,1529,1568. Beltramino Fieschi, 7th Count of Lavagna, was succeeded by his son Gerardo Fieschi, 8th Count, giovanni Battista was one of 7 children, of whom the eldest brother Giovan Francesco, was Prior of Bari of the Order of Malta. The princely title of Belmonte has descended to its present holder through the houses, Ravaschieri Fieschi, Squarciafico Pinelli. The heiress of the last of these married the Marquess of Castellabate, uniting her lands and titles with those of the Granito family, Palazzo Ravaschieri Fieschi della Torre Palazzo Rivellino. I Conti di Lavagna e l’alta Val di Vara, in Atti del Convegno I Fieschi tra Papato e Impero, ed. Calcagno, D. Lavagna and Chiavari Casa Ravaschiera Firpo, santa Margherita Ligure, Biblioteca Comunale Granito, Giacchino, Memorie, notizie e docc. III, Istituto Araldico Salentino, Lecce Musso, G. A
18.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
19.
Nicola Porpora
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Nicola Porpora was a Neapolitan composer of Baroque operas and teacher of singing, whose most famous singing student was the castrato Farinelli. Other students included composers Matteo Capranica and Joseph Haydn and he graduated from the music conservatory Poveri di Gesù Cristo of his native city, where the civic opera scene was dominated by Alessandro Scarlatti. Porporas first opera, Agrippina, was performed at the Neapolitan court in 1708. His second, Berenice, was performed at Rome, however, his enduring fame rests chiefly upon his unequalled power of teaching singing. At the Neapolitan Conservatorio di SantOnofrio and with the Poveri di Gesù Cristo he trained Farinelli, Caffarelli, Salimbeni, in 1720 and 1721 he wrote two serenades to libretti by a gifted young poet, Metastasio, the beginning of a long, though interrupted, collaboration. In 1722 his operatic successes encouraged him to lay down his conservatory commitments, after a rebuff from the court of Charles VI at Vienna in 1725, Porpora settled mostly in Venice, composing and teaching regularly in the schools of La Pietà and the Incurabili. From Dresden he went to Vienna, where among other pupils he trained the young Marianne von Martinez, as his accompanist and valet he hired the youthful Joseph Haydn, who was making his way in Vienna as a struggling freelancer. He also said that he had learned from the maestro the true fundamentals of composition, in 1753 Porpora spent three summer months, with Haydn in tow, at the spa town Mannersdorf am Leithagebirge. His function there was to continue the lessons of the mistress of the ambassador of Venice to the Austrian Empire. Porpora returned in 1759 to Naples, yet at the moment of his death, Farinelli and Caffarelli were living in splendid retirement on fortunes largely based on the excellence of the old maestros teaching. A good linguist, who was admired for the fluency of his recitatives. He was well-read in Latin and Italian literature, wrote poetry and spoke French, German, besides some four dozen operas, there are oratorios, solo cantatas with keyboard accompaniment, motets and vocal serenades. Among his larger works, his 1720 opera Orlando, one mass, his Venetian Vespers, see List of operas by Porpora. Davide e Bersabea Gedeone Il Verbo in carne 12 cantatas for solo voice and continuo dedicated to Frederic, queste che miri O Nice V. Scrivo in te lamato nome VI. Veggo la selva e il monte VIII, or che una nube ingrata IX. Oh se fosse il mio core XI, oh Dio che non è vero XII. English translation by Vernon Gotwals, in Haydn, Two Contemporary Portraits, Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin Press
20.
Castrato
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A castrato is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, castration before puberty prevents a boys larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the range of prepubescence is largely retained. Prepubescent castration for this purpose diminished greatly in the late 18th century and was illegal in Italy in 1870. As the castratos body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his epiphyses did not harden in the normal manner, thus the limbs of the castrati often grew unusually long, as did the bones of their ribs. This, combined with training, gave them unrivalled lung-power. Operating through small, child-sized vocal cords, their voices were also extraordinarily flexible and their vocal range was higher than that of the uncastrated adult male. Listening to the surviving recordings of a castrato, one can hear that the lower part of the voice sounds like a super-high tenor. Eunuch is a general term, since historically many eunuchs were castrated after puberty. Castration as a means of subjugation, enslavement or other punishment has a long history. In a Western context, eunuch singers are known to have existed from the early Byzantine Empire, by the 9th century, eunuch singers were well-known and remained so until the sack of Constantinople by the Western forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Their fate from then until their reappearance in Italy more than three hundred years later is not clear and it seems likely that the Spanish tradition of soprano falsettists may have hidden castrati. Much of Spain was under Muslim rulers during the Middle Ages, stereotypically, eunuchs served as harem guards, but they were also valued as high-level political appointees since they could not start a dynasty which would threaten the ruler. Castrati first appeared in Italy in the century, though at first the terms describing them were not always clear. The phrase soprano maschio, which could also mean falsettist, occurs in the Due Dialoghi della Musica of Luigi Dentice and this is a rare term but probably does equate to castrato. The Cardinals brother, Alfonso II dEste, Duke of Ferrara, was another early enthusiast, enquiring about castrati in 1556. There were certainly castrati in the Sistine Chapel choir in 1558, although not described as such, on 27 April of that year, Hernando Bustamante, by 1574 there were castrati in the Ducal court chapel at Munich, where the Kapellmeister was the famous Orlando di Lasso. In 1589, by the bull Cum pro nostro pastorali munere, Pope Sixtus V re-organised the choir of St Peters, thus the castrati came to supplant both boys and falsettists from the top line in such choirs
21.
Farinelli
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Farinelli, was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Broschi was born in Andria into a family of musicians, in 1706 Salvatore also took up the non-musical post of governor of the town of Maratea, and in 1709 that of Terlizzi. Unlike many castrati, who came from families, Farinelli was well-to-do. Maria di Loreto, specialising in composition, Carlo had already shown talent as a boy singer, and was now introduced to the most famous singing-teacher in Naples, Nicola Porpora. Already a successful composer, in 1715 Porpora was appointed maestro at the Conservatory of S. As was often the case, an excuse had to be found for this operation, under Porporas tutelage, his singing progressed rapidly, and at the age of fifteen, he made his debut a serenata by his master entitled Angelica e Medoro. The text of work was the first by the soon-to-be-famous Pietro Trapassi. Farinelli remarked that the two of them had made their debuts on the day, and each frequently referred to the other as his caro gemello. The derivation of Broschis stage name is not certain, but it was possibly from two rich Neapolitan lawyers, the brothers Farina, who may have sponsored his studies, Farinelli quickly became famous throughout Italy as il ragazzo. In 1722, he first sang in Rome in Porporas Flavio Anicio Olibrio, Farinelli surpassed the trumpet player so much in technique and ornamentation that he was at last silenced only by the acclamations of the audience. This account, however, cannot be verified, since no surviving work which Farinelli is known to have performed contains an aria for soprano with trumpet obbligato. In 1724, Farinelli made his first appearance in Vienna, at the invitation of Pio di Savoia and he spent the following season in Naples. His intonation was pure, his beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, so that he performed the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease. Passagework and all kinds of melismas were of no difficulty to him, in the invention of free ornamentation in adagio he was very fertile. Farinelli sang at Bologna in 1727, where he met the famous castrato Antonio Bernacchi, undaunted, Bernacchi repeated every trill, roulade, and cadenza of his young rival, but performing all of them even more exquisitely, and adding variations of his own. Farinelli, admitting defeat, entreated Bernacchi to give him instruction in grazie sopraffine, in 1728, as well as performing in Torris Nicomede at the Munich court, Farinelli performed another concert before the Emperor in Vienna. In 1729, during the Carnival season in Venice, he sang in two works by Metastasio, as Arbace in Metastasios Catone in Utica and Mirteo in Semiramide Riconosciuta, during this period he could really do no wrong. George Frideric Handel was also keen to engage Farinelli for his company in London, in 1731, Farinelli visited Vienna for a third time
22.
Marianna Bulgarelli
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Marianna Bulgarelli, also known as Maria Anna Benti, was an Italian soprano of the 18th century. Bulgarelli was born and died in Rome, hence her nickname and she is best remembered as an early patron of, and sympathizer with, the youthful Metastasio, whose work she encouraged and helped to develop. She was also a popular and successful singer of opera seria, renowned for her acting ability in particular
23.
Johann Adolph Hasse
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Johann Adolph Hasse was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, Hasse was born in Bergedorf, near Hamburg, and died in Venice. Hasses career began in singing, when he joined the Hamburg Opera in 1718 as a tenor, in 1719 he obtained a singing post at the court of Brunswick, where in 1721 his first opera, Antioco, was performed, Hasse himself sang in the production. He is thought to have left Germany during 1722, during the 1720s he lived mostly in Naples, dwelling there for six or seven years. In 1725 his serenata Antonio e Cleopatra, was performed at Naples, the roles were sung by Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli. Hasses popularity in Naples increased dramatically and for years his workload kept him extremely busy. In this period he composed his only full opera buffa, La sorella amante, in addition to several intermezzi and he visited the Venetian Carnival of 1730, where his opera Artaserse was performed at S Giovanni Grisostomo. Metastasios libretto was reworked for the occasion, and Farinelli took a leading role. Two of his arias from this opera he later performed every night for a decade for Philip V of Spain, soon after the couples arrival in Dresden, Faustina performed before the court. In October Hasse left Dresden to direct premieres of his operas at Turin and Rome. Come the autumn of 1732 and Hasse was at Naples again, in February 1733 Augustus the Strong of Poland and Saxony, Hasses early royal patron at Dresden, died. As the court went into a year of mourning, Hasse was permitted to remain abroad, many of his sacred works, composed for Venices churches, date to this time. For much of 1734 Hasse was at Dresden, but from 1735 until 1737 he was in Italy, largely at Naples, Faustina performed in the September 1735 premiere of Tito Vespasiano at Pesaro. His next stay in Dresden was also his longest, between the first months of 1740 and January 1744, in this time he revised Artaserse, composing new arias for Faustina, and also wrote a couple of original intermezzi. His general avoidance of comic opera seems to have due to Faustina. Between the winter of 1744 and late summer 1745, Hasse was in Italy, but then returned to Dresden for a year. Frederick the Great, a flute player, visited the court in December 1745. The King of Prussia was also present at a performance of one of Hasses Te Deums, soon after Hasse visited Venice and Munich, returning to Dresden in June 1747 to stage his opera La spartana generosa, performed to celebrate multiple royal weddings at this time
24.
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
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Giovanni Battista Draghi, best known as Pergolesi or Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, was an Italian composer, violinist and organist. Born in Jesi in what is now the Province of Ancona, he was given the nickname Pergolesi, a demonym indicating in Italian the residents of Pergola, Marche. He studied music in Jesi under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725 and he spent most of his brief life working for aristocratic patrons like the Colonna principe di Stigliano, and duca Marzio IV Maddaloni Carafa. Pergolesi was one of the most important early composers of opera buffa and his opera seria, Il prigionier superbo, contained the two-act buffa intermezzo, La serva padrona, which became a very popular work in its own right. Pergolesi was held up as a model of the Italian style during this quarrel, among Pergolesis other operatic works are his first opera La conversione e morte di San Guglielmo, Lo frate nnamorato, LOlimpiade and Il Flaminio. All his operas were premiered in Naples, apart from LOlimpiade, Pergolesi also wrote sacred music, including a Mass in F and three Salve Regina settings. It is his Stabat Mater, however, for soprano, alto, string orchestra and basso continuo and it was commissioned by the Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo, which presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesis work replaced one composed by Alessandro Scarlatti only nine years before, the Lenten Hymn ‘God of Mercy and Compassion’ by Redemptorist priest Edmund Vaughan is most commonly set to a tune adapted by Pergolesi. Pergolesi wrote a number of instrumental works, including a violin sonata. A considerable number of instrumental and sacred works once attributed to Pergolesi have since shown to be misattributed. Much of Igor Stravinskys ballet Pulcinella, which ostensibly reworks pieces by Pergolesi, is based on works by other composers. The Concerti Armonici are now known to have composed by Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi died on 16 March 1736 at the age of 26 in Pozzuoli from tuberculosis and was buried at the Franciscan monastery one day later, Pergolesi was the subject of a 1932 Italian film biopic Pergolesi. It was directed by Guido Brignone with Elio Steiner playing the role of the composer, Pergolesis Salve Regina is a highlighted performance in the movie Farinelli, in which Farinelli also performs Stabat Mater Dolorosa in the only duet. The film Cactus by the Australian director Paul Cox also features Pergolesis Stabat Mater on the soundtrack, nothing Left Unsaid, a 2016 documentary on Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper, used the last movement of Pergolesis Stabat Mater
25.
Alessandro Scarlatti
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Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer, especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera and he was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti. Scarlatti was born in Palermo, then part of the Kingdom of Sicily, the production at Rome of his opera Gli Equivoci nell sembiante gained him the support of Queen Christina of Sweden, and he became her Maestro di Cappella. Here he produced a series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency and expressiveness. In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians, after visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, Scarlatti took up his duties in Naples again in 1708, and remained there until 1717. His last work on a large scale appears to have been the unfinished serenata for the marriage of the prince of Stigliano in 1723 and he died in Naples in 1725. By 1686 he had established the Italian overture form, and had abandoned the ground bass. His best operas of this period are La Rosaura, and Pirro e Demetrio, in which occur the arias Le Violette, in his opera Teodora he originated the use of the orchestral ritornello. Besides the operas, oratorios and serenatas, which all exhibit a similar style and his instrumental music, though not without interest, is curiously antiquated as compared with his vocal works. Diana Moore, Suzana Ograjensek, Nicholas Phan, Clint van der Linde, Douglas Williams, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. Dorothea Röschmann, Lawrence Zazzo, Veronica Cangemi, Bernarda Fink, Silvia Tro Santafe, ligia digital, 0202176-07 Le parlement de musique. Ambronay editions, AMY004 Ensemble Europa Galante, virgin Classics,5456662 Academia Bizantina. Harmonia Mundi, HMI987045.46 Seattle Baroque, agora, AG249.1 Akademie für alten Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. Dorothea Röschmann, Graciela Oddone, Richard Croft, René Jacobs, Bernarda Fink, opus 111, OPS 30–129 Ensemble Europa Galante. Opus 111, OPS 30–96 Allesandro Stradella Consort, cantata natalizia Abramo, il tuo sembiante. Philips Classics Productions,434 160-2 I Musici, william Bennett, Lenore Smith, Bernard Soustrot, Hans Elhorst. 12 Sinfonie di Concerto Grosso Philips Box 6769066 Emma Kirkby, soprano and Daniel Taylor, countertenor, ATMA Classique, ACD22237 Francis Colpron, recorder, with Les Boréades. ATMA Classique, ACD22521 Nederlands Kamerkoor, with Harry van der Kamp, vespro della Beata Vergine for 5 voices and continuo
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Leonardo Vinci
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Leonardo Vinci was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. He was born at Strongoli and educated at Naples under Gaetano Greco in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo and he first became known for his opere buffe in Neapolitan dialect in 1719, he also composed many opere serie. He was received into the Congregation of the Rosary at Formiello in 1728, Vinci is rumoured to have been poisoned by a jealous husband in the wake of an ill-advised affair, a story which is given by several reliable authorities without evident contradictions. The well-known aria Vo solcando, from Artaserse, is an example of his style. In 2015 Decca released a Parnassus Arts Productions recording of his 3-act opera seria Catone in Utica and his sonata in D major for flute and basso continuo is still played today. He composed 2 charming and intriguing sonatas for the recorder in addition to a concerto in a minor. Fileno - Soprano Cantatas Mesta Oh Dio, tra queste selve, emanuela Galli & Francesca Cassinari, Stile Galante, Stefano Aresi. With work wrongly attributed to Vinci by Alessandro Scarlatti Fille, tu parti, opera Glass This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
27.
Leonardo Leo
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Leonardo Leo, more correctly Lionardo Oronzo Salvatore de Leo, was a Neapolitan Baroque composer. Leo was born in San Vito degli Schiavoni, then part of the Kingdom of Naples and he became a student at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini at Naples in 1703, and was a pupil first of Francesco Provenzale and later of Nicola Fago. His earliest known work was a drama, Linfedelta abbattuta. In 1714 he produced, at the theatre, an opera, Pisistrato. He held various posts at the chapel, and continued to write for the stage. After adding comic scenes to Francesco Gasparinis Bajazette in 1722 for performance at Naples, he composed comic operas in Neapolitan such as La’mpeca scoperta in 1723 and his most famous comic opera was Amor vuol sofferenze, better known as La Finta Frascatana, highly praised by De Brosses. He was equally distinguished as a composer of opera, Demofoonte, Farnace and LOlimpiade being his most famous works in this branch. He died of a stroke while engaged in the composition of new arias for a revival of La Finta Frascatana, Leo was the first of the Neapolitan school to obtain a complete mastery over modern harmonic counterpoint. His sacred music is masterly and dignified, logical rather than passionate and his serious operas suffer from a coldness and severity of style, but in his comic operas he shows a keen sense of humour. His ensemble movements are spirited, but never worked up to a strong climax, a fine and characteristic example of his sacred music is the Dixit Dominus in C, edited by CV Stanford and published by Novello. A number of songs from operas are accessible in modern editions. leonardoleo. com/discography. htm See, List of music students by teacher, peter van Tour, Counterpoint and Partimento, Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
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Francesco Durante
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Francesco Durante was a Neapolitan composer. He was born at Frattamaggiore, in the Kingdom of Naples, and at an age he entered the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo, in Naples. Later he became a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti at the Conservatorio di SantOnofrio and he is also supposed to have studied under Bernardo Pasquini and Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni in Rome, but there is no documentary evidence. He is said to have succeeded Scarlatti in 1725 at Sant Onofrio, and to have remained there until 1742 and this post he held for thirteen years, till his death in Naples. His fame as a teacher was considerable, and Niccolò Jommelli, Giovanni Paisiello, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Niccolò Piccinni, as a teacher, he insisted on the unreasoning observance of rules, differing thus from Scarlatti, who treated all his pupils as individuals. A catalogue may be found in Fétiss Biographie universelle, the imperial library of Vienna also preserves a valuable collection of Durantes manuscripts. Two requiems, several masses and the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah are amongst his most important settings and his Magnificat achieved popularity partly because of its misattribution to Pergolesi. The fact that Durante never composed for the stage brought him a reputation as a composer of sacred music. Considered one of the best church composers of his style and period, nevertheless, Hasse protested against Durantes being described as the greatest harmonist of Italy, a title which he ascribed to Alessandro Scarlatti. The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, peter van Tour, Counterpoint and Partimento, Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
29.
Benedetto Marcello
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Benedetto Giacomo Marcello was an Italian composer, writer, advocate, magistrate, and teacher. Born in Venice, Benedetto Marcello was a member of a noble family, although he was a music student of Antonio Lotti and Francesco Gasparini, his father wanted Benedetto to devote himself to law. Benedetto managed to combine a life in law and public service with one in music, in 1711 he was appointed a member of the Council of Forty, and in 1730 he went to Pola as Provveditore. Due to his health having been impaired by the climate of Istria, Benedetto Marcello was the brother of Alessandro Marcello, also a notable composer. On 20 May 1728 Benedetto Marcello married his singing student Rosanna Scalfi in a secret ceremony, however, as a nobleman his marriage to a commoner was unlawful and after Marcellos death the marriage was declared null by the state. Rosanna was unable to inherit his estate, and filed suit in 1742 against Benedettos brother Alessandro Marcello, Marcello composed a variety of music including considerable church music, oratorios, hundreds of solo cantatas, duets, sonatas, concertos and sinfonias. Marcello was a contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi in Venice and his instrumental music enjoys a Vivaldian flavor. They were much admired by Charles Avison, who with John Garth brought out an edition with English words, the library of the Brussels Conservatoire possesses some interesting volumes of chamber cantatas composed by Marcello for his mistress. Although Benedetto Marcello wrote an opera called La Fede riconosciuta and produced it in Vicenza in 1702, he had sympathy with this form of composition. Benedetto Marcellos music is characterized by imagination and a fine technique, Marcello vented his opinions on the state of musical drama at the time in the satirical pamphlet Il teatro alla moda, published anonymously in Venice in 1720. This little work, which was reprinted, is not only extremely amusing. He directed his satire not against the opera as such but only against the slovenly routine and he spared nobody and attacked composers, singers, directors alike, down to the last stage hand. The vivid picture he draws would in many ways apply also to the operatic tradition which according to Gustav Mahler is identical with Schlamperei. Marcello presented his vitriolic suggestions in a serious tone and revealed by implication more about the musical and social aspects of opera than other authors did by factual reports. The bitterest attacks were leveled against the castrati who visibly embodied the most abusive side of opera and their singing was derisively called capons laughter. Outside of Italy they were beaten up in the streets, not because of their singing but because of economic jealousy. The composer Joachim Raff wrote an opera entitled Benedetto Marcello, based loosely on the life of Marcello, the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia was named after him. A street in Rome, Largo Benedetto Marcello, is named after him, dio, Sonetti … con altre rime, d’argomento sacro e morale Il divino Verbo fatto Uomo, o sia L’universale redenzione Solo cantata Cassandra Kai Wessel, David Blunden, Aeon Classics 2010
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Santa Maria in Vallicella
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Santa Maria in Vallicella, also called Chiesa Nuova, is a church in Rome, Italy, which today faces onto the main thoroughfare of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the corner of Via della Chiesa Nuova. St. Gregory the Great built the first church on the site, by the 12th century, it was dedicated to Santa Maria in Vallicella. In 1575, Pope Gregory XIII recognised Neris group as a religious Congregation and gave them the church, st. Philip Neri, helped by Cardinal Pier Donato Cesi and Pope Gregory XIII, had the church rebuilt, starting in 1575. When Pierdonato died, his brother Angelo Cesi, Bishop of Todi, initially the architect was Matteo di Città di Castello, but he was replaced later by Martino Longhi the Elder. The nave was completed in 1577, and the church was consecrated in 1599, the facade, designed by Fausto Rughesi, was completed in 1605 or 1606. The Cesi heraldry is still evident in the church, the ground plan follows the Counter-Reformation design of churches established at the Gesù, a single main nave with transepts and side chapels, leading towards the High Altar. It is renowned for its altarpieces by Barocci, Pietro da Cortonas ceilings, Pietro da Cortonas decorations include the Trinity in the dome. The prophets Isiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezechiel in the four pendentives were painted in 1655–56, Cortonas nave vault fresco of the Miracle of the Madonna della Vallicella was executed in 1664–65. This is clearly set within a gold frame, a quadro riportato. The first altarpiece on the right is a Crucifixion by Pulzone with a fresco painted by Lanfranco. The third altarpiece is an Ascension by Girolamo Muziano, the fourth, a Pentecost by Giovanni Maria Morandi, the fifth, in the transept is a Coronation of Mary by the Cavaliere dArpino, who also painted the first altarpiece on the right. In the right presbytery, is the Spada family chapel completed in 1593 by Rainaldi, inside, a Madonna with Child and Santi Carlo Borromeo and Ignazio di Loyola was painted by Maratta. In the central presbytery, the ciborium was designed by Ciro Ferri in 1681. When installed, the three panels are said to have caused a stir among observers in Rome, who were generally unaccustomed to the Flemish painterly style. The Rubens altarpiece was commissioned by Monsignor Jacopo Serra for 300 scudi, in the left transept is a Presentation of Mary to the Temple by Federico Barocci. He completed two altarpieces that were admired in his time, including one in the Chapel of the Visitation. The sacristy was begun in 1621 based on plans by Mario Arconio. In the sacristy is a sculptural group of S. Filippo with an Angel by Alessandro Algardi
31.
Didone abbandonata
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Didone abbandonata is an opera libretto in three acts by Pietro Metastasio. It was his first original work and was set to music by Domenico Sarro in 1724, the opera was accompanied by the intermezzo Limpresario delle Isole Canarie, and also by Metastasio
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Artaserse
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Artaserse is the name of a number of Italian operas, all based on a text by Metastasio. Artaserse is the Italian form of the name of the king Artaxerxes I of Persia, there are over 90 known settings of Metastasios text. The libretto was written for, and first set to music by Leonardo Vinci in 1730 for Rome. Thomas Arnes 1762 Artaxerxes is set to an English libretto that is based on Metastasios, mozarts aria for soprano and orchestra Conservati fedele is set to the parting verses of Mandane at the end of the first scene. The opera was performed in 1734 as a pastiche, featuring songs by various composers such as Johann Adolf Hasse, Attilio Ariosti, Nicola Porpora. It was in this that Broschis brother, Farinelli, sang one of his best-known arias, weinstock, Herbert, The Opera, A History of its Creation and Performance, 1600–1941, Simon and Schuster,1961, p.64. Operatic Twins and Musical Rivals, Two Settings of Artaserse, Discourses in Music, The Journal of the University of Toronto Music Graduate Association, Volume 6, Number 1
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Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
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Olimpiade
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LOlimpiade is an opera libretto in three acts by Metastasio originally written for an operatic setting by Antonio Caldara of 1733. The story, set in Ancient Greece at the time of the Olympic Games, is about amorous rivalry, the story ends with the announcement of two marriages. Metastasio, as Imperial court poet at the court of Vienna, was requested to write the libretto to celebrate the birthday of Empress Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1733. The court composer Caldara was assigned to compose the music, the libretto attracted attention immediately and productions were soon amounted across Europe. Metastasio himself commented to Saverio Mattei that L’Olimpiade had been performed and repeated in all the theatres of Europe, indeed, it ranks with Demofoonte and Didone abbandonata, dramas excelled in popularity only by Artaserse and Alessandro nellIndie. The popularity of L’olimpiade may subsequently have prompted Metastasio’s La Nitteti, place, Ancient Greece Time, During the Olympic Games Megacles arrives in Sicyon just in time to enter the Olympic Games under the name of Lycidas, a friend who once saved his life. Unknown to Megacles, Lycidas is in love with Aristaea, whose hand is to be offered to the winner of the games by her father, King Cleisthenes. Lycidas, once betrothed to Princess Argene of Crete, is unaware that Megacles and Aristaea already love each other, Aristaea and Megacles greet each other fondly, but Megacles now feels bound by his promise to compete as Lycidas. Meanwhile, Argene arrives in Olympia disguised as a shepherdess, to win back Lycidas, Megacles wins the games, confesses the truth to Aristaea and departs, broken-hearted. When Lycidas comes to claim her, Aristaea reproaches him, as does the disguised Argene, amyntas, tutor to Lycidas, reports that Megacles has drowned himself, and King Cleisthenes, apprised of the deception, banishes Lycidas. Argene prevents the desperate Aristaea from suicide, Megacles is rescued by a fisherman, Aristaea pleads mercy for Lycidas and Argene offers herself in his place, as proof that she is a princess, she shows Cleisthenes a chain given her by Lycidas. He recognizes it as belonging to his son, abandoned in infancy to forestall the prophecy that he would kill his father, Lycidas, reinstated, accepts Argene, leaving his sister to Megacles. More than 60 baroque and classical composers used the libretto for their own settings, the first composer to reuse the libretto was Antonio Vivaldi in Venice in 1734. This was followed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesis famous version in 1735, although Pergolesi’s initial setting for Rome was not immediately successful, the number of subsequent stagings and extant manuscripts have particularly associated his name with this drama. In 1748 Baldassare Galuppi’s version premiered to resounding success in Milan, the libretto was also the source for one of Josef Myslivečeks finest dramatic works. And a popular success for Antonio Sacchini in Padua 1763, johann Nepomuk Poissls Der Wettkampf zu Olympia, oder Die Freunde was the first German-language setting and his version enjoyed occasional revivals during the nineteenth century. Mozart set Cleisthenes last aria twice, first for Aloysia Weber and latter for a concert by Ludwig Fischer. Beethoven set the duet Ne giorni tuoi felici for tenor, soprano,101650 Notes Sources George Loomis, Metastatios Olympians, Opera, Vol.63, No
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Adriano in Siria
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Metastasio based the background of the story on late Classical works by Cassius Dio and Elio Sparziano. The aria Che fa il mio bene. also known as Lamante impaziente, the libretto was composed for Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and premiered in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna on 4 November 1732. The scenes were designed by Antonio Galli da Bibiena, a revised version was first performed in 1733, with music by Giacomelli. George Frederic Handel was present at the premiere in Haymarket Theatre, Charles Jennens liked the opera and ordered a score, Lord Hervey, not known for his musical perception, and Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth were bored. However, the work enjoyed a run of twenty performances over six months, as a royalist or even imperialist opera, it was badly received by Republicans and revolutionaries. The premier was postoponed for a week, and Hoffman defended his work in an open letter and it finally premiered in 1799, but was again shut down by the Directory after four performances. One of the subplots in the story is the attempt by Osroa to kill Adriano in a fire, eventually, all ends well, Osroa is spared, Farnaspe marries Emirena, and Adriano returrns to the love of his wife Sabina. Media related to Adriano in Siria at Wikimedia Commons
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Antonio Caldara
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Antonio Caldara was an Italian Baroque composer. Caldara was born in Venice, the son of a violinist and he became a chorister at St Marks in Venice, where he learned several instruments, probably under the instruction of Giovanni Legrenzi. There, he wrote some operas that are the first Italian operas performed in Spain and he moved on to Rome, becoming maestro di cappella to Francesco Maria Marescotti Ruspoli, 1st Prince of Cerveteri. While there he wrote in 1710 La costanza in amor vince linganno for the theatre at Macerata. Caldara visited Vienna in 1712, but found MarcAntonio Ziani and Johann Joseph Fux firmly ensconced in the two highest musical posts and he stopped at the Salzburg court on his return journey to Rome, where he was well received. Caldara is best known as a composer of operas, cantatas, several of his works have libretti by Pietro Metastasio, the court poet at Vienna from 1729. Operas Sofonisba, Venezia, Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo/Teatro Malibran,1708, Tito e Berenice Lucio Papirio dittatore, Vienna,1719. La clemenza di Tito, Vienna,1734 Achille in Sciro, Vienna,1736
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Francesco Maria Veracini
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Francesco Maria Veracini was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, the asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him. Francesco Maria Veracini was born at about 8, 00am on 1 February 1690 in the house on the via Palazzuolo, parish of San Salvatore, Ognissanti. The painter Niccolò Agostino Veracini was Francesco Marias cousin, Veracini estimated Carlo Ambrogio Lonati as a great violinist. He is known to have been a soloist in Venice at the Christmas masses at San Marco, the celebration, held in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari included a vocal Te Deum and Mass, as well as motets and concertos performed under the direction of padre Ferdinando Antonio Lazari. The manuscript scores of all the works performed that day, including Veracinis concerto, were together in a handsome presentation volume now found in the National Library of Austria. In 1714, Veracini went to London and played instrumental pieces between the acts of operas at the Queens Theatre, at the court of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and Anna Maria Luisa de Medici he performed his oratorio Mosè al Mar Rosso. In 1716 he was appointed as the head of a Venetian music school, Veracini wrote a set of violin/recorder sonatas dedicated to Prince Friedrich August, who came to celebrate carnival. The Prince recruited not only singers, as he was told to do by his father, in 1718 the Prince also secured the services of the eccentric Francesco Maria Veracini—at a very high salary— Johann David Heinichen and Giuseppe Maria Boschi. To justify his salary, Veracini had to chamber music for the court, transferring him to the official payroll as Kapellmeister in August 1717. In 1719 Veracini was sent to recruit more Italian singers for the new Dresden opera, am Zwinger, whilst in Venice he secured the services of Margherita Durastanti and Vittorio Tesi and in Bologna added Maria Antonia Laurenti. Veracini also took the opportunity to visit his town where he married Chiara Tesi. In 1721 Veracini wrote another set of violin sonatas dedicated to the Prince, unfortunately, there was animosity among all these gifted musicians at the court in Dresden. Pisendel had been rehearsing his composition intensively with this violinist, according to Veracini the jealous German musicians allegedly plotted to murder him. He fled Dresden by jumping out a window and apparently broke a leg in the fall, after the incident Veracini walked with a limp for the rest of his life. It is a myth Senesino was involved in the quarrel as he was dismissed by Heinichen or by the court which ran out of money. Handel offered the singer a contract for London two years before the incident with Veracini. It seems the Dresden musicians, fearing for their position, felt relieved Veracini had left the city, back in his native Florence in 1723, Veracini played music in a church
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Baldassare Galuppi
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Baldassare Galuppi was an Italian composer, born on the island of Burano in the Venetian Republic. He achieved international success, spending periods of his career in Vienna, London and Saint Petersburg, but his main base remained Venice, to the succeeding generation of composers he was known as the father of comic opera. Some of his mature opere serie, for which his librettists included the poet, in these various capacities he composed a large amount of sacred music. He was also regarded as a virtuoso performer on and composer for keyboard instruments. Galuppis name persists in the English poet Robert Brownings 1855 poem A Toccata of Galuppis and his father was a barber, who also played the violin in theatre orchestras, and is believed to have been his sons first music teacher. From 1726 to 1728, Galuppi was harpsichordist at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, the collaborators followed it with an opera seria, Dorinda, the next year. This, too, was successful, and Galuppi began to receive commissions for operas. In 1740, Galuppi was appointed director of music at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in Venice, in his first year of service at the Mendicanti, he composed 31 works,16 motets,13 settings of the Salve Regina, and two psalm settings. Although he became known as an operatic composer, he maintained a steady output of sacred music throughout his career. In 1741 Galuppi was invited to work in London and he petitioned the Mendicanti authorities for leave of absence, to which they agreed. He was in England for 18 months, supervising productions for the Italian opera company at the King’s Theatre, rival composer Handel attended one of these productions. Galuppi also attracted attention as a virtuoso and composer. His contemporary, the English musicologist Charles Burney, wrote that Galuppi had had influence on English music than any other Italian composer. However, in Burneys view Galuppis skills were still immature during his spell in London, Burney wrote, He now copied the hasty, light and flimsy style which reigned in Italy at this time, and which Handels solidity and science had taught the English to despise. On his return to Venice in May 1743, Galuppi returned to his employment with the Mendicanti, the operatic fashion in Venice was on the point of changing from opera seria to a new style of comic opera, dramma giocoso. He continued to compose operas, sometimes in partnership with the librettist Metastasio. The libretto Artaserse, by the imperial poet Metastasio was chosen for Galuppi to set to music. Daniel Heartz observes that, while ensembles in opera were not unusual, pieces in which the action is written into the music
39.
Carl Heinrich Graun
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Carl Heinrich Graun was a German composer and tenor singer. Along with Johann Adolph Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time, Graun was born in Wahrenbrück in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1714, he followed his brother, Johann Gottlieb Graun, to the school of the Kreuzkirche, Dresden, and sang in the Dresdner Kreuzchor and he studied singing with Christian Petzold and composition with Johann Christoph Schmidt. In 1724, Graun moved to Braunschweig, singing at the opera house and he was Kapellmeister to Frederick the Great from his ascension to the throne in 1740 until Grauns death nineteen years later in Berlin. Graun wrote a number of operas and his opera Cesare e Cleopatra inaugurated the opening of the Berlin State Opera in 1742. Montezuma was written to a libretto by King Frederick and his works are rarely played today, though his passion cantata Der Tod Jesu was frequently performed in Germany for many years after his death. His other works include concertos and trio sonatas and he married twice and had a daughter, who became a singer, from his first marriage and four sons from his second. His great-great-great-great-grandson, Vladimir Nabokov, became an eminent 20th-century novelist, grubbs, The Sacred Choral Music of the Graun Brothers,1972 Graun, Carl Heinrich by E. Eugene Helm, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Encyclopædia Britannica
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Johann Christian Bach
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Johann Christian Bach was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh surviving child and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimes referred to as the London Bach or the English Bach, due to his time spent living in the British capital and he is noted for influencing the concerto style of Mozart. Johann Christian Bach was born to Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach in Leipzig and his distinguished father was already 50 at the time of his birth, which would perhaps contribute to the sharp differences between his music and that of his father. Even so, his father first instructed him in music and that continued until his death in 1750. He enjoyed a career, first as a composer then as a performer playing alongside Carl Friedrich Abel. He composed cantatas, chamber music, keyboard and orchestral works, operas, Bach lived in Italy for many years starting in 1756, studying with Padre Martini in Bologna. He became organist at the Milan cathedral in 1760, during his time in Italy, he converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism and devoted much time to the composition of church music, including two Masses, a Requiem and a Te Deum. His first major work was a Mass, which received an excellent performance, in 1762, Bach travelled to London to première three operas at the Kings Theatre, including Orione on 19 February 1763. That established his reputation in England, and he became music master to Queen Charlotte and he met soprano Cecilia Grassi in 1766 and married her shortly thereafter. She was his junior by eleven years, by the late 1770s, his music was no longer popular and his fortunes declined. His steward had embezzled almost all his wealth and Bach died in debt in London on New Years Day,1782. Queen Charlotte covered the expenses of the estate and provided a pension for Bachs widow. He was buried in the graveyard of St. Pancras Old Church, Bachs career is given in the fourth volume of Charles Burneys History of Music. There are two others named Johann Christian Bach in the Bach family tree, but neither was a composer, Mozart, when aged 8, met Johann Christian Bach in London and became an admirer of his music. Mozart arranged three sonatas from the latters Op.5 into keyboard concertos, in later life Mozart often acknowledged the artistic debt he owed to Johann Christian. The works of JC Bach are given W numbers, from Ernest Warburtons Thematic catalog of his works, notes Sources Hans T. David, A. Mendel, C. The New Bach Reader, A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters, John Christian Bach, Mozarts Friend and Mentor. Johann Sebastian Bach, his work and influence on the music of Germany, Vol I, Vol II, Vol III Charles Sanford Terry
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Luigi Cherubini
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Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music, Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries. Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760, there is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records, perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, considered a child prodigy, Cherubini studied counterpoint and dramatic style at an early age. By the time he was thirteen, he had composed several religious works, in 1780, he was awarded a scholarship by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to study music in Bologna and Milan. Cherubinis early opera serie used libretti by Apostolo Zeno, Metastasio and his music was strongly influenced by Niccolò Jommelli, Tommaso Traetta, and Antonio Sacchini, who were the leading composers of the day. The first of his two works, Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuna, premiered at a Venetian theater in November 1783. Feeling constrained by Italian traditions and eager to experiment, Cherubini traveled to London in 1785 where he produced two opere serie and an opera buffa for the Kings Theatre. In the same year, he made an excursion to Paris with his friend the violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, Cherubini received an important commission to write Démophoon to a French libretto by Jean-François Marmontel that would be his first tragédie en musique. Performances of Démophon were favorably received at the Grand Opéra in 1788, with Viottis help, the Théâtre de Monsieur in the Tuileries appointed Cherubini as its director in 1789. Three years later, after a move to the rue Feydeau and the fall of the monarchy and this position gave Cherubini the opportunity to read countless libretti and choose one that best suited his temperament. Cherubinis music began to show more originality and daring and his first major success was Lodoïska, which was admired for its realistic heroism. This was followed by Elisa, set in the Swiss Alps, Les deux journées, in which Cherubini simplified his style, was a popular success. These and other operas were premièred at the Théâtre Feydeau or the Opéra-Comique, feeling financially secure, he married Anne Cécile Tourette in 1794 and began a family of three children. The fallout from the French Revolution affected Cherubini until the end of his life, politics forced him to hide his connections with the former aristocracy and seek governmental appointments. Although Napoléon found him too complex, Cherubini wrote at least one work per year for more than a decade. He was appointed Napoléons director of music in Vienna for part of 1805 and 1806, in 1808 Cherubini was elected an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands
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Cantata
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A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called church cantata or sacred cantata, several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas. Johann Sebastian Bach composed cycles of cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year. The term originated in the early 17th century simultaneously with opera, prior to that, all cultured music was vocal. With the rise of music the term appeared, while the instrumental art became sufficiently developed to be embodied in sonatas. From the beginning of the 17th century until late in the 18th, a cantata consisted first of a declamatory narrative or scene in recitative, held together by a primitive aria repeated at intervals. Fine examples may be found in the music of Giacomo Carissimi. With the rise of the da capo aria, the became a group of two or three arias joined by recitative. George Frideric Handels numerous Italian duets and trios are examples on a large scale. His Latin motet Silete Venti, for solo, shows the use of this form in church music. This is equally evident whether we examine the church cantatas of Bach, of which nearly 200 are extant. Cantatas were in demand for the services of the Lutheran church. Many secular cantatas were composed for events in the nobility and they were so similar in form to the sacred ones that many of them were parodied to sacred cantatas, for example in Bachs Christmas Oratorio. The term cantata came to be applied almost exclusively to choral works, Anton Bruckner composed several Name-day cantatas, a Festive Cantata and two secular cantatas. Brucknerss Psalm 146 is also in cantata form, mendelssohns Symphony Cantata, the Lobgesang, is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. Robert Schumann wrote the cantata Paradise and the Peri, the full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized by Johannes Brahms in his Rinaldo, that—like the Walpurgisnacht—was set to a text by Goethe. The competition for the French Prix de Rome prescribed that each candidate submit a cantata, hector Berlioz failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 with Sardanapale. While almost all of the Prix de Rome cantatas have long since been forgotten, cantatas, both of the chamber variety and on a grand scale, were composed after 1900 as well
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Christoph Willibald Gluck
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Christoph Willibald Gluck was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. With a series of new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris, fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French national genre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last of these, Iphigénie en Tauride, was a success and is generally acknowledged to be his finest work. Gluck was born on 2 July 1714 in Erasbach near Neumarkt and his father Alexander was a forester in Erasbach, and after 1717 head forester in Reichstadt, Kreibitz and Eisenberg, all in northern Bohemia. According to some biographers, it was here, in the middle of Lusatian Mountains, in 1727 the family moved to Eisenberg, where his father was admitted to the service of Prince Philip Hyazinth von Lobkowitz. The Alsatian painter Johann Christian von Mannlich says it was as a Bohemian schoolboy that Gluck received his first musical training. Mannlich relates in his memoirs, written in French and published in 1810 and he quotes Gluck as saying, My father was forestmaster at M. in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In my homeland everyone is musical, music is taught in the schools, as I was passionate about the art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the other pupils, I no longer thought and dreamt of anything but music, the art of forestry was neglected. Most now claim that the object of Glucks travels was not Vienna but Prague, at the time the University of Prague boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera and oratorio. Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree, and vanishes from the record until 1737. According to the music historian Daniel Heartz, there has been considerable controversy concerning Glucks native language, Glucks first biographer, Anton Schmid, accepted that Gluck spoke Czech, but thought Salieri incorrect, proposing instead that Gluck learned Czech in Prague. Heartz writes, More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Glucks German biographers of this century, while the French ones have, without exception, hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as proof. In fact, the music theorist Larent Garcin, writing in 1770 before Gluck arrived in Paris, in 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan, where he studied under G. B. Sammartini, who, according to Carpani, taught Gluck practical knowledge of all the instruments, apparently this relationship lasted for several years. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742, according to one anecdote, the public would not accept Glucks style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast. Nearly all of his operas in this period were, like Artaserse, set to Metastasios texts, in 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation to become house composer at Londons Kings Theatre, probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in the company of Georg Christian, Fürst von Lobkowitz
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pietro Metastasio". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "