Francesco Cavalli

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Imaginary portrait of Francesco Cavalli

Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverdi as the dominant and leading opera composer of the mid 17th-century. A central figure of Venetian musical life, Cavalli wrote more than thirty operas, almost all of which premiered in the city's theaters. His best known works include Ormindo (1644), Giasone (1649) and La Calisto (1651).<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia Template:Grove Music subscription</ref>

LifeEdit

Cavalli was born at Crema, then an inland province of the Venetian Republic. He became a singer (boy soprano) at St Mark's Basilica in Venice in 1616, where he had the opportunity to work under the tutorship of Claudio Monteverdi. He became second organist in 1639, first organist in 1665, and in 1668 maestro di cappella. He took the name "Cavalli" from his patron, Venetian nobleman Federico Cavalli. Though he wrote prolifically for the church, he is chiefly remembered for his operas. He began to write for the stage in 1639 (Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo) soon after the first public opera house opened in Venice, the Teatro San Cassiano. He established so great a reputation that he was summoned to Paris from 1660 (when he revived his opera Xerse) until 1662, producing his Ercole amante. He died in Venice at the age of 73.

Music and influenceEdit

Cavalli was the most influential composer in the rising genre of public opera in mid-17th-century Venice. Unlike Monteverdi's early operas, scored for the extravagant court orchestra of Mantua, Cavalli's operas make use of a small orchestra of strings and basso continuo to meet the limitations of public opera houses.

Cavalli introduced melodious arias into his music and popular types into his libretti. His operas have a remarkably strong sense of dramatic effect as well as a great musical facility, and a grotesque humour which was characteristic of Italian opera down to the death of Alessandro Scarlatti. Cavalli's operas provide the only example of a continuous musical development of a single composer in a single genre from the early to the late 17th century in Venice — only a few operas by others (e.g., Monteverdi and Antonio Cesti) survive. The development is particularly interesting to scholars because opera was still quite a new medium when Cavalli began working, and had matured into a popular public spectacle by the end of his career.

More than forty-two operas have been attributed to Cavalli. Manuscript scores of twenty-six are extant, preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Library of St Mark) in Venice. Scores of some of the operas also exist in other locations. In addition, the music of his two last operas (Coriolano and Masenzio), which are clearly attributed to him, is lost. Another twelve or so for which the music is lost have also been attributed to him, but these attributions have either been disproved or remain uncertain. Cristoforo Ivanovich, who published the first chronicle of Venetian opera, Minerva al tavolino (Venice, 1681), attributed most of the anonymous works from the first 15 years of public performances in Venice to Cavalli, and many of these attributions were repeated by subsequent authors. The American musicologist Thomas Walker, writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, considered seven of Ivanovich's attributions and another two by other authors as doubtful.<ref Name=Cavalli_NGO>Walker, Thomas (1992). "Cavalli, Francesco", vol. 1, pp. 783–789, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, four volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan.</ref>

In addition to operas, Cavalli wrote settings of the Magnificat in the grand Venetian polychoral style, settings of the Marian antiphons, other sacred music in a more conservative manner – notably a Requiem Mass in eight parts (SSAATTBB), probably intended for his own funeral – and some instrumental music.<ref name="BBC" />

Modern performancesEdit

Cavalli's music was revived in the twentieth century. The Glyndebourne Opera production of La Calisto, in 1970, is an example.<ref>Ross, Alex, "Unsung: Rediscovering the Operas of Francesco Cavalli." The New Yorker, 25 May 2009, pp. 84–85.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> More recently, Hipermestra was performed at Glyndebourne in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The discography is extensive and Cavalli has featured in BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week series.<ref name="BBC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

OperasEdit

Attributions to Cavalli considered doubtful by American musicologist Thomas Walker are indicated in the notes.<ref Name=Cavalli_NGO /><ref name=encyclopedia.com>"Cavalli (real name, Caletti), Pier Francesco", Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 15 April 2024.</ref>

Title	Libretto	Première date	Place, theatre	Notes
Template:HsLe nozze di Teti e di Peleo	Orazio Persiani	24 January 1639	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsGli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne	Giovanni Francesco Busenello	1640	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsLa Didone	Giovanni Francesco Busenello	1641	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsL'amore innamorato	Giovanni Battista Fusconi	1 January 1642	Venice, Teatro San Moisè
Template:HsNarciso et Ecco immortalati	Orazio Persiani	30 January 1642	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsLa virtù de' strali d'Amore	Giovanni Faustini	1642	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsL'Egisto	Giovanni Faustini	autumn 1643	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsLa Deidamia	Scipione Herrico	5 January 1644	Venice, Teatro Novissimo	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsL'Ormindo	Giovanni Faustini	1644	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsIl Romolo e 'l Remo	Giulio Strozzi	1645	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsLa Doriclea	Giovanni Faustini	1645	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsIl Titone	Giovanni Faustini	1645	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano	music lost
Template:HsLa prosperità infelice di Giulio Cesare dittatore	Giovanni Francesco Busenello	1646	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsLa Torilda	Pietro Paolo Bissari	1648	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsIl Giasone	Giacinto Andrea Cicognini	5 January 1649	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano
Template:HsL'Euripo	Giovanni Faustini	1649	Venice, Teatro San Moise	music lost
Template:HsL'Orimonte	Nicolò Minato	20 February 1650	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano	<ref>Brenac, Jean-Claude, Le magazine de l'opéra baroque] online at perso.orange.fr. Archive copy: L'Orimonte (8 December 2021).</ref>
Template:HsLa Bradamante	Pietro Paolo Bissari	1650	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsL'Armidoro	Bortolo Castoreo	20 January 1651	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsL'Oristeo	Giovanni Faustini	9 February 1651	Venice, Teatro Sant'Apollinare
Template:HsLa Rosinda	Giovanni Faustini	1651	Venice, Teatro Sant'Apollinare	also known as Le magie amorose
Template:HsLa Calisto	Giovanni Faustini	28 November 1651	Venice, Teatro Sant'Apollinare
Template:HsL'Eritrea	Giovanni Faustini	17 January 1652	Venice, Teatro Sant'Apollinare
Template:HsLa Veremonda, l'amazzone di Aragona	Giacinto Andrea Cicognini and Giulio Strozzi	21 December 1652	Naples, Nuovo Teatro del Palazzo Reale	also known as Il Delio<ref>"Veremonda, l’Amazzone di Aragona (ou Il Delio)", Opéra Baroque website.</ref>
Template:HsL'Helena rapita da Theseo<ref>L'Helena rapita da Theseo, 1653 libretto, Library of Congress.</ref>	Giacomo Badoaro?	1653	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsL'Orione	Francesco Melosio	June 1653	Milan, Teatro Real
Template:HsIl Ciro	Giulio Cesare Sorrentino	30 January 1654	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo	in collaboration with Francesco Provenzale
Template:HsIl Xerse	Nicolò Minato	12 January 1655	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo
Template:HsL'Erismena	Aurelio Aureli	30 December 1655	Venice, Teatro Sant'Apollinare
Template:HsStatira principessa di Persia	Giovanni Francesco Busenello	18 January 1656	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo
Template:HsL'Artemisia	Nicolò Minato	10 January 1657	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo
Template:HsL'Hipermestra	Giovanni Andrea Moniglia	12 June 1658	Florence, Teatro degli Immobili
Template:HsL'Antioco	Nicolò Minato	12 January 1659	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano	music lost
Template:HsElena	Giovanni Faustini and Nicolò Minato	26 December 1659	Venice, Teatro San Cassiano	also known as Il rapimento d'Helena
Template:HsLa pazzia in trono, ossia il Caligola delirante	Domenico Gisberti	1660	Venice, Teatro Sant'Apollinare	music lost, doubtful
Template:HsErcole amante	Francesco Buti	7 February 1662	Paris, at the Salle des Machines in the Tuileries Palace	Ballet music by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Template:HsScipione affricano	Nicolò Minato	9 February 1664	Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo
Template:HsMuzio Scevola	Nicolò Minato	26 January 1665	Venice, Teatro San Salvatore
Template:HsPompeo Magno	Nicolò Minato	20 February 1666	Venice, Teatro San Salvatore
Template:HsEliogabalo	Aurelio Aureli	November 1999<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Eliogabala, Crema, 1999, 2 CDs. Template:ASIN.</ref>	Crema, Template:Ill	composed 1667 for Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo (unperformed)
Template:HsCoriolano	Cristoforo Ivanovich	27 May 1669	Piacenza, Teatro Ducale	music lost
Template:HsMasenzio	Giacomo Francesco Bussani	composed 1673		unperformed and music lost

Sacred worksEdit

Musiche sacre concernenti messa, e salmi concertati con istromenti, imni, antifone et sonate (Venecia, 1656).
Messa, 8vv, 2 vn, vc, otros instrumentos ad libitum ed. R. Leppard (Londres, 1966).
Alma redemptoris mater, 2 S, A, T, B, ed. B. Stäblein, Musica divina, iv (Regensburg, 1950).
Ave maris stella, A, T, B.
Ave regina caelorum, T, B, ed. B. Stäblein, Musica divina, i (Regensburg, 1950).
Beatus vir, A, T, B, 2 vn, vc.
Confitebor tibi Domine, 8vv, 2 vn, vc
Credidi, 2 S, A, T, B, 2 vn, vc
Deus tuorum militum, A, T, B, 2 vn, vc
Dixit Dominus, 8vv, 2 vn, vc, other insts ad lib
Domine probasti, S, A, B, 2 vn, vc
Exultet orbis, 4vv, 2 vn, vc
In convertendo, 2 S, A, T, B
Iste confessor, 2 S, 2 vn, vc
Jesu corona virginum, A, T, B, 2 vn, vc
Laetatus sum, A, T, B, 2 vn, 3 va, ed. R. Leppard (London, 1969)
Lauda Jerusalem, 8vv, 2 vn, vc, other insts ad lib
Laudate Dominum, 8vv, 2 vn, vc, ed. R. Leppard (London, 1969)
Laudate pueri, 2 S, A, T, B, 2 vn, vc
Magnificat, 8vv, 2 vn, vc, other insts ad lib, ed. R. Leppard (London, 1969)
Nisi Dominus, 4vv, 2 vn, vc
Regina caeli, A, T, B, ed. B. Stäblein, Musica divina, ii (Regensburg, 1950)
Salve regina, A, 2 T, B, ed. B. Stäblein, Musica divina, iii (Regensburg, 1950)
Canzoni [sonate] a 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12; a 6 y a 12 ed. R. Nielsen (Bologna, 1955)
Vesperi, 8vv, bc (Venice, 1675)
Vespero della B.V. Maria: Dixit Dominus; Laudate pueri; Laetatus sum; Nisi Dominus; Lauda Jerusalem; Magnificat. ed. G. Piccioli (Milan, 1960); ed. F. Bussi (Milan, 1995)
Vespero delle domeniche: Dixit Dominus; Confitebor; Beatus vir; Laudate pueri; In exitu Israel; Laudate Dominum; Credidi; In convertendo; Domine probasti; Beati omnes; De profundis; Memento; Confitebor angelorum; Magnificat, ed. G. Piccioli (Milan, 1960); all ed. F. Bussi (Milan, 1995)
Vespero delle cinque Laudate ad uso della cappella di S Marco: Laudate pueri; Laudate Dominum laudate eum; Lauda anima mea; Laudate Dominum quoniam bonus; Lauda Jerusalem; Magnificat, ed. G. Piccioli (Milan, 1960); all ed. F. Bussi (Milan, 1995)
Cantate Domino, 1v, bc, 16252; ed. F. Vatielli, Antiche cantate spirituali (Turin, 1922)
O quam suavis, 1v, bc, 16453
Magnificat, 6vv, 2 vn, bc, 16505; ed. F. Bussi (Milan, 1988)
In virtute tua, 3vv, bc, 16561
O bone Jesu, 2vv, bc, 16561
Plaudite, cantate, 3vv, bc, 16561
Missa pro defunctis [Requiem], 8vv, bc, D-Bsb, Dlb; ed. F. Bussi (Milan, 1978)