Antonio Cesti (bap. 5 August 1623 – 14 October 1669), known today primarily as an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
composer of the
BaroqueBaroque music describes a style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era...
era, he was also a singer (
tenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
), and
organistThe organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet...
. He was "the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation"
http://www.grovemusic.com.
He was born at
ArezzoArezzo or Arretium is a city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about south-east of Florence, at an elevation of 296 meters above sea level. In 2009 the population was about 99,000 people....
, and studied with various local musicians. In 1637 he joined the
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
order.
Antonio Cesti (bap. 5 August 1623 – 14 October 1669), known today primarily as an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
composer of the
BaroqueBaroque music describes a style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era...
era, he was also a singer (
tenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
), and
organistThe organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet...
. He was "the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation"
http://www.grovemusic.com.
Biography
He was born at
ArezzoArezzo or Arretium is a city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about south-east of Florence, at an elevation of 296 meters above sea level. In 2009 the population was about 99,000 people....
, and studied with various local musicians. In 1637 he joined the
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
order. While he was in
VolterraVolterra is a town in the Tuscany region of Italy.-History:The town was a Neolithic settlement and an important Etruscan center with an original civilization; it became a municipium in the Roman Age. The city was a bishop's residence in the fifth century and its episcopal power was affirmed during...
he turned more toward secular music, probably due to the patronage of the powerful
MediciThe House of Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house who first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until...
family. Here he also came in contact with
Salvator RosaSalvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early Biography:...
, who wrote
librettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata.Libretto ,...
s for a number of Cesti's
cantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment and often containing more than one movement.-Historical context:...
s. By 1650 Cesti's calling as a monk and his success as a singer and composer for operas was coming into conflict, and he was officially reprimanded. In 1652 he became a member of the court at
InnsbruckInnsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal , which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some south of Innsbruck...
of Archduke Ferdinand Karl. After holding a post somewhere in Florence as
maestro di cappella, he entered the papal chapel in 1660. In 1666 he became
Vice-Kapellmeister at
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, and died at Venice in 1669.
Music
Cesti is known principally as a composer of operas. The most celebrated of these were
La Dori (Venice, 1663),
Il pomo d'oroIl pomo d'oro is an opera in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra . It was first performed before the imperial court in a specially constructed open-air theatre Vienna in 1668...
(Vienna, 1668), and
OronteaOrontea is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini . The first performance took place at the court theatre in Innsbruck on 19 February 1656...
(1656).
Il pomo d'oro (The Golden Apple) was performed for the wedding of
Emperor Leopold I| align=right | Leopold I Habsburg , Holy Roman emperor, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, was the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margarita of Austria...
. It was far more elaborate than contemporary Venetian operas, including a large
orchestraAn orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, numerous choruses, and various mechanical devices used to stage things like gods descending from heaven (
deus ex machinaA deus ex machina is a plot device in which a person or thing appears "out of the blue" to help a character to overcome a seemingly insolvable difficulty...
), naval battles, and storms.
Orontea was revived seventeen times in the next thirty years, making it one of the most frequently performed operas on the continent in the mid-1600s. Even
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
owned a copy of the score.
Cesti was also a composer of chamber
cantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment and often containing more than one movement.-Historical context:...
s, and his operas are notable for the pure and delicate style of their airs, more suited to the chamber than to the stage. He wrote in the
bel cantoBel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term with several possible different meanings that is subject to a wide array of interpretations.The earliest usage of the term bel canto emerged in late 17th-century Italy to refer to the Italian model of singing...
style of the 17th century, and his compositions were heavily influenced by his career as a professional singer. Cesti's musical writing owes much to the emerging
tonalityTonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center" or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
of the time.
Works
- Orontea
Orontea is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini . The first performance took place at the court theatre in Innsbruck on 19 February 1656...
(Venice 1649 revised Innsbruck 1656, Libretto: Hiacinto Andrea Cicognini, edited by Filippo Apolloni)
- Alessandro vincitor di se stesso (Venice 1654, Libretto: Sbarra)
- Cesare Amante (Venice 1651, Libretto: Varotari)
- Cleopatra (Innsbruck 1654, Libretto: Varotari)
- Argia (Innsbruck 1655, Libretto: Apolloni)
- Venere cacciatrice (Innsbruck 1659, Libretto: Sbarra, lost)
- Dori (Innsbruck 1657, Libretto: Apolloni)
- La Magnanimità d’Alessandro (Innsbruck 1662, Libretto: Sbarra)
- Tito (Libretto: Nicolò Beregan; Venice 1666)
- Semirami (Vienna 1667, Libretto: Moniglia)
- Il pomo d'oro
Il pomo d'oro is an opera in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra . It was first performed before the imperial court in a specially constructed open-air theatre Vienna in 1668...
(Vienna 1668, Libretto: Sbarra)
Recordings
Pietro Antonio Cesti "Pasticcio", Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck 1980, excerpts from operas "Il pomo d'oro", "Argia", "Tito", "Orontea", "Dori", "Semirami". Performers:
Rene JacobsRené Jacobs is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor but in recent years has become renowned as a conductor of Baroque and early Classical opera...
, Judith Nelson,
William ChristieWilliam Lincoln Christie is a American-born French conductor and founder and director of Les Arts Florissants....
,
Konrad JunghänelKonrad Junghänel is a German conductor and lutenist. He has given numerous solo concerts all around the world and has also worked with ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants and others....
. ORF Edition Alte Musik.
See also
- Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is better known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron, a Venetian nobleman....
- Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi , was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period...
, a contemporary of Cesti
- Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term with several possible different meanings that is subject to a wide array of interpretations.The earliest usage of the term bel canto emerged in late 17th-century Italy to refer to the Italian model of singing...
- Baroque opera