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Pietro Marc'Antonio Cesti (Italian pronunciation: [anˈtɔːnjo ˈtʃesti]) (baptism 5 August 1623 – 14 October 1669), known today primarily as an Italian composer of the Baroque era, was also a singer (tenor), and organist. He was "the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation".

Biography

He was born at Arezzo, and studied with various local musicians. In 1637 he joined the Order of Friars Minor, or Franciscans, a Roman Catholic religious group founded by Francis of Assisi. While he was in Volterra he turned more toward secular music, perhaps due to the patronage and influence of the powerful Medici family. Here he also came in contact with Salvator Rosa, who wrote libretti for a number of Cesti's cantatas. By 1650 Cesti's calling as a Franciscan friar 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 Innsbruck of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria. 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 Vienna, and died at Venice in 1669.

Music

Pomodoro
Scenography for Il pomo d'oro

Cesti is known principally as a composer of operas. The most celebrated of these were La Dori (Innsbruck, 1657), Il pomo d'oro (Vienna, 1668) and Orontea (1656). Il pomo d'oro (The Golden Apple) was written for the wedding in Vienna of Emperor Leopold I in 1666, and first performed in 1668, in a famously lavish production. It was far more elaborate than contemporary Venetian operas, including a large orchestra, numerous choruses, and various mechanical devices used to stage things like gods descending from heaven (deus ex machina), 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-17th century. Even Samuel Pepys owned a copy of the score. It includes a well-known soprano aria "Intorno all'idol mio" (English: "Around my idol").

Cesti was also a composer of chamber cantatas, 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 canto style of the 17th century, and his compositions were heavily influenced by his career as a professional singer. His musical writing owes much to the emerging tonality of the time.

Works

Title Libretto Première date Place, theatre Notes
Alessandro vincitor di se stesso Francesco Sbarra 1651 Venice, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo  
Il Cesare amante Dario Varotari 1651 Venice, Teatro Grimano  
Cleopatra Dario Varotari 1654 Innsbruck revised version of Il Cesare amante
L'Argia Giovanni Filippo Apolloni 1655 Innsbruck  
Marte placata Giovanni Filippo Apolloni 1655 Innsbruck  
Orontea Giacinto Andrea Cicognini, revised by Giovanni Filippo Apolloni 19 February 1656 Innsbruck revived in Innsbruck in 1982 (René Jacobs) and recorded for HM; revived in Frankfurt in 2015 (Ivor Bolton)
La Dori Giovanni Filippo Apolloni 1657 Innsbruck  
Venere cacciatrice Francesco Sbarra 1659 Innsbruck lost
La magnanimità d’Alessandro Francesco Sbarra 1662 Innsbruck  
Il Tito Nicolò Beregan 13 February 1666 Venice, Teatro Grimano  
Nettuno e Flora festeggianti Francesco Sbarra 12 July 1666 Vienna  
Le disgrazie d'Amore Francesco Sbarra 19 February 1667 Vienna  
La Semirami Giovanni Andrea Moniglia 9 July 1667 Vienna revised 1674 in Modena as La schiava fortunata
La Germania esultante Francesco Sbarra 1667 Vienna  
Il pomo d'oro Francesco Sbarra 12–14 July 1668 Vienna  
Genserico Nicolò Beregan 1669 Venice  

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: René Jacobs, Judith Nelson, William Christie, Konrad Junghänel. ORF Edition Alte Musik.
  • Le disgrazie d’amore, Auser Musici, Carlo Ipata, director, Hyperion CDA67771 (2010)
  • Alma Mia, Raquel Andueza, soprano with La Galania directed by Fernández Baena: excerpts from operas L'Argia, La Dori, Orontea, Il Tito, and two cantatas: Non si parli più d'Amore and Ò quanto concorso. Anima e Corpo AeC003 (2014)
  • L'Orontea Frankfurter Opern und Museumsorchester, Ivor Bolton (director), OEHMS Classics (2017)
  • La Dori Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone (director), CPO (2020)

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Antonio Cesti para niños

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