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 Federico Cavalli, a Venetian nobleman.

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. He 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. His 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 such as 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.

He wrote forty-one operas, twenty-seven of which are still extant. He lived from February 14, 1602, to January 14, 1676.—Excerpted from Wikipedia

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