L’Egisto | On Baroque

Selected Recordings

Restino Imbalsamente from La Calisto

Canzon a 3 for two violins, cello, and continuo

Dell’antro magico from Giasone

Selected Sheet Music

Ferma deh, ferma omai de le tue vele

Source: IMSLP.org

Showcase Piece

Lasso io vivo from L’Egisto

Notes and Commentary

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

Books and Music

Selected Books

The Beginnings of Republican Opera
Lambert, 2010
Pietro Yates Moretti
$87.30 on Amazon

Offers “a unique perspective into the cultural, political and aesthetic transformation of opera from an occasional courtly display to an international pop genre.”—From the book description on Amazon

Selected Music

Ercole Amante (199), 3-CD set