[[image:alessandro Scarlatti.jpg|thumb|200px|Alessandro Scarlatti.]]

'''Alessandro Scarlatti''' ([[May 2]], [[1660]] – [[October 24]], [[1725]]) was an [[Italian people|Italian]] [[Baroque music|Baroque]] [[composer]] especially famous for his [[opera]]s and chamber [[cantata]]s. He is considered the founder of the [[Neapolitan school]] of opera. He was the father of two other composers, [[Domenico Scarlatti]] and [[Pietro Filippo Scarlatti]].

==Life==
Scarlatti was born in Sicily, in [[Palermo]]. He is generally said to have been a pupil of [[Giacomo Carissimi]] in [[Rome]], and there is reason to suppose that he had some connection with northern Italy, since his early works show the influence of [[Alessandro Stradella|Stradella]] and [[Giovanni Legrenzi|Legrenzi]]. The production at Rome of his opera ''Gli Equivoci nell sembiante'' ([[1679]]) gained him the protection of Queen [[Christina of Sweden]] (who at the time was living in Rome), and he became her ''maestro di cappella''. In February [[1684]] he became ''maestro di cappella'' to the [[viceroy]] of [[Naples]], through the influence of his sister, an opera singer, who was the mistress of an influential Neapolitan noble. Here he produced a long series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency and expressiveness, as well as other music for state occasions.

In [[1702]] Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians. In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of [[Ferdinando (III) de' Medici|Ferdinando de' Medici]], for whose private theatre near [[Florence]] he composed operas, and of [[Cardinal Ottoboni]], who made him his ''maestro di cappella'', and procured him a similar post at the [[Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore]] in Rome in [[1703]].

After visiting [[Venice]] and [[Urbino]] in [[1707]], Scarlatti took up his duties at Naples again in [[1708]], and remained there until [[1717]]. By this time Naples seems to have become tired of his music; the Romans, however, appreciated it better, and it was at the [[Teatro Capranica]] in Rome that he produced some of his finest operas (''Telemaco'', [[1718]]; ''Marco Attilio Regolò'', [[1719]]; ''[[La Griselda]]'', [[1721]]), as well as some noble specimens of church music, including a [[mass (music)|mass]] for chorus and orchestra, composed in honor of [[Saint Cecilia]] for [[Cardinal Acquaviva]] in 1721. His last work on a large scale appears to have been the unfinished [[serenata]] for the marriage of the prince of [[Stigliano]] in [[1723]]. Scarlatti died in Naples.

==Scarlatti's music==
Scarlatti's music forms an important link between the early [[Baroque music|Baroque]] Italian vocal styles of the [[17th century]], with their centers in Florence, Venice and [[Rome]], and the classical school of the [[18th century]], which culminated in [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]. His early operas (''Gli Equivoci nel sembiante'' [[1679]]; ''L’Honestà negli amori'' [[1680]], containing the famous aria "Già il sole dal Gange"; ''Pompeo'' [[1683]], containing the well-known airs "O cessate di piagarmi" and "Toglietemi la vita ancor," and others down to about [[1685]]) retain the older cadences in their [[recitatives]], and a considerable variety of neatly constructed forms in their charming little arias, accompanied sometimes by the string quartet, treated with careful elaboration, sometimes by the harpsichord alone. By [[1686]] he had definitely established the "Italian overture" form (second edition of ''Dal male il bene''), and had abandoned the [[ostinato|ground bass]] and the [[binary form]] air in two stanzas in favour of the [[ternary form]] or [[da capo]] type of air. His best operas of this period are ''La Rosaura'' ([[1690]], printed by the [[Gesellschaft für Musikforschung]]), and ''Pirro e Demetrio'' ([[1694]]), in which occur the arias "Rugiadose, odorose", and "Ben ti sta, traditor".

From about [[1697]] onwards (''La Caduta del decemviri''), influenced partly perhaps by the style of [[Giovanni Bononcini]] and probably more by the taste of the viceregal court, his opera arias become more conventional and commonplace in rhythm, while his scoring is hasty and crude, yet not without brilliance (''Eracles'', [[1700]]), the [[oboe]]s and [[trumpet]]s being frequently used, and the [[violin]]s often playing in unison. The operas composed for Ferdinando de' Medici are lost; they might have given a more favourable idea of his style as his correspondence with the prince shows that they were composed with a very sincere sense of inspiration.

''Mitridate Eupatore'', accounted his masterpiece, composed for Venice in [[1707]], contains music far in advance of anything that Scarlatti had written for Naples, both in technique and in intellectual power. The later Neapolitan operas (''L'Amor volubile e tiranno'' [[1700]]; ''La Principessa fedele'' [[1712]]; ''Tigrane'', [[1715]], &c.) are showy and effective rather than profoundly emotional; the instrumentation marks a great advance on previous work, since the main duty of accompanying the voice is thrown upon the string quartet, the harpsichord being reserved exclusively for the noisy instrumental [[ritornello|ritornelli]]. In his opera ''Teodora'' ([[1697]]) he originated the use of the orchestral ''ritornello''.

His last group of operas, composed for Rome, exhibit a deeper poetic feeling, a broad and dignified style of melody, a strong dramatic sense, especially in accompanied recitatives, a device which he himself had been the first to use as early as [[1686]] (''Olimpia vendicata'') and a much more modern style of orchestration, the horns appearing for the first time, and being treated with striking effect.

Besides the operas, [[oratorio]]s (''Agar et Ismaele esiliati'', [[1684]]; ''Christmas Oratorio'', c. [[1705]]; ''S. Filippo Neri'', [[1714]]; and others) and serenatas, which all exhibit a similar style, Scarlatti composed upwards of five hundred chamber-cantatas for solo voice. These represent the most intellectual type of chamber-music of their period, and it is to be regretted that they have remained almost entirely in manuscript, since a careful study of them is indispensable to anyone who wishes to form an adequate idea of Scarlatti's development.

His few remaining masses (the story of his having composed two hundred is hardly credible) and church music in general are comparatively unimportant, except the great ''St Cecilia Mass'' ([[1721]]), which is one of the first attempts at the style which reached its height in the great masses of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] and [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]. His instrumental music, though not without interest, is curiously antiquated as compared with his vocal works.

==Operas==
(Work, librettist, place and date of first performance)
*''Gli equivoci nel sembiante'' (D. F. Contini; Rome 1679)
*''Tutto il mal non vien per nuocere'' (D. G. de Totis; Rome 1681, revised as ''Dal male il bene'' Naples 1687)
*''Il Pompeo'' ([[Nicolò Minato]]; Rome 1683)
*''Olimpia vendicata'' (Aurelio Aureli; Naples 1685)
*''Clearco in Negroponte'' (A. Arcoleo; Naples 1686)
*''La Statira'' (P. Ottoboni; Rome 1690)
*''La Rosaura'' (G. B. Lucini; Rome 1690)
*''La Teodora Augusta'' (A. Morselli; Naples 1692)
*''Pirro e Demetrio'' (A. Morselli; Naples 1694)
*''La caduta de' Decemviri'' (S. Stampiglia; Naples 1697)
*''La donna ancora è fedele'' (D. F. Contini; Naples 1698)
*''Il prigioniero fortunato'' (F. M. Paglia; Naples 1698)
*''L'Eraclea'' (S. Stampiglia; Naples 1700)
*''Arminio'' (A. Salvi; Pratolino 1703)
*''Mitridate Eupatore'' (G. Frigimelica-Roberti; Venice 1707)
*''Il trionfo della libertà'' (G. Frigimelica-Roberti; Venice 1707)
*''L'amor volubile e tiranno'' (G. D. Pioli, bearb. v. G. Papis; Naples 1709)
*''La principessa fedele'' (A. Piovene; Naples 1710)
*''Scipione nelle Spagne'' ([[Apostolo Zeno]]; Naples 1714)
*''Tigrane'' (Domenico Lalli; Naples 1715)
*''Carlo re d'Allemagna'' (F. Silvani; Naples 1716)
*''Telemaco'' (C. S. Capeci; Rome 1718)
*''Il trionfo dell'onore'' (F. A. Tullio; Naples 1718)
*''Cambise'' (Domenico Lalli; Naples 1719)
*''Marco Attilio Regolo'' (M. Noris; Rome 1719)
*''Griselda'' ([[Apostolo Zeno]], revised by F. M. Ruspoli; Rome 1721)

==Recordings==
* Ensemble Europa Galante. (2004). ''Oratorio per la Santissima Trinità''. Virgin Classics: 5 45666 2
* Academia Bizantina. (2004). ''Il Giardino di Rose''. [[Decca Records|Decca]]: 470 650-2 DSA.
* Seattle Baroque. (2001). ''Agar et Ismaele Esiliati''. Centaur: CRC 2664
* I Musici. (1991). ''Concerto Grosso''. Philips Classics Productions: 434 160-2
* Theater of Early Music (with Emma Kirkby, soprano and Daniel Taylor, countertenor). (2005). ''Stabat Mater''. ATMA: ACD2 2237

==Media==
{{listen|filename=Scarlatti - Tocatta 3.ogg|title=Toccata 3|description=|format=[[ogg]]}}

==External links==
* {{ChoralWiki}}
* {{IckingArchive|idx=A.Scarlatti|name=Alessandro Scarlatti}}
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/earlymusicshow/pip/15cjf/ BBC Radio 3 ''Early Music Show'']
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Alessandro Scarlatti}}

{{commons|Alessandro Scarlatti}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlatti, Alessandro}}

[[Category:1660 births]]
[[Category:1725 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sicily]]
[[Category:Baroque composers]]
[[Category:Italian composers]]
[[Category:Italian musicians]]
[[Category:Italian opera composers]]
[[Category:Sicilian composers]]

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