Pietro Marc'Antonio Cesti () (baptism 5 August 162314 October 1669), known today primarily as an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

composer of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

era, was also a singer (

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

), and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

. He was "the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation".

Biography

He was born at

Arezzo Arezzo ( , , ) , also ; ett, 𐌀𐌓𐌉𐌕𐌉𐌌, Aritim. is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of above sea level. ...

, and studied with various local musicians. In 1637 he joined the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachi ...

, or

Franciscans , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

, a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

religious group founded by

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

. While he was in

Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History Volt ...

he turned more toward secular music, perhaps due to the patronage and influence of the powerful

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

family. Here he also came in contact with Salvator Rosa, who wrote

libretti A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major l ...

for a number of Cesti's

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

s. By 1650 Cesti's calling as a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

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 Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

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 en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and died at Venice in 1669.

Music

Cesti is known principally as a composer of operas. The most celebrated of these were ''La Dori'' (Innsbruck, 1657), ''

Il pomo d'oro ''Il pomo d'oro'' (''The Golden Apple'') is an opera in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra (1611-1668). It was first performed before the imperial court in a specially constructed ope ...

'' (Vienna, 1668) and ''

Orontea ''Orontea'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini (revised by Giovanni Filippo Apolloni). Performance history The first performance took place in Innsbruck on 19 ...

'' (1656). ''Il pomo d'oro'' (''The Golden Apple'') was written for the wedding in Vienna of

Emperor Leopold I Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; hu, I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria An ...

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 An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, numerous choruses, and various mechanical devices used to stage things like gods descending from heaven (''

deus ex machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...

''), 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 Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

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 Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

'' 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 Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is call ...

of the time.

Works

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 René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his music ...

Judith Nelson Judith Anne Nelson, née Manes (10 September 1939 – 28 May 2012) was an American soprano, noted for her performances of baroque music at the beginning of the "early music revival" of the 1970s and 1980s. Nelson was born in Evanston, Illino ...

, William Christie,

Konrad Junghänel Konrad Junghänel (born 27 February 1953) is a German lutenist and conductor in the field of historically informed performance, the founder and director of the vocal ensemble Cantus Cölln. Career Junghänel studied at the Hochschule für Musi ...

. ORF Edition Alte Musik. *''Le disgrazie d’amore'',

Auser Musici Auser Musici is a period instrument ensemble centered in Pisa that specializes in early music repertory from the Tuscan region of Italy. History, Mission, and Activities The ensemble was founded in 1997 by the flautist Carlo Ipata and has perform ...

, Carlo Ipata, director, Hyperion CDA67771 (2010) *''Alma Mia'',

Raquel Andueza Raquel Andueza (born December 6, 1980 in Pamplona) is a Spanish soprano. She has been a member of La Colombina vocal quartet led by baritone Josep Cabré since 2003. In 2011 she launched her own record company Anima e Corpo.La Galania directed by

Fernández Baena Fernández () is a Spanish language, Spanish surname meaning "son of Fernando". The Germanic name that it derives from (Gothic language, Gothic: ''Frið-nanð'') means "brave traveler." The Portuguese version of this surname is Fernandes. The Ar ...

: 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)

References

* David L. Burrows. "Antonio Cesti", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', ed. L. Macy (accessed December 29, 2005)
grovemusic.com
(subscription access). * Grout, Donald; Claude Palisca. ''A History of Western Music'', 6th edition. W. W. Norton & Company. New York, 2001.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cesti, Antonio 1623 births 1669 deaths People from Arezzo Italian male classical composers Italian Baroque composers Italian opera composers Male opera composers 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century male musicians