Antonio Giovanni Pollarolo (12 November 1676 — 30 May 1746) was an Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

of the

Baroque period 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 ...

, keyboardist, and

maestro di cappella (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

St Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark ( it, Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica ( it, Basilica di San Marco; vec, Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Catholic Chu ...

in Venice. As a composer he is primarily remembered for his

operas Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

, although his composition output also included

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 ...

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

s, and

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s. A precursor to 19th century bel canto opera composers like

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

and

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

, his vocal writing was written in a virtuosic manner characterized by florid

coloratura Coloratura is an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material,''Oxford American Dictionaries''.Apel (1969), p. 184. or a passage of such music. Operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, an ...

passages, wide

vocal range Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of stud ...

, lively

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

s, and syncopated rhythms.

Life and career

Born in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

into the Pollarolo family of musicians, Antonio's father was the opera composer and organist

Carlo Francesco Pollarolo Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (ca. 1653 – 7 February 1723) was an Italian composer, organist, and music director. Known chiefly for his operas, he wrote a total of 85 of them as well as 13 oratorios. His compositional style was initially indebted t ...

. He was trained as a musician by his father and

Antonio Lotti Antonio Lotti (5 January 1667 – 5 January 1740) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. Biography Lotti was born in Venice, although his father Matteo was ''Kapellmeister'' at Hanover at the time. Oral tradition says that in 1682, Lotti be ...

. At the age of 13 he moved with his family to Venice when his father was appointed vicemaestro di cappella at

. Antonio occasionally substituted for his father in this position, beginning in 1702, and later succeeded his father in the post in 1723. He later succeeded Lotti in the higher position of primo maestro at that cathedral in 1740; a post he held until his death six years later. He concurrently served as maestro di Coro at the

Venice Conservatory The Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia is a conservatory in Venice, Italy named after composer Benedetto Marcello and established in 1876. History The conservatory was established in 1876 as ''Liceo e Società Musicale Benedett ...

while working at St Mark's Basilica; a post he was first elected to in 1716. Pollarolo's first opera, ''L’Aristeo'', was staged in Venice in 1700. This was followed by the operas ''Griselda'' (1701) and ''Demetrio e Tolomeo'' (1702). After this came a period devoted mainly to sacred music, and his next opera, ''Nerone fatto Cesare'', was not staged until 1715. His other operas include ''Nerone fatto Cesare'' (Venice, 1715), ''Venceslao'' (Venice, 1721), ''Cosröe'' (1723, Rome), and ''I tre voti'' (1724, Vienna). Pollarolo was married twice. He had three children with his first wife who died in 1709. He married a second time in 1712, and had four more children from this second relationship. He died in Venice in 1746.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollarolo, Antonio 1676 births 1746 deaths Italian Baroque composers Italian male classical composers Italian opera composers