Marco Faustini (17 May 1606 - 7 January 1676) was an Italian theatrical impresario and brother of the impresario and librettist

Giovanni Faustini Giovanni Faustini (1615 – 19 December 1651) was an Italian librettist and opera impresario of the 17th century. He is best remembered for his collaborations with the composer Francesco Cavalli. Life and career Faustini was born in Venice. Impre ...

Biography

Marco Faustini was born in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. He began his career as an entrepreneur in the summer of 1651, working at the

Teatro Sant 'Apollinare Teatro Sant' Apollinare was an Italian public opera house established in 1651 in Venice in what is today Petriana Court. The Sant 'Apollinare was established in a residential building and equipped with advanced stage machinery intended to allow for ...

in Venice. After his brother's death on 19 December 1651, Faustini took over management of the theater until 1657. He went on to manage other theaters including the

Teatro San Cassiano The Teatro San Cassiano (or Teatro di San Cassiano and other variants) in Venice was the world’s first public opera theatre, inaugurated as such in 1637. The first mention of its construction dates back to 1581. The name with which it is best know ...

from 1657 to 1660, and the

Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo The Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo (often written as Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo) was a theatre and opera house in Venice located on the Calle della Testa, and takes its name from the nearby Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. Built by the ...

from 1660 to 1668 (probably with a break from 1663 to 1665). Marco Faustini, like his brother, collaborated with leading composers of his time including

Francesco Cavalli Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque music, Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverd ...

Pietro Andrea Ziani Pietro Andrea Ziani (1616 in Venice 1684 in Naples) was an Italian organist and composer.Rappresentazione sacra: geistliches Musikdrama am Wiener Kaiserhof Richard Bletschacher - 1985 PIETRO ANDREA ZIANI Wurde am 21. 12. 1616 in Venedig getauft. ...

and

Antonio Cesti Pietro Marc'Antonio Cesti () (baptism 5 August 162314 October 1669), known today primarily as an Italian composer of the Baroque era, was also a singer (tenor), and organist. He was "the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation". Biogra ...

, and hired famous singers such as

Anna Renzi Anna Renzi ( – after 1661) was an Italian soprano renowned for her acting ability as well as her voice, who has been described as the first diva in the history of opera. Career Born in Rome, Anna Renzi was highly popular in Vienna in 1640s and ...

Antonia Coresi Antonia "Tonia" Coresi (fl. 1655 – fl. 1674) was an Italian opera soprano.Zilli, Anna, Drottning Kristinas sångerskor: en omvälvande kraft i Roms musikliv 1655-1689', Nordic Academic Press, Lund, 2019 She was a primadonna at the Opera in V ...

and Vincenza Giulia Masotti. During his years as an impresario, he staged numerous plays of famous librettists of the time including

Aurelio Aureli Aurelio Aureli (Venice, before 1652 – id. after 1708) was an Italian librettist. Life Little is known about Aureli's life. He began his operatic career in 1652 with ''L'Erginda''. Until 1687, he worked as a librettist mainly in Venice, excep ...

, Francis Small,

Nicolò Minato Count Nicolò Minato (b. Bergamo, ca. 1627; d. Vienna, 28 February 1698) was an Italian poet, librettist and impresario. His career can be divided into two parts: the years he spent at Venice, from 1650 to 1669, and the years at Vienna, from 1669 un ...

, Nicholas Beregan, Pietro Angelo Zaguri and

Cristoforo Ivanovich Cristoforo Ivanovich (1628–1689) was the first historian of Venetian opera, who also wrote several librettos of his own. Biography Ivanovich was born in Budua (Budva), at the time part of Venetian Albania (now southeastern Montenegro). Accordin ...

. Faustini's brother's last works remained unfinished, which he completed. Faustini's papers are stored at the

Scuola Grande di San Marco The Scuola Grande di San Marco is a building in Venice, Italy, designed by the well-known Venetian architects Pietro Lombardo, Mauro Codussi, and Bartolomeo Bon. It was originally the home to one of the Scuole Grandi of Venice, or six major con ...

, which represent a major source of information on the theatre work of the Venetian era.

Sources

*L. Bianconi and T. Walker: ''Production, Consumption and Political Function of Seventeenth-Century Opera'', pp. 209–96 (1984) *E. Rosand: ''Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: the Creation of a Genre'' (Berkeley, 1991) *BL and JE Glixon: ''Marco Faustini and Venetian Opera Production in the 1650s: Recent Archival Discoveries'', pp. 48–73 (1992) {{DEFAULTSORT:Faustini, Marco 1606 births 1676 deaths 17th-century Venetian people Opera managers Businesspeople from Venice