Francisco António de Almeida (c. 1702–1755) was a
Portuguese composer 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 ...
.
From 1722 to 1726 he was a royal scholar in Rome. In 1724,
Pier Leone Ghezzi
Pier Leone Ghezzi (28 June 1674 – 6 March 1755) was an Italian Rococo painter, draughtsman, printmaker and Caricature, caricaturist who was mainly active in Rome. While he painted decorative frescoes and created a new type of anecdotal and r ...
drew his caricature, describing him as "a young but excellent composer of concertos and church music who sang with extreme taste". He returned to Portugal in 1726, where he became organist of the
Royal and Patriarchal Chapel.
In
1728
Events
January–March
* January 5 – The '' Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Gerónimo de la Habana'', the oldest university in Cuba, is founded in Havana.
* January 9 – The coronation of Peter II as the Tsar of t ...
, the first of his
serenatas, ''Il trionfo della virtù'', was performed in
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
at the palace of
Cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to
* Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae
***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...
João da Mota e Silva
João is a given name of Portuguese origin. It is equivalent to the given name John. The diminutive is Joãozinho and the feminine is Joana. It is widespread in Portuguese-speaking countries. Notable people with the name are enumerated in the s ...
. His
comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
, ''La pazienza di Socrate'', was performed at the royal palace in
1733
Events
January–March
* January 13 – Borommarachathirat V becomes King of Siam (now Thailand) upon the death of King Sanphet IX.
* January 27 – George Frideric Handel's classic opera, ''Orlando'' is performed for the ...
. It was the first Italian opera in Portugal. A contemporary diarist states that Almeida composed music for the popular performances of
presépios (
Nativity scenes) in the
Mouraria quarter of Lisbon. He probably died in the
Lisbon earthquake of 1755.
Selected works
*Il pentimento di Davidde (componimento sacro), 1722
*La Giuditta (oratorio), 1726 (first modern performances were in 1990, and it was described as a masterpiece.
["Almeida's oratorio La Giuditta, one of the masterpieces of Portuguese 18th-century music, was performed in Rome in 1726" // ''Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco''. Portugal / The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. L.; N.Y., 2001.]
*Il trionfo della virtù (componimento poetico), 1728
*
Il trionfo d'amore (Almeida) (scherzo pastorale), 1729
*Gl'incanti d'Alcina (
dramma per musica
The phrase ''dramma per musica'' (also spelled ''drama per musica''; Italian language, Italian, literally: 'play (or drama) for music', plural: ''drammi per musica'') is commonly found after the title in Italian opera librettos beginning in the ...
da cantarsi), 1730
*
La Spinalba, ovvero Il vecchio matto (dramma comico), 1739
*L’Ippolito (serenata), 1752
References
Bibliography
*Manuel Carlos de Brito: ''Almeida, Francisco António de'', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Retrieved 2007-05-05)
Grove Music Online
*Manuel Carlos de Brito: ''Opera in Portugal in the Eighteenth Century'' (Cambridge, 1989)
External links
Sinfonia (in F)- on-going cooperative transcription in th
Wiki-scoreplatform of the score of this symphony by Francisco António de Almeida.
See also
*
Carlos Seixas
José António Carlos de Seixas (; 11 June 1704 – 25 August 1742) was a pre-eminent Portuguese composer of the 18th century. An accomplished virtuoso of both the organ and the harpsichord, Seixas succeeded his father as the organist for Coimbr ...
*
António Teixeira António Teixeira may refer to:
* António Teixeira (composer) (1707–after 1769), Portuguese composer
* António Teixeira (1930s footballer), Portuguese footballer
* António Teixeira Lopes (1866–1942), Portuguese sculptor
* António Teixeir ...
Portuguese Baroque composers
Portuguese classical organists
Male classical organists
18th-century Portuguese people
1700s births
1755 deaths
18th-century classical composers
18th-century male musicians
18th-century keyboardists
Portuguese male classical composers
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