Ariosti: 6 Cantatas / Locatelli: Trio Sonata In E Minor / Vivaldi: Trio Sonata In D Major

Musica Solare

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Cat No: 8557573

Release Date: 07 January 2005

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313257324

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: ARIOSTI

Description
Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729)Six Cantatas (1724)Attilio Ariosti was born in Bologna in 1666 into anillegitimate branch of a noble family. He joined theServite order in 1688, taking his vows and lower ordersthe following year, to be ordained deacon in 1692. He leftthe monastery in 1696 and entered the service of theDuke of Mantua and Monferrato. His earliercompositions had included, in 1693, the oratorio Lapassione, and 1696 brought the first performance of hispastoral opera Tirsi, with a libretto by Apostolo Zeno, atCarnival in Venice. The following year he went to Berlinat the request of Sophie-Charlotte, Queen of Prussia, agreat-granddaughter of James I of England and daughterof the Electress Sophie of Hanover, an enlightenedpatroness of the arts, with a keen interest in music.Ariosti, who enjoyed the particular favour of the Queen,wrote or collaborated in the writing of a number of stageworks performed for the court in Berlin.Service at a Protestant court led Ariosti's religioussuperiors to recall him to Italy, but he delayed hisdeparture, and on his way back spent time in Vienna,where he provided in 1703 a poemetto drammatico forthe name-day of the Emperor Leopold I, La pi?? gloriosafatica d'Ercole (The Most Glorious Labour of Hercules).His connection with the Habsburg court continued, withthe office of minister and agent to all the courts of Italy,bestowed by the Emperor Joseph I. In 1708 he returnedto Vienna, but on the death of the Emperor in 1711 hefound himself banned for religious reasons from allAustrian territories by the Empress, who asked the Popeto have him expelled from his order. It is not clearwhether this last actually happened.By 1716 Ariosti was in London, where he played theviola d'amore at performances of Handel's operaAmadigi di Gaula. His own opera Tito Manlio was stagedthere in 1717, and he continued to write for the stage, hisname joined with those of Handel and Bononcini. AnAmerican writer of the time distinguishes the particularqualities of each, suggesting that Ariosti can giveexpression to 'good Dungeon Scenes, Marches for aBattel, or Minuets for a Ball, in the Miserere' (quoted byChristopher Hogwood: Handel, 1984). The 'dungeonscenes' seem to allude to Ariosti's most successful workfor the London stage, Coriolano, the prison scene inwhich is praised by Sir John Hawkins as 'wrought up tothe highest degree of perfection that music is capable of'.The opera Vespasiano, staged in 1724, contained notonly a diplomatic preponderance of arias for AnastasiaRobinson, soon secretly to marry the Earl ofPeterborough, but provides evidence of the othercharacteristics noted above; one performance of theopera caused an uproar, when Anastasia Robinsonobjected to the too close proximity on stage of thecastrato Senesino, leading to the violent intervention ofher elderly beau. Mainwaring, in his 1760 Memoirs of theLife of the late George Frederic Handel indulges in animaginative account of Ariosti's earlier acquaintancewith Handel in Ber
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