Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti (2 May 1660 – 22 October 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer, best known for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is seen as the most important figure of the Neapolitan school of opera.

His contemporaries called him "the Italian Orpheus." He worked in both Naples and Rome, and many of his compositions were created for Rome. He is often regarded as the founder of the Neapolitan school, though he was its most renowned representative. His contributions, creativity, and influence had a lasting impact on music in Italy and across Europe.

Scarlatti was especially famous for his operas, which helped develop the Italian dramatic tradition started by Monteverdi in the 17th century and continued by composers like Cesti, Cavalli, Carissimi, Legrenzi, and Stradella. He helped shape the final form of the da capo aria, a musical structure widely used in Europe. He also invented the Italian overture in three movements, which was important for the development of the symphony. He created the four-part sonata, a predecessor to the modern string quartet, and developed the technique of motivic development. His work influenced many composers, including Händel, whose Italian compositions were deeply inspired by Scarlatti’s music. He also composed in other genres of his time, such as the sonata, concerto grosso, motet, mass, oratorio, and cantata, in which he was an expert.

He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.

Life

Scarlatti was born in Palermo (or possibly in Trapani), which was then part of the Kingdom of Sicily. He received his first music lessons from his family in Palermo.

He was usually considered to have studied with Giacomo Carissimi in Rome. Some people think he had a connection with northern Italy because his early music shows the influence of composers like Stradella and Legrenzi. His opera Gli equivoci nel sembiante (1679) was performed in Rome, which earned the support of Queen Christina of Sweden, who was living in Rome at the time. She made him her music director. In February 1684, he became music director for the viceroy of Naples, possibly because of his sister, an opera singer, who may have been the wife of an important Neapolitan noble. In Naples, he created many operas, known for their smooth and expressive style, as well as music for official events.

In 1702, Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until after the Spanish rule was replaced by Austrian rule. During this time, he received support from Ferdinando de' Medici, for whom he composed operas for a private theater near Florence. He also worked under Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his music director and helped him get a similar position at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.

After visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, Scarlatti returned to Naples in 1708 and stayed there until 1717. By this time, Naples seemed to lose interest in his music, but people in Rome appreciated it more. In Rome, he performed some of his best operas, including Telemaco (1718), Marco Attilio Regolò (1719), and La Griselda (1721), as well as church music, such as a Messa di Santa Cecilia for chorus and orchestra, written in honor of Saint Cecilia for Cardinal Francesco Acquaviva in 1721. His last major work was the unfinished Erminia serenata, created for the marriage of the prince of Stigliano in 1723. He died in Naples in 1725 and is buried there at the church of Santa Maria di Montesanto.

Music

Scarlatti's music connects the early Baroque Italian vocal styles of the 17th century, which were centered in Florence, Venice, and Rome, with the classical school of the 18th century. His style is more than just a transition in Western music; like many of his colleagues in Naples, he understood how to use changes in musical keys and often used the varying lengths of musical phrases, a feature common to the Napoli school.

His early operas, including Gli equivoci nel sembiante (1679), L'honestà negli amori (1680, containing the famous aria "Già il sole dal Gange"), Il Pompeo (1683, with the well-known arias "O cessate di piagarmi" and "Toglietemi la vita ancor"), and others up to about 1685, used older musical techniques in their spoken parts and included many carefully structured short arias. These arias were sometimes accompanied by string quartets or only by the continuo, a group of instruments that provided harmonic support. By 1686, he introduced the "Italian overture" form in his work Dal male il bene (second edition) and stopped using the ground bass and binary form arias in favor of the ternary form, or da capo type, which has three sections. His most famous operas from this period include La Rosaura (1690) and Pirro e Demetrio (1694), which feature the arias "Le Violette" and "Ben ti sta, traditor."

Starting around 1697 (La caduta del Decemviri), Scarlatti's operas became more traditional in rhythm, with oboes and trumpets frequently used and violins often playing together. The operas he wrote for Ferdinando de' Medici are lost, but letters he wrote to the prince suggest they were created with great sincerity and inspiration.

Mitridate Eupatore is often considered his greatest work. His later operas, such as L'amor volubile e tiranno (1709), La principessa fedele (1710), and Tigrane (1714), are also well known. In Teodora (1697), he introduced the use of the orchestral ritornello, a repeated musical section that frames a solo.

In addition to operas, Scarlatti composed oratorios (Agar et Ismaele esiliati, 1684; La Maddalena, 1685; La Giuditta, 1693; Humanita e Lucifero, 1704; Christmas Oratorio, c. 1705; Cain, 1707; S. Filippo Neri, 1714; and others) and serenatas, all of which share similar musical styles. He also wrote over 500 chamber cantatas for solo voice, which remain mostly in manuscript and have not been published.

His Masses and other church music are generally less prominent, except for the Saint Cecilia Mass (1721), which introduced a style of sacred music later developed by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Recordings

• Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan. (2016). La Gloria di Primavera. Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Diana Moore, Suzana Ograjensek, Nicholas Phan, Clint van der Linde, Douglas Williams, Philharmonia Chorale.
• Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. (2007). Griselda. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901805.07. Dorothea Röschmann, Lawrence Zazzo, Veronica Cangemi, Bernarda Fink, Silvia Tro Santafé, Kobie van Rensburg.
• Le Consert de l'Hostel Dieu. (2006). Il martirio di Sant'Orsola. Ligia digital: 0202176–07.
• Le parlement de musique. (2005). La Giuditta. Ambronay editions: AMY004.
• Ensemble Europa Galante. (2004). Oratorio per la Santissima Trinità. Virgin Classics: 5 45666 2.
• Academia Bizantina. (2004). Il Giardino di Rose. Decca: 470 650-2 DSA.
• Orquestra barocca di Sevilla. (2003). Colpa, Pentimento e Grazia. Harmonia Mundi: HMI 987045.46.
• Seattle Baroque. (2001). Agar et Ismaele Esiliati. Centaur: CRC 2664.
• Sedecia, re di Gerusalemme. 2000. Gérard Lesne, Philippe Jaroussky, Virginie Pouchon, Mark Padmore, Peter Harvey, Il Seminario musicale. Virgin veritas, Erato.
• Capella Palatina. (2000). Davidis pugna et victoria. Agora: AG 249.1.
• Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. (1998). Il Primo Omicidio. Harmonia Mundi Fr. Dorothea Röschmann, Graciela Oddone, Richard Croft, René Jacobs, Bernarda Fink, Antonio Abete.
• Ensemble Europa Galante. (1995). Humanita e Lucifero. Opus 111: OPS 30–129.
• Ensemble Europa Galante. (1993). La Maddalena. Opus 111: OPS 30–96.
• Allesandro Stradella Consort. (1992). Cantata natalizia Abramo, il tuo sembiante. Nuova era: 7117.
• I Musici. (1991). Concerto Grosso. Philips Classics Productions: 434 160–2.
• I Musici. William Bennett (Flute), Lenore Smith (Flute), Bernard Soustrot (Trumpet), Hans Elhorst (Oboe). (1961). 12 Sinfonie di concerto grosso. Philips Box 6769 066 [9500 959 & 9500 960 – 2 vinyl discs].
• Emma Kirkby, soprano and Daniel Taylor, countertenor, with the Theatre of Early Music. (2005). Stabat Mater. ATMA Classique: ACD2 2237.
• Francis Colpron, recorder, with Les Boréades. (2007). Concertos for flute. ATMA Classique: ACD2 2521.
• Nederlands Kamerkoor, with Harry van der Kamp, conductor. (2008). Vespro della Beata Vergine for 5 voices and continuo. ATMA Classique: ACD2 2533.