Felice Salimbeni (c. 1712 - 16 October 1755) was an Italian castrato opera singer. Born in Milan, his singing teachers included Nicola Antonio Porpora and Christoph Schaffrath. He sang in venues in Rome, Vienna, Berlin and Dresden, singing the title parts in operas by Porpora and Antonio Caldara. [1] He died in 1755 in the Slovenian town of Vrhnika, then part of the Habsburg monarchy.
Farinelli was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli has been described as having had soprano vocal range and as having sung the highest note customary at the time, C6.
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to about 1770. The term itself was rarely used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable and beginning to be viewed as something of a historical genre. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the 'comic' opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dell'arte.
NicolaAntonio Porpora was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli. Other students included composers Matteo Capranica and Joseph Haydn.
Gaetano Majorano was an Italian castrato and opera singer, who performed under the stage name Caffarelli. Like Farinelli, Caffarelli was a student of Nicola Porpora.
Nicolò Francesco Leonardo Grimaldi was an Italian mezzo-soprano castrato who is best remembered today for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in two of whose early operas he sang. Grimaldi was usually known by his stage name of Nicolini.
Antonio Montagnana was an Italian bass of the 18th-century who is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas Montagnana sang.
Caterina Gabrielli, born Caterina Fatta, was an Italian coloratura singer. She was the most important soprano of her age. A woman of great personal charm and dynamism, Charles Burney referred to her as "the most intelligent and best-bred virtuosa" that he had ever encountered. The excellence of her vocal artistry is reflected in the fact that she was able to secure long-term engagements in three of the most prestigious operatic centers in her day outside of Italy.
The Opera of the Nobility was an opera company set up and funded in 1733 by a group of nobles opposed to George II of Great Britain, in order to rival the (Second) Royal Academy of Music company under Handel.
Venanzio Rauzzini was an Italian castrato, composer, pianist, singing teacher and concert impresario. He is said to have first studied singing under a member of the Sistine Chapel Choir. He studied with Giuseppe Santarelli in Rome and Nicola Porpora in Naples. It has been suggested that Rauzzini may not in fact have been a castrato, but rather had an endocrine condition that prevented his voice from breaking, hence his many affairs as he was thought to be "safe".
Francesca Bertolli was an Italian contralto of the 18th century. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.
Antonio Salvi was an Italian physician, court poet and librettist, active mainly in Florence, Italy. He was in the service of the grand-ducal court of Tuscany and the favourite librettist of Prince Ferdinando de' Medici. Salvi was one of the developers of the opera seria.
Domenico Annibali was an Italian castrato who had an active international career from 1725–1764. He began his career in his native country and was then committed to the Grosses Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden from 1729 until his retirement from the stage 35 years later. In Dresden he excelled in the operas of Johann Adolf Hasse, notably creating roles in the premieres of two of his operas. He was also admired there in works by Nicola Porpora.
In music history, the Neapolitan School is a group, associated with opera, of 17th and 18th-century composers who studied or worked in Naples, Italy, the best known of whom is Alessandro Scarlatti, with whom "modern opera begins". Francesco Provenzale is generally considered the school's founder.
It is with the Neapolitan school...that the History of Modern Music commences—insofar as that music speaks the language of the feelings, emotions, and passions.
The Real Compañía Ópera de Cámara de Barcelona orchestra (RCOC) is a Spanish early music ensemble based in Barcelona. It was founded by its conductor Juan Bautista Otero. The orchestra has been instrumental in reviving several long unperformed Baroque operas.
Ezio is an opera libretto by Pietro Metastasio, first officially set to music by Pietro Auletta and premièred in the Teatro delle Dame, Rome, on December 26, 1728; an unauthorized setting by Nicola Porpora had already been premièred a month earlier in Venice.
Franco Maximiliano Fagioli is an Argentinian operatic countertenor.
Mitridate is an opera by Nicola Antonio Porpora to a libretto by Filippo Vanstriper premiered in Rome in 1730. Porpora and revived and revised the work for London (1736) with actor-manager and librettist Colley Cibber in direct competition with Handel's opera house. The London version of the opera was performed for the 250th anniversary of Porpora's death at the Festival "Winter in Schwetzingen" Directed by Jacopo Spirei, conducted by Felice Venanzoni.
Semiramide is a dramma per musica in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi composed to a libretto by Francesco Silvani.
