Griselda
Music by Alessandro Scarlatti · libretto by Pietro Metastasio · premiered 1721
Griselda is an opera seria in three acts by the Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti, the last of Scarlatti’s operas to survive completely today. The libretto is by Apostolo Zeno, with revisions by an anonymous author. Zeno wrote his work in 1701 and it had already been set by Pollarolo and Antonio Maria Bononcini (Tomaso Albinoni, Giovanni Bononcini and Antonio Vivaldi would later produce versions). It is based on the story of Patient Griselda from Boccaccio's tenth day of The Decameron. Scarlatti's opera was first performed at the Teatro Capranica, Rome, in January 1721 with an all-male cast (five castratos and a tenor).
Text from the Wikipedia article "Griselda (A. Scarlatti)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti (2 May 1660 – 22 October 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer, known especially for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the most important representative of the Neapolitan School of opera. Nicknamed by his contemporaries "the Italian Orpheus", he divided his career between Naples and Rome; a significant part of his works was composed for the papal city. He is often considered the founder of the Neapolitan School, although he has only been its most illustrious representative: his contribution, his originality and his influence were essential, as well as lasting, both in Italy and in Europe. Particularly known for his operas, he brought the…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Alessandro Scarlatti", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Alessandro Scarlatti
- L'honestà negli amori (1680)
- Il Pompeo (1682)
- Carlo re d'Allemagna (1716)
- Il trionfo dell'onore (1718)
- Cambise (1719)