Antonio Cesti

(b Arezzo, bap. 5 Aug 1623; d Florence, 14 Oct 1669). Italian composer (not ‘Marc′ Antonio Cesti’). After serving as a choirboy at Arezzo, he joined the Franciscan order and served his novitiate at S Croce, Florence. He spent a few years at the monastery in Arezzo before being elected organist of Volterra Cathedral (1644) and shortly afterwards its maestro di cappella. At Volterra he enjoyed the patronage of the Medici family and the friendship of the painter and writer Salvator Rosa.

With the successful performance of Orontea at Venice in 1649, opera became the centre of Cesti's professional life. In 1652 he secured a position with Archduke Ferdinand Karl at Innsbruck and in 1658 he obtained release from his monastic vows. On the death of Ferdinand Karl's successor in 1665 he was transferred to the Habsburg court at Vienna. His short period there was one of intense activity in opera, including the composition of the colossal Il pomo d′oro to celebrate the Emperor Leopold I′s marriage in 1668. Cesti was dissuaded from returning to Venice, where he had aroused resentment in other musicians, and spent his last year as maestro di cappella at the Tuscan court in Florence.

Cesti's early Venetian operas are quite modest in scope: most arias are accompanied only by continuo, there are few ensembles and instrumental pieces are consistently scored for two violins and continuo. Nearly all the later operas were composed as court entertainments on a more elaborate scale. His cantatas are mostly for solo voice and continuo; they display a highly flexible approach to form and are equally varied on subject matter and expression.

works:
Operas

• Orontea (1649)
• La Dori (1657)
• Il pomo d′oro (1668)
• at least 8 others

Other vocal music

• over 60 cantatas incl. Aspettate, Pria chi′adori, Rimbombava d′intorno
• 4 motets
• Natura et quatuor elementa, sepolcro

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• Period: Baroque (1600-1749)
• Born: August 05, 1623 in Arezzo, Italy
• Died: October 14, 1669 in Florence, Italy
• Genres: Opera

Biography

Antonio Cesti was an important composer of the seventeenth century Italian Baroque, particularly in the field of opera. Born Pietro Cesti, he adopted the name Antonio when he joined the Franciscan order. He had already been a choir boy in Arezzo. Although details of his musical training are uncertain, it seems likely he studied with Abbatini, and possibly with Carissimi and Luigi Rossi. He joined the Franciscans in Volterra in 1637, was elected organist of the Cathedral there in 1643, and in 1645 was confirmed as master of music of the Volterra seminary and of the Cathedral.

The powerful Medici family became his patrons. Through them, he became acquainted with a literary group called the Accademia dei Percossi, who wrote texts for his cantatas and, eventually, opera libretti. It has been assumed that his first successful opera was Orontea, produced in Venice in 1649. However, evidence suggests this opera may have been written in 1656 for Innsbruck. Whatever the case, Cesti built an increasingly successful career as a secular composer and singer. He was reappointed at the cathedral in July 1649, but there were clearly conflicts between his vocation and his increasing material success outside the Church, which led to a love affair with the married singer Anna Maria Sardelli. Salvator Rosa, one of the members of the Percossi, wrote of it, "it is ever thus with anyone who would behave as though he were neither friar nor layman." In October the Superior-General of the Franciscans rebuked his monastery for permitting Cesti's "dishonorable and irregular life." Undeterred, Cesti wrote two more popular operas for Venice, Il Cesare amante, and Alessandro vincitor di se stesso, in 1651 and 1652. Cesti left the monastery in 1652 to accept a position at the court of Archduke Ferdinand Karl in Innsbruck, Austria. Although he made some trips back to Italy (primarily to recruit singers) he remained in that position through 1657.

He then moved to Rome, evidently with the ulterior purpose of ingratiating himself with the Pope so he could be released from his vows. Cesti, a fine tenor who often took leading roles in his own and others' operas, sang for the Pontiff four times, was released from his vows in March 1659, in the understanding he would remain a secular priest, and that year joined the Papal Choir. In 1661 the Pope granted him leave for a temporary trip to Florence in connection with the wedding festivities of Duke Cosimo III of Medici and the French Princess Marguerite Louise d'Orléans. From there, he went straight back to Innsbruck and Ferdinand Karl, while the angered Pope threatened to excommunicate him.

Cesti went on with continued success in opera and was even rewarded by the Archduke with an abbotship. When a new Duke inherited in 1665, Cesti moved with him to Vienna, affording him even greater scope for his operas. He died in 1669, and some sources indicate that his death was rather sudden, suggesting he may have been poisoned. ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide

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