Alessandro Scarlatti

Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti, born on May 2, 1660 in Palermo, was an influential Italian Baroque composer widely regarded as the founder of the Neapolitan operatic school. He wrote more than sixty operas and played an essential role in shaping the musical language that bridged the early Italian Baroque and the classical style of the eighteenth century. His family was deeply musical: he was the brother of composer Francesco Scarlatti and the father of the renowned composers Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti. He also served as a mentor to Emanuele d’Astorga.

Scarlatti likely studied in Rome under Giacomo Carissimi, and elements of the northern Italian tradition influenced his early compositions. His opera "Gli Equivoci dell’amore," staged in Rome in 1679, gained him the patronage of Queen Christina of Sweden, who was then living in the city, and he soon became her maestro di cappella. In 1684 he was appointed maestro di cappella to the viceroy of Naples, a position obtained with the aid of his sister, an opera singer connected to a powerful Neapolitan aristocrat.

During his years in Naples, Scarlatti composed an impressive number of operas known for their vitality and expressiveness, as well as ceremonial music for court festivities. In 1702 he left the city due to political changes and spent time in Florence under the patronage of Cosimo III de' Medici, composing operas for the Medici court theater. He also enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Ottoboni, who appointed him maestro di cappella and secured for him a similar position at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.

After visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, Scarlatti returned to Naples in 1708 and remained there until 1717. During this period his music was received with less enthusiasm in Naples, while Rome showed greater appreciation. Some of his finest operas were written for the Teatro Capranica in Rome, including "Telemaco" (1718), "Marco Attilio Regolò" (1719), and "La Griselda" (1721). In 1720 he composed solemn church works such as the Mass of Saint Cecilia, commissioned by Cardinal Acquaviva and later regarded as one of his most significant sacred compositions.

Across his career Scarlatti played a key role in formal innovations within opera. By 1686 he established the structure of the Italian overture and contributed to the development of the da capo aria, helping define operatic conventions for generations to come. His operatic output evolved over time: early works displayed older recitative styles and charming small arias; works of the 1690s and early 1700s featured bolder orchestral writing, frequent use of oboes and trumpets, and a growing sense of dramatic cohesion. His Roman operas of the early 1720s are celebrated for their poetic expressiveness, majestic melodies, and advanced orchestration.

Besides operas, Scarlatti composed around forty oratorios, numerous serenatas, and more than five hundred chamber cantatas—considered among the most intellectually refined chamber works of the period. Although many exist only in manuscript, they are vital to understanding the genre’s development. His sacred output includes significant masses, foremost among them the Mass of Saint Cecilia, praised by musicologist Carl de Nys as the culmination of Scarlatti’s church music. He also composed a recently rediscovered Vespers setting for performance in the Basilica of Saint Cecilia.

Scarlatti’s instrumental music, though more conservative than his vocal works, includes toccatas, keyboard symphonies, sonatas, concerti grossi, and chamber pieces for various ensembles. His music represents a crucial bridge between the vocal traditions of the early Italian Baroque and the classical school emblematic of composers like Mozart. He died in Naples on October 22, 1725, leaving a legacy that shaped the future of opera and influenced generations of composers. A crater on Mercury was later named in his honor.

Among his later achievements was the opera "Mitridate Eupatore," written in Venice in 1707 and noted for its innovative musical character compared to his earlier Neapolitan works. His letters to the Tuscan duke suggest that his lost operas for Cosimo III de' Medici were composed with exceptional inspiration, though none survive.

Scarlatti was also among the earliest composers to employ accompanied recitative extensively, an innovation he first used in 1686, which contributed to the heightened dramatic expressiveness of his later works. His last major project was an unfinished serenata written for the wedding of the Prince of Stigliano in 1723.

In addition to his prolific output as a composer, Scarlatti wrote theoretical works such as "Regole per principianti" (c. 1715) and "Discorso sopra un caso particolare di arte" (1717), which provide insight into his views on composition and performance practice.

Contemporaries nicknamed Scarlatti “the Italian Orpheus,” reflecting the admiration he commanded in both Naples and Rome. His early musical education also began within his own family before his Roman training. His reputation extended into the papal sphere, where works such as his "Miserere" and the double-chorus fugue "Tu es Petrus" were written for the papal chapel and continue to be performed.

Scarlatti was a member of the Arcadian Academy in Rome, a cultural circle of poets and musicians dedicated to artistic refinement. There he interacted with figures such as Corelli, Marcello, and the young Handel, occasionally engaging in friendly competition. His influence also reached composers including Hasse and Paradisi, contributing to the evolution of eighteenth-century musical style.

He was admired not only as a composer but also as a virtuoso performer on the harp and keyboard, as well as a skilled singer. In his later years he taught at a Neapolitan conservatory, where prominent students such as Francesco Durante and Johann Adolf Hasse continued his artistic lineage. His role in shaping opera seria, refining the emotional and structural language of the genre, remains one of his most enduring achievements.

Scarlatti’s innovations extended beyond opera: he was credited with developing the four-part sonata, a precursor to the modern string quartet, and with advancing the technique of motivic development. His theatrical music served as an important model for Handel’s Italian works, highlighting the far-reaching impact of his style across Europe. He was buried at the Church of Santa Maria di Montesanto in Naples, where his memory is still honored.

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