Alessandro Stradella (Nepi, 3 April 1639 – Genoa, 25 February 1682) was an Italian composer of the middle baroque. He enjoyed a dazzling career as a freelance composer, writing on commission, and collaborating with distinguished poets, producing over three hundred works in a variety of genres.
Not much is known about his early life, but he was from a Tuscan aristocratic family, educated at Bologna, and was already making a name for himself as a composer at the age of 20. In 1667 he moved to Rome where he composed for Christina, Queen of Sweden, mostly sacred music. He was involved in performances of four operas, two by Francesco Cavalli and two by Antonio Cesti. Stradella began to live a dissolute life. With Carlo Ambrogio Lonati he attempted to embezzle money from the Roman Catholic Church, but was found out: he fled the city, only returning much later when he thought it was safe. His numerous incautious affairs with women began to make him enemies among the powerful men of the city, and he had to leave Rome for good.
Alessandro Stradella is a romantic opera (Romantische Oper) in three acts composed by Friedrich von Flotow to a German libretto by "Wilhelm Friedrich" (Friedrich Wilhelm Riese). Set in Venice and the countryside near Rome, it is loosely based on the colourful life of the 17th-century Italian composer and singer Alessandro Stradella. It was first performed in its full version on 30 December 1844 at the Stadttheater in Hamburg.
Alessandro Stradella began its life as Stradella, a one-act comédie en vaudeville which opened in Paris at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal on 2 February 1837. Flotow then revised and expanded the work to a full three-act opera which had a successful premiere at the Stadttheater in Hamburg on 30 December 1844. The work proved to be very popular in Germany and in Austria where its successful debut at the Theater am Kärntnertor in 1845 led to a commission from the theatre to compose another opera, Martha, which premiered there in 1847. Alessandro Stradella was performed in an Italian translation by Callisto Bassi in several opera houses in Italy, including the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan. It was also heard in Warsaw at the Teatr Wielki in 1858, in Brussels at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (in a French translation by Alphonse Royer) in 1859, in Paris at the Théâtre des Italiens (in Italian) in 1863, and in London at the Royal Opera House in 1864.
Actors: Gino Bechi (actor), Ernesto Bianchi (actor), Emilio Cigoli (actor), Antonio Crast (actor), Mario Gallina (actor), Armando Guarnieri (actor), Kozma Kumani (actor), Nino Marchetti (actor), Guido Morisi (actor), Carlo Ninchi (actor), Giovanni Petrucci (actor), Lamberto Picasso (actor), Gino Saltamerenda (actor), Fabrizio Sarazani (actor), Gualtiero Tumiati (actor),
Plot: After an astrologer has foretold him he will die at an early age if he does not avoid a romantic entanglement, Alessandro Stradella, a well-known composer decides to leave Rome for the North of Italy. He takes advantage of his trip to visit Venice. On his way to the Doge's City, he meets a beautiful, mysterious lady who immediately captivates him. Once in Venice he learns that the young lady's name is Ortensia and that she is the daughter of a powerful man, Alvise Foscarini, in fact Venice's chief inquisitor. Alessandro and Ortensia declare their love to each other and consider marrying, which infuriates Foscarini who does not want a "dissolute" artist in his family. Feeling the heat, the couple runs away from Venice. Having taken shelter in Torino, they are traced by the inquisitor, who pretending to feel remorse, has them return to Venice. But while they are on the road, Foscarini's hired assassins murder Alessandro. As for Ortensia she is taken back to her father's home by force.
Genres: Drama,