Word: cesti
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...scene was 17th century Italy, and Composer Pietro Cesti (1623-69), otherwise known as Father Antonio, contributed to its splendor in flamboyant fashion. Renowned for his unfriarly frolics (a partiality toward wine and the wives of his benefactors), he was unfrocked* and dismissed from the court of the Medici in Florence for "reprehensible conduct." In more sober moods he reputedly wrote 100 operas, many of them tradition-breaking efforts that helped determine the shape of opera to come. Last week the first, and one of the best, of Cesti's works, his three-act Orontea, was back in Milan...
Great Gift. Although Cesti is not the father of modern opera (the credit usually goes to Monteverdi), he did more than any other composer to develop the aria and make it as important as the recitative. Cesti's gift for melody was so great that his tunes were often pilfered, and he knew far better than his contemporaries how to weld the melody of an opera to its drama. Orontea, a typical Cesti product, is the story of a skittish Egyptian queen who spurns all suitors because in her "breast love dwells not." But when a handsome shipwrecked sailor...
Despite its banal theme, Orontea became one of Italy's most popular works during Cesti's lifetime, and last week's La Piccola Scala performance suggested why. From start to finish, it was a singer's opera. The orchestration for the most part was slender, graceful, beautifully designed to give space to the principals (Mezzo-Soprano Teresa Berganza, Tenor Alvino Misciano), who sang aria after aria in serene, long-breathing lines. Bright with sentimentally colored melodies, Orontea scored a hit even with the critic of the Communist L'Unita, who conceded that "it really...
Applauding Feet. Sharing the applause with Composer Cesti was Spanish Mezzo Berganza, 27, who combined some fine acting with effortless singing in the title role. Fast emerging as one of Europe's top divas, Berganza originally studied piano at the Madrid Conservatory, took up singing as a joke, hit the concert circuit after unexpectedly winning the conservatory's singing prize, and married her accompanist...
...charge, according to a contemporary report: "Father Cesti in a performance of his Orontea in Lucca did take the tenor role of Alindoro, embarrassing and loving all women and showing himself ready for amorous duets with...