Agostino Steffani

Agostino Steffani was a significant Italian author of vocal music in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth decades. His chamber duets, operas (generally created in the bel canto design), and sacred functions constitute his finest initiatives. Steffani was created in Castelfranco, near Venice, on July 25, 1654. He offered being a choirboy in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua from 1664-1667 under maestro di cappella Antonio dalla Tavola, who most likely gave him teaching in music. By age group 11 Steffani was frequently showing up in operas and concerts, and a yr later on was taken up to Munich in the behest from the Elector Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria. Adolescent Steffani sang in operas and in chapel solutions there while getting superb musical education beneath the guidance from the maestro di cappella from the Elector’s Courtroom, Johann Kaspar Kerll. By age group 14 Steffani was acquiring body organ lessons from Kerll, but hardly ever appearing like a vocalist any longer. In 1672 he journeyed to Rome to review structure with Ercole Bernabei. During his almost two-year stay there, Steffani created Psalmodia vespertina, a assortment of Psalm configurations, and a Magnificat. Soon after Steffani’s go back to Munich in 1674 he was appointed courtroom organist. In 1680 he was ordained a priest and a yr later on appointed courtroom movie director of chamber music by the brand new Elector Maximilian II Emanuel, whose dad Ferdinand Maria passed away in 1679. Steffani would also undertake duties like a diplomat with neighboring courts. In structure he continued to be quite active, as well: having created his 1st opera Marco Aurelio in 1677, he made up his following four, including Servio Tullio in the time 1685-1688, all premiered in the occupied Munich Courtroom. Steffani remaining Munich in 1688 to just work at the Hanover Courtroom, where he spent 15 years as kapellmeister and diplomat. He made up several effective operas during his tenure there, including Orlando generoso (1691). In 1702-1703 he created a fine assortment of chamber duets at Hanover, and he approved a post in the Düsseldorf Courtroom of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. Thereafter Steffani made up hardly any. He was elected Bishop of Spiga in 1706 and apostolic vicar for North Germany 3 years later on. He focused the majority of his energies on chapel issues in his old age, though he do manage to create a few functions, like the Stabat Mater (1727-1728), his preferred structure. He passed away in 1728 of apoplexy.