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Antonio Sartorio (c. 1630–1680): Documents and Sources of a Career in Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Vassilis Vavoulis
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Extract

Although little information survives on Antonio Sartorio's formative years, his date of birth can be placed at c. 1630 on the basis of the act of his death, which states that he died on 30 December 1680 at the age of ‘about 50‘. In all probability Sartorio came from a family of artists-craftsmen as the composer Gasparo Sartorio (1625/6–80), and the theatre architect and opera set-designer Girolamo (Hieronymo, Geronimo) Sartorio (d. 1716) were his brothers.

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Articles
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Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle , Volume 37 , 2004 , pp. 1 - 70
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Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 2004

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References

1 I would like to thank the following institutions for the generous financial support which has made possible the research undertaken here: King's College, University of London; Merton College, University of Oxford; Faculty of Music, University of Oxford. Special thanks are due to Dr Reinmar Emans for reading this article and for making helpful suggestions. (All translations are mine, except where noted.)Google Scholar

2 Archivio di Stato, Venezia (I-Vas), Provveditori alla Sanità, Necrologio, Reg. 889 (1680): ‘30 December 1680 / Il Signor Antonio Sartorio d'anni 50 circa / da flusso già mesi 7 / medici Florio e Marco Bruni / fa sepelir suoi fratelli. / S. Gio. Grisostomo.’ An earlier date of birth, 1620, proposed in the ‘Sartorio, Antonio’ entries in the Enciclopedia dello spettacolo and the first edition of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, is undocumented and stems, most probably, from the older dictionaries by Fetis and Gerber. Edward Tarr has also refuted this earlier date in the preface to his edition of Antonio Sartorio, Salve mi Jesu: Kantate für Sopran, Streichorchester und Generalbass (Stuttgart, 1976), 2n.Google Scholar

3 See Edward H. Tarr, ‘Sartorio, Gasparo’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001) [henceforth New Grove 2], xxii, 307. There may have been additional siblings, as the entry in the ‘Necrologio’ mentioned above, discusses Sartorio's funeral arrangements with the words ‘fà sepelir suoi fratelli’ ('being burried by his brothers'), and we know that, by that time, Gasparo Sartorio had already been dead for almost three months (he died on 17 October 1680). The phrase, however, may also mean that Sartorio was a member of one of the religious confraternities of Venice, Scuole Grandi and Scuole Piccole, where one of the most important duties of the ‘brothers’ was to organize and provide for the burial of a defunct member; see Glixon, Jonathan, Honoring God and the City: Music at the Venetian Confraternities, 1260–1807 (New York, 2003), 72–5.Google Scholar

4 His professional activities leading to 1661 have not yet been traced. 31 appears to be an average age to begin a career in the theatre bearing in mind that Francesco Cavalli was 37 at the time of his first opera commission, Antonio Cesti 29, Pietro Andrea Ziani 38, Giovanni Legrenzi 36 and Domenico Freschi 41.Google Scholar

5 Faustini managed the theatre for no less than 12 consecutive seasons, c. 1660–72, a rather long period in the oft-changing landscape of the Venetian opera production system; see Rosand, Ellen, Opera in Seventeenth-Centurv Venice: The Creation of a Genre (Berkeley, 1991), 185.Google Scholar

6 Venetian theatres of the time were usually named after the parish ('parrocchia') in which they were built: e.g., S. Angelo, SS. Giovanni e Paolo, S. Luca. A number of them were also known by the name of the family who owned them, and, therefore, we have the ‘Teatro Grimani’ (SS. Giovanni e Paolo) and the ‘Teatro Vendramin’ (S. Luca). The S. Luca is a special case having a third name, S. Salvatore, as it happened to be in the proximity of two parishes. Harris Saunders has noticed that the Vendramin ‘is referred to as “di San Salvatore” in libretti, but as “à San Luca” in most musical manuscripts’. He attributes this to the fact that ‘the more prominent church was used in a public document that would be diffused among non-natives’, while in manuscripts ‘the indigenous scribes refer to the closer, albeit less prominent church’; see Harris Sheridan Saunders Jr, ‘The Repertory of a Venetian Opera House (1678–1714): The Teatro Grimani di San Giovanni Grisostomo’ (Ph.D. dissertation. Harvard University, 1985), 2n. Here, ‘S. Luca’ is used throughout for consistency.Google Scholar

7 The building itself was a new one as the theatre had burned down in 1653 and was rebuilt. An approximate list of the conduttori (the term used in contemporary documents for the figure of impresario which, as a term, came into use considerably later) associated with S. Luca during Sartorio's career is as follows: Antonio Boldù, Nicolò Minato/Marco Mozzoni, Piero Moretti/Count Marco Montalban, Aurelio Aureli, Alessandro Molin, Bartolomeo Priuli, Marchese Guido Rangoni, Francesco Bembo, Gaspare Torelli; see Mancini, Franco, Maria Teresa Muraro and Elena Povoledo, I teatri del Veneto: Venezia (Venice, 1995), 212–14. In the eighteenth century the S. Luca became Goldoni's theatre, and its archives today are housed at the Casa Goldoni.Google Scholar

8 Mario Messinis, ‘Sartorio, Antonio’, Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, ed. Silvio d'Amico, 12 vols (Rome, 1954–68), viii, 1520.Google Scholar

9 Marco Faustini was promoting a revival of his brother's (Giovanni Faustini) libretto Doriclea (1645) with new music by Ziani (original music by Cavalli). Ziani had reservations about the revival of such an old work, and whether it would stand comparison to the other opera of the season, Nicolò Beregan's brand new Tito with music by Cesti; see Giazotto, Remo, ‘La guerra dei palchi: Documenti per servire alla storia del teatro musicale a Venezia come istituto sociale e iniziativa privata nei secoli XVII e XVIII’, Nuova rivista musicale italiana, 1 (1967), 245–86, 465–508; 3 (1969), 906–33 (at 503 et seqq.); see also Rosand, Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice, 187–8, 192–3.Google Scholar

10 The decision to abandon Doriclea seems to have been imposed on Faustini from above, and it involved, according to Ziani, the wish not to have in the same theatre the music of both Ziani and Cesti: ‘per non far sentire in un teatro medemo la musica del Cesti e mia’; see the letter of 30 January 1666, i.e. during the course of the season, in Giazotto, ‘La guerra dei palchi’, 505–6.Google Scholar

11 P.A. Ziani from Vienna to Faustini, 10 July 1666, I-Vas, Scuola Grande di San Marco, b. 1888, n. 269, quoted from Giazotto, ‘La guerra dei palchi’, 507–8; the letter is also quoted in Heinz Becker ed., Quellentexte zur Konzeption der europdischen Oper im 17. Jahrhundert (Kassel, 1981), 79. The meaning of this passage is not entirely clear as there seems to be some background context that is unknown to us. Ziani seems to be referring to Sartorio's success at the rival theatre of S. Luca, and how this success created problems and losses for Faustini.Google Scholar

12 Peter H. Wilson, German Armies: War and German Politics, 1648–1806 (London, 1998), 163. A family tree of the House of Hanover can be found in Mathilde Knoop, Kurfürstin Sophie von Hannover, Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen, 22 (Hildesheim, 1964), paper fold-out at the end of the book. For concise biographies of Johann Friedrich and his brothers see Wallbrecht, RosenmarieElisabeth, Das Theater des Barockzeitalters an den welfischen Höfen Hannover und Celle, Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Niedersachsens, 83 (Hildesheim, 1974), 5–19.Google Scholar

13 Georg Schnath, ‘Johann Friedrich’, Neue deutsche Biographie, ed. Historische Kommission bei der Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1953–), x, 479.Google Scholar

14 She was half Italian as her mother was Anna Gonzaga (1616–84), married in France to Eduard von der Pfalz. A family tree of Benedicta Henriette can by found in Meinrad Schaab, ‘Die Pfalz und Frankreich’, in Pathos, Klatsch und Ehrlichkeit: Liselotte von der Pfalz am Hofe des Sonnenkönings, ed. Klaus J. Mattheier and Paul Valentin (Tubingen, 1990), 21–53 (at 53).Google Scholar

15 On his political proximity to Louis XIV see Annette von Stieglitz, Landesherr und Stände zwischen Konfrontation und Kooperation: Die Innenpolitik Herzog Johann Friedrichs im Fürstentum Calenberg 1665–1679 (Hanover, 1994). On the prominent German women thriving in the French court, and therefore Benedicta Henriette's milieu, see Meyer, Jean, ‘Les femmes étrangeres à la cour de Versailles au temps de la Princesse Palatine’, in Pathos, Klatsch und Ehrlichkeit, 55–81. Meyer also tells the story of Benedicte's unfortunate years following Johann Friedrich's death and her continuous wanderings across the courts of Germany, France, Austria and Italy in search of a permanent base.Google Scholar

16 Theodor Abbetmeyer, Zur Geschichte der Musik am Hofe in Hannover vor Agostino Steffani 1636–1689: Ein Bild künstlerischer Kultur im 17. Jahrhundert (Hannover, 1931), 18.Google Scholar

17 John G. Gagliardo, Germany under the Old Regime, 1600–1790 (London and New York, 1991), 289.Google Scholar

18 Wilson, German Armies, 162–3.Google Scholar

19 Gagliardo, Germany under the Old Regime, 290.Google Scholar

20 The data has been culled from the complete catalogue of Venetian libretti in Irene Alm, Catalog of Venetian Librettos at the University of California, Los Angeles (Berkeley, 1993).Google Scholar

21 The ‘theatrical’ side of Ernst August's and his son's, Georg Ludwig (later George I of England), relationship with the Venetian Republic is explored in Colin Timms, ‘George I's Venetian Palace and Theatre Boxes in the 1720s’, in Music and Theatre: Essays in Honour of Winton Dean, ed. Nigel Fortune (Cambridge, 1987), 95–130.Google Scholar

22 The chronicle is by Dottor Piccioli, L'orologio del piacere che mostra l'ore del dilettevole soggiorno hauto dull'Altezza Serenissima d'Ernesto Augusto … nel luoco di Piazzola di S. E. il Signor Marco Contarini (Piazzola, 1685); for details see Camerini, Paolo, Piazzola (Milan, 1925), 265–98; see also Lorenzo Bianconi and Thomas Walker, ‘Production, Consumption and Political Function of Seventeenth-Century Italian Opera’, Early Music History, 4 (1984), 209–96 (269–70 in particular). For a comprehensive discussion of the origins of the Contarini collection see Walker, Thomas, ‘Ubi Lucius: Thoughts on Reading Medoro‘, in A. Aureli and F. Lucio, Il Medoro, Drammaturgia Musicale Veneta, 4 (Milan, 1984), cxxxi-clxiv (at clviii).Google Scholar

23 See Rimino, 13 December 1661, quoted from Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Pallade Veneta: Writings on Music in Venetian Society 1650–1750 (Venice, 1985), 336. Rimino was a news-sheet published in Rimini based on avvisi from various cities; see Matteini, Nevio, Il ‘Rimino’: Una delle prime ‘gazette’ d'ltalia (Bologna, 1967).Google Scholar

24 Heinrich Sievers, Die Musik in Hannover: Die musikalischen Strömungen in Niedersachsen vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Musikgeschichte der Landeshauptstadt Hannover (Hanover, 1961), 47. The court accounts indicate the first entry for Sartorio's salary in ‘Michaelis 1666’ and at the amount of 50 thalers per month; see Berend, Fritz, Nicolaus Adam Strungk, 1640–1700: Sein Leben und seine Werke mit Beiträge zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters in Celle, Hannover, Leipzig (Hannover, [1913]), 32. In his article on Sartorio of the first edition of the New Grove, Edward Tarr wrote that Sartorio took up his duties on Trinity Sunday 1666 ('Sartorio, Antonio’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1980), xvi, 507), but this seems to be incorrect as Sievers has established, in his second book on Hanover, that ‘Trinity 1666‘ was the date when Catholic services were first established in the court chapel by Franciscan monks; see Sievers, Heinrich, Hannoversche Musikgeschichte: Dokumente, Kritiken und Meinungen, 2 vols (Tutzing, 1979–84), i, 60.Google Scholar

25 I-Vas Notarile: Atti [notary Girolamo Spinelli], b. 12165 [no folio numbers], 18 July 1666. The year of the marriage, 1654, is approximate as the actual wording is: ‘sposata legitimamente secondo il retto di Santa Madre Chiesa gia anni dodeci in circa’ (wedded according to the rules of the Holy Mother Church approximately 12 years ago). I wish to thank Dr Beth Glixon for her generosity in providing me with the reference to this document.Google Scholar

26 I-Vas Collegio, Lettere comuni, filza 194, 16 July 1666.Google Scholar

27 Sievers, Die Musik in Hannover, 129–66. For a synoptic view of the singers and instrumentalists entered in the Hanover account books during Sartorio's residence, see Table 1.Google Scholar

28 Axel Fischer, ‘Hannover’, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd edn, ed. Ludwig Finscher (Kassel, 1994–), Sachteil/iv, 25–7.Google Scholar

29 Circling around the theme of Italian artists in Hanover, one could also mention here the three Venetian architects who built the palace and gardens at the official residence at Herrenhausen: Lorenzo Bedogni, Quirini and Sartorio's brother Hieronymus (Girolamo); see Abbetmeyer, Hannover, 25. Girolamo Sartorio was also the set designer for the Hanover performances of the opera Alceste in 1679 (original music by P.A. Ziani adapted by the court organist Matthio Trento); see Berend, Nicolaus Adam Strungk, 44. Furthermore, Girolamo was involved in designing at least one more opera production, in Amsterdam in 1681; see Bianconi and Walker, ‘Production’, 259. He is known to have been active in Hanover as an architect from at least 1667 onwards: see Lampe, Joachim, Aristokratie, Hofadel und Staatspatriziat in Kurhannover: Die Lebenskreise der höheren Beamten an den kurhannoverschen Zentral- und Hofbehördern, 1714–1760, 1: Darstellung, Veröffentlichungen der Historischen (Commission für Niedersachsen, 24 (Göttingen, 1963), 98n. On his involvement in building the Gänsemarkt opera house in Hamburg (opened in 1678), see Jörgen Bracker, ‘Quellenkritische Anmerkungen zur bildlichen Überlieferung des Opernhauses von Girolamo Sartorio’, Beiträge zur deutschen Volks- und Altertumskunde, 18 (1979), 31–4.Google Scholar

30 After Johann Friedrich's death in 1679, Leibniz published a poem in his honour, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, An den durchleuchtigsten Fürsten und Herrn, Herrn Johann Fridrichen, Hertzogen zu Braunschweig und Luneburg (Hanover, 1679).Google Scholar

31 Axel Fischer, ‘Hannover’, 26.Google Scholar

32 Sievers, Die Musik in Hannover, 30.Google Scholar

33 Tarr, New Grove 2, xxii, 304.Google Scholar

34 Reinmar Emans, ‘Die beiden Fassungen von Antonio Sartorios Oper L'Adelaide unter besonderer Berücksichtung des in Hannover verwahrten Autographs’, in Il melodramma italiano in Italia e in Germania nell'età barocca, Atti del V convegno internazionale sulla musica italiana nel secolo XVII, Loveno di Menaggio (Como), 28–30 June 1993, ed. Alberto Colzani, Norbert Dubowy, Andrea Luppi and Maurizio Padoan (Como, 1995), 59–79 (at 60–1).Google Scholar

35 Sievers, Die Musik in Hannover, 47.Google Scholar

36 Sievers, Die Musik in Hannover, 48–9. For a complete list of the music discovered see Sievers, Hannoversche Musikgeschichte, i, 62.Google Scholar

37 Such leaves of absence were particularly important not only for the prestige of a composer, but also for his financial well-being, as the commission for an opera score could be substantial and often exceeded the annual salary of a post at St. Mark's; see Termini, Olga, 'Singers at San Marco in Venice: The Competition between Church and Theatre (c.1675–c.1725), Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 17 (1981), 65–96 (at 65).Google Scholar

38 Francesco Maria Massi, Johann Friedrich's secretary in Venice, wrote to the authorities to obtain permission; see I-Vas Collegio, Lettere comuni, filza 195, 3 June 1667.Google Scholar

39 This is explained by Minato in the preface of La prosperità di Elio Seiano (Venice, 1667).Google Scholar

40 [Pietro Dolfin], L'Ermengarda regina de' Longobardi (Venice, 1670).Google Scholar

41 Letter no. 4, Pietro Dolfin to Johann Friedrich, 26 December 1669, Hannover, Niedersachsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (D-HVsa) Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 347–8.Google Scholar

42 The history of the family up to 1923 has been traced by Bortolo Giovanni Dolfin, I Dolfin: Patrizii veneziani nella storia di Venezia dall'anno 452 al 1923 (Milan, 1924).Google Scholar

43 This is the title that Massi uses in official correspondence with the Venetian authorities; see for example I- Vas Collegio, Lettere comuni, filza 198, July 1674. This document contains Massi's application to the authorities for a passport to travel to Ancona. Anecdotally, among the goods he wanted to take with him, and which had to be included in the passport, there was a ‘clavicimballo di Guido Trasuntino, incassato con cristalli’. The most plausible interpretation for the Trasuntino instrument (a well known Venetian cembataro) would be a harpsichord with its case inlaid with pieces of mirror according to a technique still used today at Murano.Google Scholar

44 The letters are housed in D-HVsa ‘Hannover, Niedersachsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv: Korrespondenzen italienischer Kardinäle und anderer Personen, besonders Italiener, an Herzog Johann Friedrich, Cal. Br. 22‘. This important archive brings together the letters from Johann Friedrich's Italian correspondents between the years 1667–79. Most pertinent to things musical are the following collections:Google Scholar

  1. a)

    a) Francesco Maria Massi, 210 letters (1669–76), Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 150–677

  2. b)

    b) Pietro Dolfin, 58 letters (1669–78), Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 343–458

  3. c)

    c) Antonio Sartorio, 16 (+2) = 18 letters (1672–79), Cal. Br. 22 no. 629, ff. 105–32a (and Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 294 and 526; the two additional letters were misfiled among Massi's papers)

  4. d)

    d) Nicolò Beregan, 27 letters (1669–78), Cal. Br. 22 no. 624, ff. 144–86

A study and critical edition of the letters is currently under preparation by the author. A preliminary study with a chronologically-established inventory of the letters plus a full index of names and works mentioned can be found in Vassilis Vavoulis, ‘A Venetian World in Letters: The Massi Correspondence at the Hauptstaatsarchiv in Hannover’, Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, 59 (2003), 556–609. This article also traces in detail the letters' publication history in recent secondary literature. All present bibliographical references to the letters follow the numbering order established in the above article: e.g. Letter no. 4, Dolfin, 26 December 1669, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 347–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 The importance of the palchi for Venetian society is highlighted by the fact that all transactions concerning ownership and rental were made via an official notary act with testimonies; see Giazotto, ‘La guerra dei palchi’, 472.Google Scholar

46 The ‘transmission’ of the current drammi per musica seems to have been a well established ritual between Dolfin and Johann Friedrich, and is frequently mentioned in the correspondence: ‘Con l'occasione dell'annual mia tributaria humilissima trasmissione delli drami che si van rappresentando in questa città‘ (with the opportunity of my annual, tributary, most humble transmission of the dramas which are being performed in this city); Letter no. 302, Dolfin, 31 December 1676, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 435–6 (at f. 435r).Google Scholar

47 Letter no. 48, Dolfin, 19 December 1670, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 351–2.Google Scholar

48 ‘Il Signor Pietro [Dolfin] scrive al Signor Antonio e le manda un altro squarcio del suo bel dramma.‘ (Signor Pietro writes to Signor Antonio and sends him another chunk of his good drama); Letter no. 51, Massi, 26 December 1670, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 223–4 (at f. 224r).Google Scholar

49 Indication of this can be found in the following Massi letters: Letter no. 19, 30 May 1670, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 170–1 (at f. 171v); Letter no. 33, 20 August 1670, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 197–8 (at f. 198r); Letter no. 35, 5 September 1670, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 199–200 (at f. 200r).Google Scholar

50 This we understand from a number of Dolfin and Massi letters of March 1672 referring to the Duke's journey back to Hanover; e.g., Letter no. 87, Dolfin, 11 March 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 358–9, and Letter no. 88, Massi, 11 March 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 387–8.Google Scholar

51 Letter no. 94, Dolfln, 6 April 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 360–61 (at f. 361v), postscript addendum in the left margin of the page. The word ‘parti’ refers to ‘parts’ or ‘roles’ in the modern sense (the word is frequently used in the correspondence in that sense, e.g., ‘Gratianini che fa la parte di Costantino’; Letter no. 168, Nicolò Beregan, 4 February 1673, Cal. Br. 22 no. 624, ff. 174–5, at f. 174r). It is of interest to us to know that the arias of an opera's character could, and would, be assembled together to form a cantata. One of these ‘parti’ is probably the cantata Gissilla unica figlia which survives in Munchen, Germany (D-Mbs), based on Gisilla, the second female lead part in L'Adelaide.Google Scholar

52 Letter no. 97, Dolfin, 15 April 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 362–3, 362r. Acquiring a male heir was a burning issue for Johann Friedrich and the matter is referred to again and again throughout the correspondence a propos of the consecutive births of the four daughters: Anna Sophie (1670–2), Charlotte Felicitas (1671–1710), Henriette Maria Josephe (1672–1737), and Wilhelmine Amalie (1673–1742). Two of the three daughters that survived into adulthood, Charlotte Felicitas and Wilhelmine Amalie, achieved prestigious marriages with Rinaldo III of Modena and Emperor Joseph I respectively.Google Scholar

53 Letter no. 97, Dolfin, 15 April 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 362–3.Google Scholar

54 'Anche Giulia si potrebbe havere, non fermata da Grimani […] Ciecolino è di già in parola col Signor Vendramino. Lucretia Sua humilissima serva in tal caso sarebbe pur del partito, il [?] da Livorno, contralto buonissimo in mio potere.’ (One could even have Giulia who has not been hired by the Grimanis […] Ciecolino is already in negotiations with Signor Vendramin. Lucretia, your most humble servant, in such case would also take part, [the singer] from Livorno, excellent contralto, is in my hand); Letter no. 97, Dolfin, 15 April 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 362–3 (at f. 362v). Lucretia was a young singer under Dolfin's patronage and resident in his house. In his letters he repeatedly mentions her engagements and successes as the singer was obviously known to Johann Friedrich. In one of the letters Dolfin calls her ‘mia allieva’ probably referring to his supervision of her general education; see Letter no. 131, Dolfin, 16 September, 1672, ff. 372–3, postscript addendum, margin off. 373r.Google Scholar

55 Letter no. 100, Dolfin, 29 April 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 364–5, and Letter no. 107, 13 May 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 366–7.Google Scholar

56 Letter no. 111, Sartorio to Johann Friedrich, 10 June 1672, Cal. Br. 22 No. 629, ff. 105–6. The term ‘sobbia’ may refer to ‘sabbia’ (sand), probably in the urinary tracts, or it could refer to ‘sobbolire’ and ‘sobbolimento’, meaning ‘coming out in a heat rush’ or ‘boiling blood’ resulting in an increase of blood pressure. The second explanation would probably also tie in with the blood letting that Sartorio had to undergo.Google Scholar

57 Letter no. 114, Dolfin, 24 June 1672, Cal. Br. 22. no. 625, ff. 368–9.Google Scholar

58 Ibid.Google Scholar

59 Letter no. 133, Sartorio, 16 September 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 629, ff. 107–8.Google Scholar

60 Ibid.Google Scholar

61 Ibid.Google Scholar

62 Letter no. 135, Sartorio, 30 September 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 629, ff. 109–10.Google Scholar

63 Letter no. 144, Dolfin, 16 November 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 376–7 (at f. 376r).Google Scholar

64 Letter no. 156, Dolfin, 23 December 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 378–9. Tonina (Antonina Coresi) and the baritone (Gratianini) are also praised by Massi in Letter no. 153, 16 December 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 273–4 (at f. 273v).Google Scholar

65 Letter no. 156, Dolfin, 23 December 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 378–9.Google Scholar

66 Letter no. 159, Dolfin, 30 December 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 380–1 (at f. 380r). The fact that the singers could make or break an opera is understandable, and was also mentioned by the Cristoforo Ivanovich who was lamenting the fact that good libretti may be ruined by bad singers, while ‘alcuni drami ripieni di difetti mostruosissimi […] sono stati favoriti dal concorso, ò per una voce di nuovo sentita, ò per una musica di metro bizzarra, ò per una machina di stravagante invenzione’ (some dramas full of monstruous defects […] have been well attended because of either a new and little-heard voice, or a music of imaginative rhythm/tune, or a machine of extraordinary invention); see Ivanovich, Cristoforo, Memorie teatrali di Venezia, published as an appendix to his Minerva al tavolino (2nd edn, Venice, 1688); facsimile reprint, ed. Norbert Dubowy (Lucca, 1993), 425.Google Scholar

67 Lucretia Dolfin had not been singing that season having refused the part offered her at S. Luca, probably because it was not one of the two leading female roles.Google Scholar

68 Letter no. 159, Dolfin, 30 December 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 380–1.Google Scholar

69 Ibid. (at f. 381r).Google Scholar

70 'Puo dir di restar solo in materia di compor opere hor ch'è morto il povero Boretti certo in tal facenda esquisito’ (one could say that he [Sartorio] has remained alone [unique] in the business of composing operas now that poor Boretti, undoubtedly excellent in that work, is dead); Letter no. 159, Dolfin, 30 December 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 380–1 (at f. 381v).Google Scholar

71 An indication of that are the many revivals of his operas in Rome, Naples, Mantua and other Italian cities.Google Scholar

72 Letter no. 158, Nicolo Beregan, 30 December 1672, Cal. Br. 22 no. 624, f. 172.Google Scholar

73 This dearth of soloists may also relate to the employment situation at St. Mark's where the onerous conditions and poor pay often forced singers to seek employment elsewhere in Italy and Northern Europe. When the exodus reached alarming proportions in the 1670s, the church officials were forced to reconsider their terms. The changes, which happened during Sartorio's tenure as vice maestro di cappella at St. Mark's, are described in more detail below.Google Scholar

74 Letter no. 168, Nicolo Beregan, 4 February 1673, Cal. Br. 22 no. 624, ff. 174–5 (at f. 174r).Google Scholar

75 Letter no. 163, Dolfin, 20 January 1672 [i.e., 1673], Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 382–3.Google Scholar

76 Letter no. 167, Dolfin, 3 February 1673, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, f. 386.Google Scholar

77 Letter no. 172, Dolfin, ‘Venerdi grasso’ [late February 1673], Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, f. 387 (at f. 387r).Google Scholar

78 Letter no. 169, Massi, 10 February 1673, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 484–7. The episode is unusual but not unique; in 1652, the soprano Anna Maria Sardelli was both shot and stabbed, on separate occasions, for opera-related reasons; see Lorenzo Bianconi and Thomas Walker, ‘Dalla “Finta pazza” alla “Veremonda”: Storie di Febiarmonici’, Rivista ilaliana di musicologia, 10 (1975), 379–454 (at 443). Similar incidents are also known from the eighteenth century.Google Scholar

79 Letter no. 173, Dolfin, n.d. [late February 1673], Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, f. 389.Google Scholar

80 Harris S. Saunders, ‘Legrenzi, Giovanni’, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992), ii, 1127. The four operas were: La divisione del mondo (G.C. Corradi, 1674–5), Eteocle e Polinice (T. Fattorini, 1674–5), Adone in Cipro (G.M. Giannini, 1675–6), and Germanico sul Reno (Corradi, 1675–6).Google Scholar

81 Letter no. 208, Dolfin, 23 March 1674, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 417–8.Google Scholar

82 Letter no. 208, Dolfin, 23 March 1674, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, f. 417r–418v for all the quotations in this paragraph. 83 The full details of this intriguing ‘chase’ may be found in my forthcoming study and critical edition of the letters.Google Scholar

84 Another case is Sartorio's second opera Seleuco of 1666; the librettist's name, Minato, was only revealed in the 1668 revival.Google Scholar

85 Letter no. 212, Dolfin, 16 April 1674, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 422–4.Google Scholar

86 His aggressive canvassing continued, however, asking the duke to grant Sartorio permission to travel to Venice only if he comes to compose his libretto: ‘che se lo concedeva, cio faceva trattandosi d'una mia opera’ (that if you conceded him, you did so in relation to one of mine operas) and per qual teatro più bramo' (for that theatre that I wish most); Letter no. 212, Dolfin, 16 April 1674, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 422–4 (at f. 423v).Google Scholar

87 Letter no. 213, Massi, 8 June 1674, Cal. Br. 22 no. 627, ff. 566–9. In this, Massi also echoes Ivanovich's strong reservations about being a librettist in Venice; see Ivanovich, Memorie teatrali, 430–1.Google Scholar

88 Tarr, New Grove 2, xxii, 305. The information stems from the Hanover court accounts; see Berend, Nicolaus Adam Strungk, 33n. He was succeeded as Kapellmeister by Vincenzo de' Grandis.Google Scholar

89 Letter no. 236, Dolfin, 28 June 1675, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 432–3 (at f. 432v).Google Scholar

90 I-Vas Procuratia di Supra, Chiesa Actorum, reg. 147, 7 May 1676. There were twelve voting Procuratori di S. Marco and the yes/no votes were cast as follows: Sartorio, 9/3, Grossi, 6/6.Google Scholar

91 The competition was particularly strong with P.A. Ziani, Legrenzi and Monferrato getting the following votes from 13 Procuratori: 4/9, 6/7 and 7/6; see I-Vas Procuratia di Supra, Chiesa Actorum, reg. 147, 30 April 1676.Google Scholar

92 Tarr, ‘Sartorio, Gasparo’, New Grove 2, xxii, 307.Google Scholar

93 Stieglitz, Landesherr und Stände, 29.Google Scholar

94 Caffi devotes the least possible space to Sartorio, mentioning that his efforts were mainly dedicated to the theatre; see Caffi, Francesco, Storia della musica nella già cappella ducale di S. Marco in Venezia (dal 1318 al 1797), 2 vols (Venice, 1853); modern edn in 1 vol., ed. Elvidio Surian, Studi di musica Veneta, 10 (Florence, 1987), 243–4.Google Scholar

95 Caffi, Storia della musica, 22.Google Scholar

96 James H. Moore, Vespers at St. Mark's: Music of Alessandro Grandi, Giovani Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli, 2 vols (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981), i, 95–6. Moore is also indispensable for his discussion of the I- Vas holdings of documents relating to music (see especially 59 et seqq.).Google Scholar

97 I-Vas Procuratori di San Marco de Supra, Seria Chiesa, b. 91, Processo 208, fascicolo 2, f. 11r. The document lists the singers who have left St Mark's to seek employment elsewhere since the year 1665. Moore's transcription of this document (pp. 269–70) is not taken from I-Vas but from the second series of copies held at the Civico Museo Correr (Codice Cicogna 3118, fascicoli 44–50) and it contains a number of small discrepancies; e.g. Mutio's departure is mistakenly given as ‘Aprile 1677’ rather than ‘1667'.Google Scholar

98 Giocasta regina d'Armenia (Gio. Andrea Moniglia, ‘riformata all'uso di Venetia’ by Giacomo Castoreo), ded. 16 December 1676 (Venice, 1677); Il Nicomede in Bitinia (Gio. Matteo Giannini), ded. 4 February 1677 (Venice, 1677). Il Nicomede also survives in a ‘seconda impressione’ with a ded. date of 18 February 1677.Google Scholar

99 Letter no. 302, Dolfin, 31 December 1676, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 435–6 (at f. 435r-v). One of the three singers from Hanover was the bass Gratianini; see Letter no. 306, Dolfin, 12 March 1677, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, f. 440.Google Scholar

100 Letter no. 303, Dolfin, 16 January 1677, Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 437–8.Google Scholar

101 Letter no. 304, Giacomo Francesco Bussani, 12 February 1677, Cal. Br. 22 no. 624, ff. 260–1.Google Scholar

102 Letter no. 310, Dolfin, n.d. [November or December 1677], Cal. Br. 22 no. 625, ff. 445–7.Google Scholar

103 Letter no. 313, Sartorio, 10 December 1677, Cal. Br. 22 no. 629, ff. 127–8. ‘Gioseppino’ is the singer known as Giuseppin di Baviera who together with ‘Siface’ (Giovanni Francesco Grossi) where among the best-known castrati of their time.Google Scholar

104 For the other opera of the season the Vendramins seem to have relied for sponsorship on Ferdinando Carlo, Duke of Mantua, who was the dedicatee of Camillo Badovero's Sesto Tarquinio set to music by the duke's own maestro di cappella di camera, Giovanni Battista Tomasi, who in his lifetime was the author of only two operas both dedicated to Ferdinando Carlo; see Walker, Thomas, ‘Tomasi, Giovanni Battista’, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992), iv, 752.Google Scholar

105 See Le Mercure Galant, issue of April 1679, quoted from Selfridge-Field, Pallade Veneta, 341.Google Scholar

106 For some additional information on this collection of sacred music see Bettley, John, ‘Psalm-Texts and the Polyphonic Vespers Repertory of St Mark's, Venice’, in La cappella musicale di San Marco nell'età moderna, ed. Francesco Passadore and Franco Rossi, Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Venice, 5–7 September 1994 (Venice, 1998), 103–17 (at 108–9).Google Scholar

107 I-Vas Provveditori alia Sanità, Necrologio, Reg. 889 (1680), ‘30 December 1680 / Il Signor Antonio Sartorio d'anni 50 circa / da flusso gia mesi 7 / medici Florio e Marco Bruni / fà sepelir suoi fratelli. / S. Gio. Grisostomo.‘Google Scholar

108 The Necrologio entry mentions that his body was brought to Venice from Padua and that he died, similarly to Sartorio, from dysentery; see I-Vas Provveditori alla Sanità, Necrologio, Reg. 889 (1680), 17 October 1680.Google Scholar

109 With the current evidence available to us, it is not possible to establish the extent of Ziani's involvement. The libretto preface only mentions briefly: ‘L'armonia delli Signori Antonio Sartorio, e Marcantonio Ziani’; See Bonis, N., La Flora (Venice, 1681).Google Scholar

110 I-Vas Procuratiadi Supra, Chiesa Actorum, reg. 147, 5 January 1680 [1681]. There was no competition as Legrenzi was the only candidate. P.A. Ziani who might have applied was not in Venice at the time. Legrenzi also succeeded Sartorio as the house composer at S. Luca; see Saunders, ‘Legrenzi, Giovanni’, 1127.Google Scholar

111 D. Rinaldo Ciallis, L'Oloferne (Parma, 1681).Google Scholar

112 The information on revival-libretti has been mainly culled from Claudio Sartori I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800: Catalogo analitico con 16 indici, 7 vols (Cuneo, 1990–4).Google Scholar

113 On the collection, donated by Count Leopardo Martinengo to the Museo Correr, see Giovanni Concina ed., Catalogo delle opere muskali … Museo Correr (Parma, 1914).Google Scholar

114 Walker, ‘ Ubi Lucius‘, cxlvi.Google Scholar

115 This section groups together the performance indications that are occasionally found in manuscripts of the period. All transcriptions should be read as [sic].Google Scholar

116 The British Library catalogue of music manuscripts lists these arias as anonymous but also suggests a possible attribution to Bernardo Pasquini; see Augustus Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 2: Secular Vocal Music (London, 1908); repr. (1966), 234. This attribution must stem from an interesting comment made in the eighteenth century by the first cataloguer of the Harleian manuscripts: ‘Part of an opera entituled Seleuco, which my Friend Mr. Nicolino Haim told me he believed was made by Bernardo Pasquini. […] Whether it be so, or not, I cannot say; But the Style, is, as 1 think, more Easy than His’; see [Humphrey Wanley], A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, 2 vols (1759), i, no. 1267. The Harley manuscripts were collected in the first half of the eighteenth century by the earls of Oxford, Robert Harley and Edward Harley.Google Scholar

117 Only one other of Sartorio's operas, L'Orfeo, survives in as many as three scores. Furthermore, a fourth score of Prosperità is now lost: ‘Prosperità di Elio Seiano’ was among the Sartorio scores that are known to have existed in Venice around 1681, probably as part of the Contarini library, but have since disappeared; see Walker, ‘ Ubi Lucius‘, cxliv-cxlv.Google Scholar

118 Enrico Careri, Catalogo dei manoscritti musicali dell'Archivio Generate delle Scuole Pie a San Pantaleo (Rome, 1987), 56–7.Google Scholar

119 Careri, Catalogo, 7.Google Scholar

120 Walker, ‘Ubi Lucius‘, cxlii.Google Scholar

121 The variant ‘Gessilla’ appears quite a few times in the course of the libretto.Google Scholar

122 Walker, ‘ Ubi Lucius‘, cxlii.Google Scholar

123 Norbert Dubowy, Arie und Konzert: Zur Entwicklung der Ritornellanlage im 17. und frühen 18. Jahrhundert (Munich, 1991), 83; Reinmar Emans, ‘Die beiden Fassungen’, 59–79.Google Scholar

124 Emans, ‘Die beiden Fassungen’, 69.Google Scholar

125 Theodor Abbetmeyer, Zur Geschichte der Musik am Hofe in Hannover vor Agostino Steffani 1636–1689: Ein Bild künstlerischer Kultur im 17. Jahrhundert (Hannover, 1931), 53.Google Scholar

126 William Algernon Churchill, Watermarks in Paper in Holland. England. France, etc. (Amsterdam, 1935); Edward Heawood, Watermarks: Mainly of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Monumenta chartae papyraceae historiam illustrantia, 1 (Hilversum, 1950). The watermark of the fly-leaf, however, used at the beginning of the ‘Adelaide’ score, can be identified as Heawood no. 1785—85a which is of Dutch origin of c. 1670–3. This watermark has two parts: one is an elaborate version of the fleur-de-lis, and the other a watermark with letters, probably the maker's initials. The letter section on its own can also be found in an end-paper of a 1683 source (Heawood, no. 2965).Google Scholar

127 Ellen Rosand, ‘L'Ovidio trasformato’, preface to Aurelio Aureli and Antonio Sartorio, Orfeo, ed. Ellen Rosand, Drammaturgia Musicale Veneta, 6 (Milan, 1983), ix-liv (at xxxiii-xxxiv).Google Scholar

128 Reinmar Emans, ‘Antonio Sartorios Orfeo – Versuch einer Quellenbewertung’, in Il teatro musicale italiano nel Sacro Romano Impero nei secoli XVII e XVIII, Atti del VII convegno internazionale sulla musica italiana nei secoli XVII-XVIII, Loveno di Menaggio (Como), 15–17 July 1997, ed. Alberto Colzani, Norbert Dubowy, Andrea Luppi and Maurizio Padoan (Como, 1999), 67–103.Google Scholar

129 Emans, ‘Antonio Sartorios Orfeo‘, 75–8.Google Scholar

130 Emans, ‘Antonio Sartorios Orfeo‘, 86.Google Scholar

131 See Rosand, Ellen, ‘L'Ovidio trasformato’, xxxiv.Google Scholar

132 Walker, ‘Ubi Lucius‘, cxliii.Google Scholar

133 On the score see also Åke Davidsson, ‘En “Christina-opera” på Carolina Rediviva’, Nordisk tidskrift för bok-och biblioteksväsen, 54 (1967), 9–19.Google Scholar

134 This must be one of the earliest appearances of the characterisation ‘melodramma’.Google Scholar

135 See Monson, Craig, preface to Antonio Sartorio, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, ed. Craig Monson, Collegium Musicum: Yale University, 2nd series, 12 (Madison, 1991), xv.Google Scholar

136 For more details on the collection see the preface to Franco Rossi, Le opere musicali della Fondazione ‘Querini-Stampalia’ di Venezia (Turin, 1984), ix-xvii. For an in-depth examination of the volumes and their relation to the Contarini collection see Emans, Reinmar, ‘Venezianische Ariensammlungen des 17. Jahrhunderts’, in Musik und Szene: Festschrift für Werner Braun zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. Vernhard R. Appel, Karl W. Geck and Herbert Schneider, Saarbrücker Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, new ser., 9 (Saarbrücken, 2001), 487–505. Emans also corrects a number of mistakes contained in the Rossi catalogue.Google Scholar

137 Gustav Friedrich Schmidt, Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Herzoglichen Hofe zu Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (Munich, 1929); Renate Brockpahler, Handbuch zur Geschichte der Barockoper in Deutschland (Emsdetten, Westf, 1964); Eberhard Thiel, Kataloge der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbiittel. Die Neue Reihe. Libretti. Verzeichnis der bis 1800 erschienenen Textbucher (Frankfurt am Main, 1970); Sartori, Catalogo.Google Scholar

138 See Heawood, Watermarks, nos. 863–73.Google Scholar

139 Eduard Bodemann, Die Handschriften der Königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Hannover (Hanover, 1867), 71.Google Scholar

140 Renato de' Grandis, ‘Musik in Hannover zur Leibniz-Zeit’, in Leibniz: Sein Leben, sein Wirken, seine Welt, ed. Wilhelm Totok and Carl Haase (Hanover, 1966), 117–27.Google Scholar

141 De' Grandis, ‘Musik in Hannover zur Leibniz-Zeit’, 121.Google Scholar

142 See Griffin, JuliaAnn, ‘De Grandis, Vincenzo’, New Grove 2, vii, 137–8. Renato de' Grandis' unsupported claims have already been rejected by Gloria Rose in her article ‘Two Operas by Scarlatti Recovered’, Musical Quarterly, 58 (1972), 420–35 (at 423n and 425n). The article examines the Hanover ‘Antonino’ in the context of Comodo Antonino, a reworking of Bussani's libretto by Francesco Maria Paglia for Alessandro Scarlatti (Naples, 1696).Google Scholar

143 A characteristic example of these cuts is one of Marzia's arias which was placed by Bussani, appropriately, after her exclamation ‘A Dio Patria, a Dio Roma, io parto, a Dio’ (I:xx). The aria was composed by Sartorio, but it was later found that it would not function dramatically, or technically, and it was cut (the aria is in D minor and highly virtuosic with rapid semiquavers reaching up to a“). Sartorio's setting of the line ‘Addio Patria, etc’ which remained in the text, is in arioso style in D minor. Both the melody and the bass of the last two bars of the arioso were modified by Sartorio into a new version with an ornamented cadence (f. 43r), presumably so that the passage would be more complete on its own without the aria that followed it.Google Scholar

144 They were used at least once before (1671), and in numerous librettos after 1680. Before the 1670s, Ismeno was used only once in 1663, but more frequently thereafter; see Alm, Catalog of Venetian Librettos, Index xvii: Roles. Another example of a character's change of name in the course of the opera is the Contarini score of Flora (see sources below).Google Scholar

145 This is not the first time that Sartorio has written with clef oscillations. In the Vienna manuscript of Orfeo, which also contains autograph corrections, the role of the young shepherd Orillo alternates between the Alto and the Soprano clefs; see Emans, ‘Antonio Sartorios Orfeo’, 76–7. Clef changes also occur in a number of Cavalli autographs where there are instances of bass-alto oscillation in more than one operas; see Glover, Jane, Cavalli (London, 1978), 73–4. A similar case is also recorded in Saunders, ‘The Repertory of a Venetian Opera House’, 133.Google Scholar

146 The original music survives at the Querini-Stampalia collection in Venice (see below).Google Scholar

147 Rudolf Ewerhart, ‘Santini, Fortunato’, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Friedrich Blume et al., 16 vols (Kassel, 1949–79), xi, 1381–3.Google Scholar

148 See Sartori, no. 1869.Google Scholar

149 La Statira, ed. William C. Holmes, vol. 9 of The Operas of Alessandro Scarlatti, ed. D.J. Grout (Cambridge, MA, 1985); Il Pompeo, ed. John H. Roberts, Handel Sources: Materials for the study of Handel's Borrowing, 6 (New York, 1986).Google Scholar

150 Malcolm Boyd, ‘Scarlatti, Alessandro’, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992), iv, 201. However, it is not certain whether the revisions were by Scarlatti or by a local maestro di cappella. According to Reinhard Strohm the extent of Scarlatti's role in adapting Venetian revivals has been overestimated; See Strohm, R., ‘Alessandro Scarlatti and the Eighteenth Century’, in Essays on Handel and Italian Opera (Cambridge, 1985) 15–33 (at 18). The attribution of the Münster score also puzzled earlier Scarlatti scholars who found the style of the music rather ‘archaic’; see Roberto Pagano and Lino Bianchi, Alessandro Scarlatti (Turin, 1972), 53 and 103.Google Scholar

51 See Rossi, Franco, La Fondazione Levidi Venezia: Catalogo del fondo musicale (Venice, 1986), 115–16.Google Scholar

152 Group E consists of three operas performed between 1678 and 1681; see Walker, Thomas, ‘Ubi Lucius‘, cxliii.Google Scholar

153 These arias are credited to Sartorio in some library catalogues but they have not been identified to originate from one of his operas.Google Scholar