Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1681-1732)
- Offertorium 'Languet anima mea'
Performers: Soriane Renaud (soprano); unknown instrumental ensemble
Further info: Listen free
---
Italian theorbist and composer. Letters addressed to Ferdinando de’
Medici between 1699 and 1701 suggest that even before the turn of the
century Conti was held in high regard for his performances as a
theorbist in Florence, Ferrara and Milan. News of his virtuoso playing
spread beyond Italy and by 1701 the Habsburg court in Vienna had offered
him an appointment as associate theorbist with the same stipend paid to
the principal theorbist, Orazio Clementi. Conti served in this capacity
from 1701 to 1708, except for the period from October 1706 until July
1707, when his name is absent from the records. On the death of Clementi
in August 1708 he was promoted to principal theorbist, a position which
he held until illness forced him to retire in 1726. The court had
difficulty selecting his successor; Joachim Sarao from Naples was
appointed in January 1727. Conti was also a highly skilled mandolin
player and composed one of the earliest sonatas for this instrument.
However, Viennese accounts of his career as a performer on either
instrument are peculiarly lacking. The extent of his activities as a
soloist are hinted at in reports in the Daily Courant, London, which
confirm that ‘Signior Francesco’ participated in a benefit concert there
in May 1703, entertained Queen Anne at the court in March 1707, and
presented a programme of theorbo and mandolin music for the general
public in April 1707. He was elected a member of the Accademia
Filarmonica, Bologna, in 1708 and near the end of his career earned the
title of ‘first theorbist of the world’ for his part in the performance
of J.J. Fux’s Costanza e fortezza in Prague in 1723. By using the mandolin and theorbo as obbligato instruments in several of
his operas, cantatas and oratorios, Conti created additional
opportunities for virtuoso performances. The 1719 performance of Galatea
vendicata is the only occasion on which he paired the two instruments
in the same musical number; this occurred five days before his son
Ignazio received a court appointment, suggesting that the unique scoring
was intended for performance by father and son.
Long before the
Habsburgs officially recognized Conti as a composer, he had
distinguished himself at court with several successful performances of
his music, including the opera Clotilde, presumably written for Carnival
1706, although neither a score nor any contemporary accounts of the
production are known to have survived. Vestiges of the original score
exist in the pasticcio version, Clotilda, which had at least seven
performances in 1709 at the Queen’s Theatre, London. They also appear in
Handel’s pasticcio Ormisda, first performed in London on 4 April 1730.
The oratorio Il Gioseffo, with a text designed to honour Emperor Joseph
I, whose coronation occurred in March 1706, was another such work. After
a lapse of four years, Conti presented the court with an oratorio
(1710) and an opera (1711) before being asked to fill a vacancy created
by the promotion of J.J. Fux to vice-Kapellmeister. His appointment in
1713 as court composer entitled him to receive two stipends, one as
composer and one as theorbist, the combined total of which made him one
of the highest paid musicians in Vienna. His financial status was
further enhanced by his second and third marriages, both to court prima
donnas. Conti married three times. After the death of his first wife,
Theresia (Kugler), in April 1711, he married the wealthy prima donna,
Maria Landini, a widow with three children. Not only had she inherited
her husband’s estate, but she was the highest paid musician in Vienna at
that time. She sang the leading role in each of Conti’s operas from
1714 to 1721. After her death in 1722, the position of prima donna
remained vacant until 1724, when the court appointed Maria Anna
Lorenzani. She sang the leading role in three of Conti’s operas, and
became his third wife in April 1725. Conti became ill in 1726 and by
1729 had left Vienna for Italy. Presumably he went back to Florence,
where he owned a house and other property. By 1732 he had returned to
Vienna and presented two new works at the court before his death in July
of that year.
Cap comentari:
Publica un comentari a l'entrada