Composer, born in Monfestino, C Italy. One of the finest composers of chamber music, he wrote more than 200 cantatas, notably the Christmas Cantata. Legend has it that he eloped with the fiancée of a Venetian senator, who sent assassins to murder him in 1677. Documents show that he was indeed murdered in 1682. Numerous operas and at least one novel (Stradella, by Marion Crawford, 1909) have grown out of his legendary life, little of which is backed up by any real evidence.
Alessandro Stradella (April 3, 1639 - February 25, 1682) was an Italian composer of the middle Baroque.
Not much is known about his early life, but he was from an aristocratic family, educated at Bologna, and was already making a name for himself as a composer at the age of 20, being commissioned by Queen Christina of Sweden.
In 1677 he went to Venice, where he was hired by a powerful nobleman as the music tutor to his mistress. As might be expected, Stradella was shortly involved with her, and had to flee when their liaison was found out; Stradella went next to Genoa, where he wrote operas and cantatas;
Stradella was an extremely influential composer at the time, though his fame was eclipsed in the next century by Corelli, Vivaldi and others. 6 was the first to publish works under this title, Stradella clearly uses the format earlier in one of his Sonate di viole.
Stradella wrote at least six operas, as well as numerous cantatas and oratorios.
His colorful life and bloody death clearly made a good story for an opera of its own. Three separate composers made operas out of his life, the most famous being Friedrich von Flotow with his Alessandro Stradella (Hamburg, 1844).
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