FIORAVANTI, Valentino 1764-1837

Beatus Vir del Sig. il M[aest]ro Valentino Fioravanti Maestro della Basilica Vaticana. [Score]. [Copyist manuscript]

[?]Rome: [ca. 1820].

Oblong folio (218 x 317 mm). Sewn. Notated on 10-stave rastrum-ruled paper. Sewn. [i] (title), 46, [i] (blank) pp. With attractive calligraphic title with notation "1.50" to blank lower outer corner.

Scored for three vocal soloists (two soprano, one bass), choir (three trebles, one bass), and organ (figured bass with performance markings including "tasto solo", "aperto", and "chiuso"). With clefs for the choir restated mid-system when the choir enters on the fourth page, a feature related to visual convenience indicating that the score may have been used by an organist in performance.

Slightly worn and soiled; minor browning to edges; title slightly stained; minor dampstaining to lower margin of final leaves; staining to final blank page; first signature detached.

The autograph manuscript of this work is held at the Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica Santa Cecilia, G-Mss-1693 (OPAC SBN ITICCUMSM035028).

"In Naples Fioravanti was a formidable rival to Paisiello, P.A. Guglielmi and Cimarosa. He toured Italy, writing both comic and serious operas for all the major theatres. His most popular, Le cantatrici villane, was written for Naples in 1799 during the revolutionary turmoil. An instant success, it was performed throughout Europe, becoming one of his few works to be revived in the 20th century (Vienna, 1907; Rome, 1951). ... Stendhal in his Vie de Rossini (Paris, 1824) paid Fioravanti his greatest compliment; he reported Rossini as believing that the art of opera buffa had already reached perfection before he began to compose and that in the particular comic style known as nota e parola there was no further progress possible after Fioravanti." Marvin Tartak in Grove Music Online.

Item #41302

Price: $300.00  other currencies