Loreto Vittori (5 September 1600 (baptized) – 23 April 1670) was an Italian

castrato A castrato (Italian; : castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur in one who, due to an endocrino ...

and composer. From 1622 until his death, he was a mezzo-soprano singer in the papal chapel in Rome.

Life

Vittori was born in Spoleto and educated in Rome. He then worked as a singer in Loreto and

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; ) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is south of Trevi, north of Terni, southeast of Perugia; southeast of Florence; and north of Rome. H ...

. In 1618 Vittori was placed under the protection of the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

family. He moved to Rome in 1621, first in the service of Cardinal

Ludovico Ludovisi Ludovico Ludovisi (22 or 27 October 1595 – 18 November 1632) was an Italian Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal and statesman of the Roman Catholic Church. He was an art connoisseur who formed a famous collection of antiquities, housed at the ...

, nephew of Pope Gregory XV, and in 1632 in the service of Cardinal

Antonio Barberini Antonio Barberini (5 August 1607 – 3 August 1671) was an Italian people, Italian Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reims, Archbishop of Reims, military leader, patron of the arts a ...

, nephew of the future

Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII (; ; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded the papal terri ...

. He died in Rome, aged 69. Vittori sang at the premiere of ''Lo Sposalizio di Medoro et Angelica'' by

Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633) was an Italian composer, singer and instrumentalist of the late Renaissance music, Renaissance and early Baroque music, Baroque periods. He wrote what is considered the first opera, the mostly lost ''D ...

and

Marco da Gagliano Marco da Gagliano (1 May 1582 – 25 February 1643) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque music, Baroque era. He was important in the early history of opera and the development of the solo and concerted madrigal (music), madrigal. Li ...

in 1619, possibly as Angelica. He was Saint Ursula in ''La Regina Sant'Orsola'' by

in 1624. Back in Rome, the man was Falsirena in '' La Catena d'Adone'' by Domenico Mazzocchi in 1626. In 1628, Vittori took an unknown role in '' La Flora, ovvero Il natal de' fiori'' (''Flora, or The Birth of Flowers''), an opera composed by

and

to a libretto by Andrea Salvadori. He also performed at the wedding festivities of Margherita de' Medici to Odoardo Farnese in Parma, probably as Galatea in the intermezzo ''Mercurio e Marte'' by

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

. In 1637, Vittori sang in

Chi Soffre, Speri ''L'Egisto, ovvero Chi soffre speri'' ('Egisto, or Who suffers may hope') is a 1637 in music, 1637 ''commedia musicale'', a type of early Italian comic opera, in a prologue and three acts with music by Virgilio Mazzocchi (and, in its 1639 in mus ...

by Marco Marazzoli and Virgilio Mazzocchi, possibly as Virtu and Alvida. His final stage appearance was as Angelica in '' Il palazzo incantato'' by Luigi Rossi with libretto by Cardinal Rospigliosi, the future Clement IX.

Bernardo Pasquini Bernardo Pasquini (7 December 1637 – 21 November 1710) was an Italian composer of operas, oratorios, cantatas and keyboard music. A renowned virtuoso keyboard player, he was one of the most important Italian composers for harpsichord between Gir ...

was among his pupils.

Works

*In 1639 he wrote a spectacular opera entitled ''La Galatea'', rediscovered and revived in 2005. ''La Galatea'' is peopled with multi-dimensional characters and contains moments of great dramatic intensity, the reason, perhaps, for the unusually warm praise it received from music historians in the early part of the twentieth century. *He composed the sacred drama ''Sant'Ignazio di Loyola'', which is lost; two sacred dramas entitled ''Santa Irene'' (1644) and ''La Pellegrina Costante'' (1647);''La Pellegrina Costante'' is based on ''Parthenia,'' a novel by Jean-Pierre Camus, translated into Italian by the Venetian M. Bisaccioni (1582-1663). *the play ''La Fiera di Palestrina''; a comedy ''Le Zittelle Cantarini,'' a collection of monodies and ''Dialoghi Sacri e Morali.'' *A

mock-heroic Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic ...

poem, ''La Troja Rapita'', (1662). an autobiographical poem that contains important information on the environment of the Roman Barberini in the days of Pope Eugenius IV.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vittori, Loreto Italian male classical composers Italian male singers Italian Baroque composers People from Spoleto Castrati 1600 births 1670 deaths 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century Italian male musicians Italian satirical poets