STRADELLA, ALESSANDRO. - Musician, born perhaps at Montefestino in 1642, died at Genova on 28 February 1682.
The value of his art is to be sought particularly in the architectural and expressive development that he gave to the vocal aria, duets, cantatas, dramas, and oratorios, and in the dramatic character of the cantatas, which is also found in his instrumental production. The cantata is the form that he cultivated most extensively, both in number (c. 219) and, above all, in style, which animates his dramas and oratorios, serenades and motets, from which it often differs only in scope. Among the sacred cantatas should be recalled the Cantata for five, with voices and B. C., for the souls in Purgatory; that for three for the night of the Most Holy Nativity; and the Cantata for six voices with instruments for the Most Holy Nativity. His religious output also includes 22 motets and 6 oratorios: S. Editta vergine e monaca (1684), Ester liberatrice del popolo ebreo (1688), S. Giovanni Crisostomo, S. Pelagia (1633), Susanna (1688). It is said that the great Händel drew inspiration from his S. Giov. Battista.