STRADELLA, ALESSANDRO. - Musician, b. perhaps at Montefestino in 1642, d. at Genoa on 28 February 1682.

The value of his art is to be sought particularly in the architectural and expressive development that he confers on the vocal aria, on duets, on cantatas, on dramas, on oratorios, and in the dramatic character of the cantatas, which is also found in his instrumental output. The cantata is the form that he cultivated in a pre-eminent manner for its number (about 219) but above all for its style, which animates with itself the dramas and the oratorios, the serenatas and the motets, from which it often differs only in breadth. To be remembered, among the sacred ones, are the Cantata a 5, with voices B. C. for the souls of Purgatory, the one a 3 for the night of the Most Holy Nativity, and the Cantata a 6 voci con strumenti for the Most Holy Nativity. His religious output further numbers 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 Handel drew inspiration from his S. Giov. Battista.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: H. Hess, Die Opern A. S.'s, Leipzig 1906; G. Roncaglia, Le composiz. strumentali e vocali di A. S., in Riv. mus. it., 44 (1940), pp. 81-105, 337, 350; 45 (1941), pp. 1-15, 133-49; 46 (1942), pp. 1-16; id., La « Cantata per il S.mo Natale » di A. S., in Riv. naz. di musica, 21 (1940), p. 382.

Luisa Cervelli

@incollection{ec11_stradella_alessandro, author = {Cervelli, Luisa}, title = {Stradella, alessandro}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1398}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/stradella-alessandro} }

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Stradella, Alessandro

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