Francesco Dalla Vecchia

The Forms of Cavalli's Arias Francesco Dalla Vecchia

The most complete and detailed study on the poetical and musical forms of Francesco Cavalli (Crema, 1602-Venice, 1676), who is considered the most representative composer of seventeenth-century Venetian operas. Opera, as a popular genre, was practically invented in Venice when Cavalli was the major composer of the city (St. Mark Kapellmeister). In fact, Cavalli's 27 extant operas constitute one third of the operas performed in Venice in the first three decades of the history of opera. The style of early operas different significantly from that of traditional repertory established later and therefore the musical features of the arias are sometimes hard to classify. Dalla Vecchia (Musicology PhD) withdrew from his knowledge of Italian poetry and music theory to devise a system to identify the formal elements applied in shaping these operatic songs, assessed the conventionality of the artist's choices, and ultimately provided an indispensable handbook for the study of vocal music in the seventeenth century.