Domenico Cecchi

Domenico Cecchi , called "il Cortona " (* around 1650–1655 in Cortona ; † 1717–1718 in Cortona or Vienna ) was an Italian opera singer and castrato ( soprano ).

Life

His artist or nickname refers to his hometown Cortona, but could also be an honorable allusion to the famous baroque painter and architect Pietro da Cortona .

Domenico began his training under the Maestro of the Cathedral of Cortona, Placido Basili, in whose opera Forza d'amore he also made his public debut in 1673 (in Cortona). During the Carnival of 1673 in Bologna at the Teatro Formagliari in an opera Nino (by an unknown composer) and the role of Anassandra in Cavallis Antioco (libretto by Francesco Minato ). He was first noticed by Giovanni Battista Melonari, the Duke of Mantua's personal talent scout .

It can only be verified again in 1679 when he appeared in Sartorio's I duoi tiranni al soglio in Venice . Cortona was also in Venice during the Carnival of 1681-82 and sang with great success in the Teatro Grimani ( San Giovanni Grisostomo ?), For which he received 480 zecchinen as a fee. In the meantime he was so famous that he was invited to Vienna for a few months by the "music emperor" Leopold I. Then Domenico went to Rome to Christine of Sweden , for whom he sang until June 1682. 1683–84 he returned to Venice.

During the reign of the particularly strict Pope Innocent XI. (1676–1689) perhaps the best-known anecdote falls about Cortona, who fell in love with a woman and wanted to marry her. This was a fundamental problem as the Catholic Church strictly prohibited marriages of castrati. The singer wrote a letter to the Pope and asked him for special permission. Allegedly, he is said to have allowed himself to be carried away with the unconvincing excuse that his castration was not carried out correctly, in any case Innocent XI declined. categorically from, and should have answered: "... then he should be better neutered".

In his career, however, Cortona rushed from success to success. In 1685 there is evidence of a stay in Modena , where he sang in the oratorio Il Mosé by Giacomo Antonio Perti . In the following Carnival in Venice, Elector Johann Georg III heard him . von Sachsen in an opera performance, and was so enthusiastic that he wanted to hire him straight away; presumably together with the singer Margherita Salicola , who heard Johann Georg in Pallavicino's Penelope la casta in Venice and also brought him to Dresden - with diplomatic complications as a result, as she was already one of the singers of the Duke of Mantua.

In Munich in 1688 Cortona sang together with Margherita Salicola and other virtuosos in a splendid opera performance, the composer of which is unknown, but which is known to cost 50,000 Fiorin. The following year the singer returned to Italy and was published in November 1689 in Modena in the title role of Domenico Gabrielli's Il Maurizio and Legrenzi Eteocle e Polinice at the top of an outstanding singer ensemble to which in both cases the famous Siface (Giovanni Francesco Grossi ) belonged.

It was probably around this time that Cortona entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, Ferdinando Carlo , as a “ virtuoso ” , for whom he worked for a long time and who “loaned” him to other princes and various theaters.

Between 1689 and 1699 he sang regularly at the Teatro Ducale in Milan in at least eight operas, including the world premieres of Lonatis L'Aiace (1694) - alongside Siface (Giov. Fr. Grossi) and Maria Maddalena Musi - and by Pertis Ariovisto .

The wedding of Odoardo Farnese to Dorothea Sofia , the daughter of Elector Philipp Wilhelm von der Pfalz, celebrated in Parma in 1690, is considered a highlight of his career . On May 25, Cortona sang one of the main roles in a production in a grandiose showcase performance of Bernardo Sabadini's Il Favore degli Dei at the Teatro Farnese, whose 25 soloists again included Siface (Giov. Fr. Grossi) and the alto Francesco Antonio Pistocchi .

After successful performances in Reggio Emilia , Cortona was in Rome in January 1691 , where he sang the role of Fernando in the extravagant performance of the opera Il Colombo ovvero l'India scoperta at the Teatro Tor di Nona (along with 4 other castrati). The libretto was by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and the music probably by Giovanni Bononcini . Despite the splendid stage sets and high costs, this opera was a terrible failure and the victim of countless “ pasquinades ” - only Cortona received applause and was praised. To make matters worse, he and the other singers had to leave Rome after a few performances because of a plague epidemic .

In 1691 and 1693 he sang in Genoa , including in Il Pompeo von Perti, and in 1693 also in Ferrara , where he appeared next to Vittoria Tarquini in Bernardo Pasquini's Lisimaco . In 1694 a stay at the court in Mantua followed. In May of the same year he went to Bologna and sang the leading role in the opera La Forza della virtù at the Teatro Malvezzi alongside the famous Maria Maddalena Musi , with music by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo and Giacomo Antonio Perti. The opera was such a great success that two additional performances had to be given at the request of the audience.

In 1696 in Reggio Emilia, Cortona sang again at a princely wedding. In the same year he was engaged at the important Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples , where he sang the title role in Alessandro Scarlatti's Commodo Antonino on November 18 , and in the world premiere of Giovanni Bononcini's successful opera Il trionfo di Camilla on December 27 , alongside Vittoria Tarquini and Maddalena Musi. Cortona was received so warmly by the Neapolitan audience that he stayed there for a while after the carnival season and led “a life like a prince”.

Probably he was again (or still) in the service of the Gonzaga from 1698 to 1700, in any case he sang in Mantua in June 1699 in the world premiere of Antonio Caldara's L'oracolo in sogno . Ferdinando de 'Medici , Prince of Tuscany , mentioned the singer in a letter to the Duke of Mantua, to which he thanked personally for allowing Cortona to sing for him; he also wrote that his appearances in Alessandro Scarlatti's Turno Aricino and other works received "general acclaim".

In 1701 and 1703 Cortona was again in Genoa, appearing as primo uomo in Aldrovandini's Mitridate in Sebastia , and in Giovanni Bononcini's Le Sabine rapite ; the young Antonio Bernacchi also belonged to the ensemble of singers of the latter .

In 1704 (or 1705?) The singer went to Dresden at the invitation of Elector Friedrich August von Sachsen ( August the Strong ) , and from there to the court of Emperors Leopold I and Joseph I in Vienna, where he worked as a singer and maestro di musica worked. It is said that he also took on diplomatic missions for the emperors and was rewarded with a sinecure for this . From Vienna he made a detour to Venice in 1707 to sing the leading male roles in Gasparini's Flavio Anicio Olibrio and in Antonio Lotti's Teuzzone (libretto by Apostolo Zeno ) at the Carnival in the Teatro San Cassiano . The following autumn he was at San Cassiano, with appearances in Albinoni's Astarto , in Pollarolo's Falso Tiberino and in Gasparini's Engelberta . Cortona then returned to Vienna, where he gave music lessons primarily to the archduchesses in the years that followed. After the death of Joseph I in 1711, he was from Charles VI. discharged all of a sudden.

Opinions differ over the last years of Domenico Cecchi's life. Some claim that he led a sad life in poverty and without friends and ended up in a hospital near Vienna in 1717–1718. According to a second version, he returned to his home town of Cortona after his release, where he received visitors as a rich man until shortly before his death in 1717.

literature

Elena Gentile: "CECCHI, Domenico, detto il Cortona", in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 23 , 1979, online on Treccani (Italian; accessed October 29, 2019)
François-Joseph Fétis : Biography universelle des musiciens , Volume II, p. 233;
Angus Heriot: The Castrati in Opera , London 1956, p. 113 ff.
Francesco Ravagli: Il Cortona , Città di Castello, 1869
Colin Timms: Cecchi Domenico (il Cortona) , in: Grove Music online (English; accessed October 29, 2019)

Web links

"Domenico Cecchi dit Cortona", article online at Quell'usignolo (French; accessed November 11, 2019)

Individual notes

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Colin Timms: Cecchi Domenico (il Cortona) , in: Grove Music online (English), accessed on October 29, 2019
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w Elena Gentile: "CECCHI, Domenico, detto il Cortona", in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 23 , 1979, online in Treccani (Italian; accessed October 29, 2019)
^ Antioco (Francesco Cavalli) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
↑ German: "The two tyrants on the throne"
↑ A decree issued by Pope Sixtus V on June 7th, 1587, required a man to be fertile ( potentia generandi ) as a condition for marriage . Uta Ranke-Heinemann: Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven . Complete paperback edition, 5th edition, Droemer Knaur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-426-04079-4 , p. 258 ff.
^ Patrick Barbier: Historia dos Castrados. Lisbon 1991, p. 143 and p. 163.
↑ Il Mosé conduttor del Popolo ebreo (Giacomo Antonio Perti) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
^ Il Maurizio (Domenico Gabrielli) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
↑ Eteocle e Polinice (Giovanni Legrenzi) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
↑ L'Aiace (Carlo Ambrogio Lonati) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
^ Ariovisto (Giacomo Antonio Perti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
↑ "The Favor of the Gods"
↑ " Columbus or the discovered India"
^ Il Pompeo (Giacomo Antonio Perti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
↑ Lisimaco (Bernardo Pasquini) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
^ Il trionfo di Camilla, regina de 'Volsci (Giovanni Bononcini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
↑ "The Oracle in a Dream"
^ L'oracolo in sogno (Antonio Caldara) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
^ Mitridate in Sebastia (Giuseppe Antonio Vincenzo Aldrovandini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
↑ "The Rape of the Sabine Women"
↑ Le Sabine rapite (Giovanni Bononcini) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
^ John Rosselli: The Castrati as a Professional Group and a Social Phenomenon, 1550-1850 . In: Acta Musicologica , Volume 60, fascicule 2, May-August 1988, pp. 143-179, here: p. 169.

personal data
SURNAME	Cecchi, Domenico
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Il Cortona; Cortona
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian opera singer, castrato
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1650–1655
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cortona
DATE OF DEATH	1717 or 1718
Place of death	Cortona or Vienna

[Timms-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Colin Timms: Cecchi Domenico (il Cortona) , in: Grove Music online (English), accessed on October 29, 2019

[Gentile-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w Elena Gentile: "CECCHI, Domenico, detto il Cortona", in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 23 , 1979, online in Treccani (Italian; accessed October 29, 2019)

[3] Antioco (Francesco Cavalli) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[4] German: "The two tyrants on the throne"

[5] A decree issued by Pope Sixtus V on June 7th, 1587, required a man to be fertile ( potentia generandi ) as a condition for marriage . Uta Ranke-Heinemann: Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven . Complete paperback edition, 5th edition, Droemer Knaur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-426-04079-4 , p. 258 ff.

[6] Patrick Barbier: Historia dos Castrados. Lisbon 1991, p. 143 and p. 163.

[7] Il Mosé conduttor del Popolo ebreo (Giacomo Antonio Perti) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[8] Il Maurizio (Domenico Gabrielli) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[9] Eteocle e Polinice (Giovanni Legrenzi) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[10] L'Aiace (Carlo Ambrogio Lonati) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[11] Ariovisto (Giacomo Antonio Perti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[12] "The Favor of the Gods"

[13] " Columbus or the discovered India"

[14] Il Pompeo (Giacomo Antonio Perti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[15] Lisimaco (Bernardo Pasquini) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[16] Il trionfo di Camilla, regina de 'Volsci (Giovanni Bononcini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[17] "The Oracle in a Dream"

[18] L'oracolo in sogno (Antonio Caldara) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[19] Mitridate in Sebastia (Giuseppe Antonio Vincenzo Aldrovandini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[20] "The Rape of the Sabine Women"

[21] Le Sabine rapite (Giovanni Bononcini) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .

[22] John Rosselli: The Castrati as a Professional Group and a Social Phenomenon, 1550-1850 . In: Acta Musicologica , Volume 60, fascicule 2, May-August 1988, pp. 143-179, here: p. 169.