GALUPPI, BALDASSARE  BIOGRAPHY

Baldassare Galuppi, nicknamed "il Buranello" because of his origin on the island of Burano, near the city of Venice, became one of the most fecund and influential composers of his generation. His reputation rests mainly on his operas, of which he composed more than a hundred; his principal librettist was Goldoni; but he also composed numerous cantatas, oratorios, Masses and Vesper psalms, much chamber music, and about 125 keyboard works. He held important positions in Venice. Like Vivaldi, he was musical director at an orphanage, the Ospedale dei Mendicanti, from 1740 to 1751, and he held a similar position at the basilica of St Mark from 1748. Galuppi’s fame was such that he spent extended periods away from Venice: from 1741 to 1743 in London, 1749 in Vienna, and from 1765 to 1768 in St Petersburg. His aria, Alla tromba della Fama, which the present writer discovered over thirty years ago in a German archive, is part of a long musico-dramatic tradition in which the goddess Fame (Fama) appears on the stage or even flying through the air above it, holding one or two trumpets as an attribute. In Italian opera, Sartorio in 1673 was the first to have a solo trumpet in competition with the singer, Fame, in an aria. It is not known whether Galuppi’s aria is from an opera or, a less likely possibility, whether it represents an independent work. Its librettist is unknown. Its transparent structure is typical for its time, with unison violins often doubling the voice part; the cadenza in bars 22-25 is original, but the others were improvised in the recording session by the performers.