Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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706 STRADELLA STRADELLA
Strada must have had some brilliant execution,
for the first air which she sang on those boards
contains no less than thirty opportunities to
display her shake. Coming after Cuzzoni and
Faustina, and having so little to recommend
her to the eye that she was nicknamed the ' pig,'
it took her some time to get into favour. But
Handel took pains with her, wrote for her, and
advised her, and at length rendered her equal
to the iirst singers of the Continent. a.
STRADELLA, Albssandro, an Italian
composer of the 17th century. The earliest
and only detailed account of him is given by
Bonnet- Bourdelot, in his Histoire de la mudque
et de. ses effets, Paris, 1715. This is the source
of the romantic story of his eloping with the
mistress of a Venetian nobleman, of the attempt
to murder the composer, of the effect of Stradella's
music upon the assassins, and of the
ultimate success of the nobleman's plot about
'
the year 1670 ; there seems no good reason
'
to believe the story, which occurs in a book
that is untrustworthy in many particulars.
The narrative failed to obtain credence from
M. Richard 1 or M. Catelani,^ whose researches,
however, have not led to any positive
result.
The place of Stradella's birth is unknown.
Wanley ' thinks he was a Venetian, while
Burney * states he was a Neapolitan, apparently
for no other reason than that he sends Stradella
and Ortensia, en route for Rome, to Naples, which,
he adds, was the place of Stradella's nativity.'
'
Fetis,6 evidently on Burney 's statement, but
without quoting his authority, describes him as
born at Naples about 1645, and the assertion
is now an accepted statement." The dates both
of his birth and death are in fact unknown.
But though we reject the story of his murder
at Genoa, it is not impossible that he ended
his life there, since the composition, which we
may presume to have been his last, is dated
from thence.
The date of his death was probably about
1681, since there exists in the Biblioteca Palatina
of Modena, a cantata, 'II Barcheggio,'^
written for the wedding of Carlo Spinola
and Paola Brignole, at Genoa, July 6, 1681.
The poem contains numerous allusions to
it, and the names of both bride and bridegroom
; no mistake is possible as to the real
1 Le Mnestrel, 1865, pp. 51, 52 ; 1866, pp. 1 to 6, aod 12 to 18.
2 OeUe opere dA A. Stradella esiatcnti nell' Archivto Atuticalo deUa
R. Biblioteca PaltUina dl Modena, Modena, 1866.
3 A Catalogue of the Sarleian Manuaoripts in the British Mvsett/mt
TOl. i. p. 612, cod. 1272.
4 A Oenerai ffl»tory of Music, iv. 100, 101.
6 Biographic v/nivarselle dcs Tnusiciens,
8 See Dicttonnaire giniraZ de Biographic et d'Histoire (Paris,
1857) i^ictionnairc dela Conversation et dcla Lcctv/rc (Paris, 1858)
Mendel, JKi«.C7omjcrsa(ioTM-£earffto7i (1877): Bieinann,J/wjrffc-£earffcon.
7 On the first page of tlie score is written '
; II Barcheggio, del
Big Alessandro Stradella 1681. L' uitimadellesuesinfonie. After
tile overture, and before the dnot with which the scene opens, at
'
the top of the page is written Inuentione per un Barcheggio, 1681.
16 Giugno. L' ultima compoaizione del Big. Alessandro Stradella.'
This is a cantata for soprano, tenor, and bass, in two parts. Each
part is preceded by an overture. The score is for two violins,
cornet or trumpet, and bass : a trombone di rinfoizo at times with
the bass.
date of the composition, and thus the dates
1670 and 1678, given by Bourdelot and
Burney respectively for his death, are evidently
wrong. 8
The statements that besides being a composer
Stradella was a singer,^ an ' exquisite performer
on the harp, '" '
'a great performer on the violin, 'ii
'
excelled in an extraordinary hand, so as to have
been accounted the best organist in Italy,' '^
'was a Latin and perhaps also an Italian poet,' '^
are all more or less gratuitous, and except composing,
it cannot be proved that he possessed
any of these qualifications. His name is never
met with in any of the best treatises of Italian
literature, either as a Latin or an Italian poet,**
and with respect to his skill on the organ, we
have been unable to find anything to justify
Wanley's assertion, beyond a short Sonata in I)
for two violins and basso continue per 1' Organo.
'*
As to the statements in the Penny Oyclopcedia,
that ' Stradella was not handsome, but remarkable
for the symmetry of his form, his wit and
polished manners,' and in Wanley's catalogue,
that he was a comely person and of an amorous
'
nature, ' I can do no more than submit them to
the reader, as striking instances of the way in
which mythical statements gather round a
central figure.
Nothing can be positively asserted as to his
having been mamed to Ortensia after the
attempted murder at Turin, because the archives
of S. Giovanni di Torino, the parish of the
court, have been destroyed by fire.
Where or with whom Stradella studied is
entirely unknown. In the archives of the
Royal Conservatorio di Musica in Naples,
where all the documents formerly belonging
to the superseded Conservator! are most carefully
kept, his name does not occur ; nor is
it mentioned in Liohtenthal's catalogue. ** None
of his numerous operas are known to have
8 Bumey'B mistake ia easily explieable, because, when he wrote,
' II Barcheggio ' had not yet been discovered, and he was in possession
of a libretto La ' forza delV amor paterno,' Oenoa,lff7S, dedicated
to Signora Teresa Baggi Soali by Alessandro Stiad^a, tjie dedication
appai-ently written by Stradella himself. The facts that the
oratorio * S. Giovanni Battista '—supposed to be that which saved
its author's life in Borne—bears the date Home, 1676 ' ' and the fact
that Bourdelot's account impUes a period of two years between
Stradella's singinginRomeand his murder in6enoa,induced Burney
to believe that Stradella might have met his death In Genoa while
attending the rehearsals of his new opera. However, that libretto
was seen by Burney only, and hae since disappeared.
» Bourdelot and all biographers.
'0 Hawkins's History, vol. iv. bk. 2, chap. 10.
^1 Burney, A General History of Music, iv. 100.
12 A Catalogue of the Ha/rleian MSB.
13 Catelani, DeUe opere di A. Stradella csistenti, etc.
i4 Delia Storia e della Ragimte di ogni Poesia, di F. S. Quadrio.
Bologna- Mi lano, 1739-42. Tiraboschi, Storia delta Ictteraiura
itaiiana. &iTigacn^,Higtcirelitt6rairGcP Italic. Giovan Mario Crescimbeni,
DalV Istoria delta volgar Pccsia. In this last work, Stradella
is spoken of only where the author, dealing with the Cantatas,
'
thus expresses himself : They are pretty things and the best and
most pleasant diversion that one can enjoy in any honourable and
noble conversation; especially when set tomusieby eminent T>uzestra,
as, amongst the old ones, are those by the famous Alessandro Stradella,
one of which was sung not long since in the Academy of the
Cardinal Ottoboni by Andrea Adami detto 11 Bolsena.' Vol. i. lib.
iv, chap. xii. p. 330. This paasage is quoted from the third edition,
1731.
15 ' Scielta delle suonate a due violini con il Basso continue per
1' Organo, raccolte da diversi eccellenti autori.' In Bologna per
Giacomo Monti, 1680. With the exception of this Sonata, no other
of Stradella's compositions was printed in the 17th century.
16 Bizimiario e BiMiografia della Musica del D. Pietro JUchtenthal,
Milano,]826.