Maestro of Spirit and Style

For the fervent 17th century Italian composer, violinist and singer, Alessandro Stradella, loving
the wrong women and angering the wrong men held grave consequences. Yet the shame was
on the perpetrators of his demise - on the 25th of February 1682 and for centuries beyond.

By the second decade of the 18th century Stradella's
compositions were rarely performed, although his escapades
and violent death at age 42 were played over and over in
largely inaccurate biographies, novels and operas,
compromising his integrity in music history. Stradella's output
was versatile and copious, including operas, and oratorios,
serenatas, madrigals and incidental music. He worked royally
and nobly, for the theater and the church, for grand and very
personal occasions, celebrating life and love, using allegory
and heart and humor, challenging singers and instrumentalists
and the free spiritness of himself, developing the aria and
concerto grosso. His work was no less significant than Vivaldi's
or Corelli's, if anything more passionate and pioneering, his
text interpretation and melodist abilities impressing Scarlatti
and even Handel who freely borrowed from him.

Born in Nepi near Rome of minor nobility, Stradella was
cultivated but also something of a vagabond, as much because
of his wanderlust as crimes. His story might seem to be about
the disparity between the discipline of his work and anarchy of
his life. Yet, whether acting on a patron's whim or his own
impulse, uncertainty and risk were inevitable. It was his nature
to embrace them, indulging in possibilities, captivating men and
women known and unknown, seducing posterity with his
reputation for making messes...but also masterpieces.

When informed that "jealousy was the motive to it" Purcell lamented Stradella's fate, and "in regret of his great merit
as a musician", said he could forgive him any injury in that kind.*