Composer of the Week - Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) - Episode 5

In our final programme on Alessandro Scarlatti, Donald Macleod surveys the composer's decline into poverty, and evaluates his reputation as the founder of Neapolitan Opera. Donald Macleod surveys Alessandro Scarlatti's final years and his reputation as the founder of Neapolitan Opera. During this time a new movement was beginning in the world of opera: opera buffa. We'll hear Scarlatti's own attempt at the new style, with an aria from Il Trionfo dell'Onore. Towards the end of his life, Scarlatti also taught more pupils out of financial necessity. During one of these lessons he stated that he'd never liked wind instruments, because they never stay in tune. Despite that, Alessandro did compose a number of works for wind instruments, and we'll hear his Concerto in F major for 3 Flutes. Scarlatti's greatest love may have been opera, but he was mainly employed as the maestro di cappella to a number of royal courts and churches and made a significant impact upon the world of oratorio, cantatas, and sacred music. To end this final episode we'll hear the latter part of his Mass for St Cecilia's Day, composed five years before his death for one of his Roman patrons.