Alessandro Scarlatti. Composer, particularly important for the development of opera and is considered the founder of the so-called Neapolitan school.

 

Brought to Rome in 1672, is said to have studied with Carissimi and wrote his first opera there in 1679. From 1708 for the rest of his life alternately between Rome and Naples, in various courtly and ecclesiastical offices.

 

The contribution to opera was the liberation of dramatic expression. His greatest opera is Mitridate Eupatore (1707), composed for Prince Ferdinando de 'Medici, but a failure in Venice.

 

In his late years in Rome, the general enthusiasm for opera inspired by Scarlatti overcame all ecclesiastical objections.

 

His 115 operas including a comic opera, Il trionfo dell'onore (Naples 1718). Sixty-four have survived in whole or in part, perhaps the most famous being the last, La Griselda (1721).