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{{short description|Italian composer, singer and organist (1623–1669)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Antonio Cesti
| image       = 
| caption     = 
| occupation  = Composer, singer, organist
| baptised  = {{Plainlist|
* Pietro Cesti
* 5 August 1623
* [[Arezzo]]
}}
| death_date  = 14 October 1669
| death_place = [[Florence]] 
}}

'''Antonio Cesti''' ({{IPA|it|anˈtɔːnjo ˈtʃesti}}; baptised Pietro Cesti, 5 August 1623; died 14 October 1669), known today primarily as an [[Italy|Italian]] composer of the [[Baroque music|Baroque]] era, was also a singer ([[tenor]]) and [[Organ (music)|organist]]. He was "the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation".<ref name=Burrows>{{Cite Grove |first=David L. |last=Burrows |first2=Carl B. |last2=Schmidt |first3=Jennifer Williams |last3= Brown |title=Cesti, Antonio [Pietro] |id=05335}}</ref>

== Biography ==
He was baptised Pietro Cesti at [[Arezzo]] on 5 August 1623.<ref name=Burrows/><ref name=Seifert2016>Herbert Seifert (2016). [https://www.mgg-online.com/mgg/stable/15295 "Cesti, Antonio, Taufname Pietro"], [[MGG Online]].</ref> Claims that he studied with [[Giacomo Carissimi]]<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="bmlo">{{cite web|url=https://bmlo.de/c0344 |language=de |title=Bayerisches Musiker-Lexikon Online: Cesti, Pietro (Marc Antonio, Marc'Antonio, Markus Anton) |website=bmlo.de |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref> "appear to be groundless".<ref name=Burrows/>

[[File:Innsbruck-Pfarrgasse5.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Cesti's house in Innsbruck]]

In 1637 he joined the [[Order of Friars Minor]], or [[Franciscans]], a [[Roman Catholic]] religious group founded by [[Francis of Assisi]], and took the name Antonio. (He has also been referred to as 'Marc' Antonio',<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="bmlo" /> but this is incorrect.)<ref name=Burrows/> While he was in [[Volterra]] he turned more toward secular music, perhaps due to the patronage and influence of the powerful [[Medici]] family. Here he also came in contact with [[Salvator Rosa]], who wrote [[libretti]] for a number of Cesti's [[cantata]]s. By 1650 Cesti's calling as a [[Franciscan]] [[friar]] and his success as a singer and composer for operas were coming into conflict, and he was officially reprimanded. 

In 1652 he became a member of the court at [[Innsbruck]] of [[Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria]].<ref name=Burrows/> 
One of his Innsbruck residences was the still existing Cesti House in Pfarrgasse 5.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://innsbruck-erinnert.at/cesti-in-innsbruck-damals-und-heute-teil-1-das-cesti-haus/ |language=de |title=Cesti in Innsbruck – damals und heute: Teil 1 – Das „Cesti – Haus“ |website=innsbruck-erinnert.at |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref> 

After holding a post somewhere in Florence as ''maestro di cappella'', he entered the papal chapel in 1660. In 1666 he became Vice-Kapellmeister at [[Vienna]], and died at Florence in 1669.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Cesti, Marc' Antonio|volume=5|page=768}}</ref>

== Music ==
Cesti is known principally as a composer of operas. The most celebrated of these were ''La Dori'' (Innsbruck, 1657), ''[[Il pomo d'oro]]'' (Vienna, 1668)<ref name="EB1911"/> and ''[[Orontea]]'' (1656). ''Il pomo d'oro'' (''The Golden Apple'') was written for the wedding in Vienna of [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Leopold I]] in 1666, and first performed in 1668, in a famously lavish production. It was far more elaborate than contemporary Venetian operas, including a large orchestra, numerous choruses, and various mechanical devices used to stage things like gods descending from heaven (''[[deus ex machina]]''), naval battles, and storms.

[[Image:Pomodoro.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Scenography for ''[[Il pomo d'oro]]'']]

''Orontea'' was revived seventeen times in the next thirty years, making it one of the most frequently performed operas on the continent in the mid-17th century. Even [[Samuel Pepys]] owned a copy of the score.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Williams Brown|first=Jennifer|date=2000|title='Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen': Cesti, Orontea, and the Gelone problem|journal=Cambridge Opera Journal|volume=12|issue=3|pages=179–217|doi=10.1017/s0954586700001798|s2cid=191524563}}</ref> It includes a well-known soprano aria "Intorno all'idol mio" ("Around my idol").

Cesti was also a composer of [[chamber cantata]]s, and his operas are notable for the pure and delicate style of their airs, more suited to the chamber than to the stage.<ref name="EB1911"/> He wrote in the ''[[bel canto]]'' style of the 17th century, and his compositions were heavily influenced by his career as a professional singer. His musical writing owes much to the emerging [[tonality]] of the time.

[[Image:Hoftheater Innsbruck.jpg|right|thumb|300px|New Court Theater Innsbruck]]

Cesti composed several of his operas for the new court theatre ''Neues Komödienhaus'' at Innsbruck which was commissioned by Archduke Ferdinand Charles based on plans of local architect [[Christoph Gumpp the Younger]]. That theatre was – yet unfinished – inaugurated in 1654 with the performance of Cesti's opera ''La Cleopatra''. It was the first detached opera house in the [[German language|German]]-speaking area with salaried staff and was later replaced by another theatre.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://musikland-tirol.at/content/erstes-opernhaus.html |title=12. Innsbruck Had the First Opera House in a German-Speaking Area |website=musikland-tirol.at |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://innsbruck-erinnert.at/innsbrucker-festwochen-der-alten-musik-3-3/ |language=de |title=Innsbruck erinnert sich |website=innsbruck-erinnert.at |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref> In 1655, Cesti's opera ''L'Argia'' was premiered in Innsbruck on the visit of the [[Sweden|Swedish]] [[Christina, Queen of Sweden|Queen Christina]] to celebrate her conversion to [[Catholicism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.innsbruck.info/blog/en/art-culture/the-dogana-from-opera-house-to-ruin-and-event-location/ |title=The Dogana – from opera house to ruin and event location |website=innsbruck.info |access-date=2024-08-14}}</ref>

As singer, Cesti performed roles in tenor and later also bass voice.<ref name="oeml">{{cite web |author=Herbert Seifert |url=https://www.musiklexikon.ac.at/0xc1aa5576_0x0001cace |language=German |title=Cesti, Pietro Antonio OFM |website=musiklexikon.ac.at |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref>

The yearly competition ''Internationaler Gesangwettbewerb für Barockoper Pietro Antonio Cesti'' for singers was named after him. It was established in 2010 by the conductor [[Alessandro De Marchi (conductor)|Alessandro De Marchi]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://miz.org/en/institutions/internationaler-gesangwettbewerb-fur-barockoper-pietro-antonio-cesti-i32142 |title=Internationaler Gesangwettbewerb für Barockoper Pietro Antonio Cesti |website=miz.org |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://innsbruck-erinnert.at/cesti-in-innsbruck-damals-und-heute-teil-3-innsbrucker-festwochen-der-alten-musik-und-internationaler-gesangswettbewerb-pietro-antonio-cesti/ |language=de |title=Cesti in Innsbruck – damals und heute: Teil 3 – Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik und „Internationaler Gesangswettbewerb Pietro Antonio Cesti“ |website=innsbruck-erinnert.at |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref> 

== Works ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!|Title!!|Libretto!!|Première date!!|Place, theatre!!class="unsortable"|Notes
|-
|''Alessandro vincitor di se stesso''||[[Francesco Sbarra]]||1651||[[Venice]], [[Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo]]||&nbsp;
|-
|''Il Cesare amante''||[[Dario Varotari the Younger|Dario Varotari]]||1651||Venice, Teatro Grimano||&nbsp;
|-
|''Cleopatra''||Dario Varotari||1654||[[Innsbruck]]||revised version of ''Il Cesare amante''
|-
|''[[L'Argia]]''||[[Giovanni Filippo Apolloni]]||1655||Innsbruck||&nbsp;
|-
|''Marte placata''||Giovanni Filippo Apolloni||1655||Innsbruck||&nbsp;
|-
|''[[Orontea]]''||[[Giacinto Andrea Cicognini]], revised by Giovanni Filippo Apolloni||19 February 1656||Innsbruck||revived in Innsbruck in 1982 ([[René Jacobs]]) and recorded for HM; revived in Frankfurt in 2015 ([[Ivor Bolton]])
|-
|''[[La Dori]]''||Giovanni Filippo Apolloni||1657||Innsbruck||&nbsp;
|-
|''Venere cacciatrice''||Francesco Sbarra||1659||Innsbruck||lost
|-
|''La magnanimità d’Alessandro''||Francesco Sbarra||1662||Innsbruck||&nbsp;
|-
|''Le nozze in sogno''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://flore.unifi.it/handle/2158/1069761/ |language=it |title=Antonio Cesti e la partitura delle 'Nozze in sogno' (Firenze 1665) |website=flore.unifi.it |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.altemusik.at/en/festival/news-1/innsbrucker-festwochen-erneut-fuer-internationalen-opern-award-nominiert |title=Innsbruck Festival of Early Music nominated for Opera Award |website=altemusik.at |access-date=2024-08-19}}</ref>||Pietro Susini||1665||Florence, Accademia degli Infuocati||&nbsp;
|-
|''Il Tito''||Nicolò Beregan||13 February 1666||Venice, Teatro Grimano||&nbsp;
|-
|''Nettuno e Flora festeggianti''||Francesco Sbarra||12 July 1666||Vienna||&nbsp;
|-
|''Le disgrazie d'Amore''||Francesco Sbarra||19 February 1667||Vienna||&nbsp;
|-
|''La Semirami''||Giovanni Andrea Moniglia||9 July 1667||[[Vienna]]||revised 1674 in [[Modena]] as ''La schiava fortunata'' 
|-
|''La Germania esultante''||Francesco Sbarra||1667||Vienna||&nbsp;
|-
|''[[Il pomo d'oro]]''||Francesco Sbarra||12–14 July 1668||Vienna||Acts III and V lost
|-
|''Genserico''||Nicolò Beregan||1669||Venice||&nbsp;
|}
<!--''Intorno All'Idol Mio'' is not another work; it is an aria from the opear ''Orontea''-->

== Recordings ==
*Pietro Antonio Cesti "Pasticcio", Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck 1980, excerpts from operas "Il pomo d'oro", "Argia", "Tito", "Orontea", "Dori", "Semirami". Performers: [[René Jacobs]], [[Judith Nelson]], [[William Christie (musician)|William Christie]], [[Konrad Junghänel]]. ORF Edition Alte Musik.
*''Le disgrazie d’amore'', [[Auser Musici]], Carlo Ipata, director, Hyperion CDA67771 (2010)
*''Alma Mia'', [[Raquel Andueza]], soprano with [[La Galania]] directed by [[Fernández Baena]]: excerpts from operas ''L'Argia'', ''La Dori'', ''Orontea'', ''Il Tito'', and two cantatas: ''Non si parli più d'Amore'' and ''Ò quanto concorso''. [[Anima e Corpo]] AeC003 (2014)
*''L'Orontea'' Frankfurter Opern und Museumsorchester, Ivor Bolton (director), OEHMS Classics (2017)
*'' La Dori'' Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone (director), CPO (2020)

== See also ==
* [[Opera#Baroque opera|Baroque opera]]
* [[Francesco Cavalli]]
* [[Claudio Monteverdi]], an older contemporary of Cesti

== References ==
<references/>
'''Other sources'''
* Grout, Donald; Claude Palisca. ''A History of Western Music'', 6th edition. [[W. W. Norton & Company]]. New York, 2001.

== External links ==
*{{IMSLP|id=Cesti,_Antonio}}
* {{ChoralWiki}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cesti, Antonio}}
[[Category:Antonio Cesti| ]]
[[Category:1623 births]]
[[Category:1669 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Arezzo]]
[[Category:Italian Baroque composers]]
[[Category:Italian opera composers]]
[[Category:Italian male opera composers]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian composers]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian male musicians]]
[[Category:Grand Duchy of Tuscany people]]