Zachary Thomas Newman

Pier Francesco Cavalli

Pier Francesco Cavalli was, for all intents and purposes, “the first ‘producer’ of operatic

music on an impresarial basis.”1 Cavalli was one of the masters of early Baroque opera –

succeeding Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) - and was one of the primary composers of opera

in Venice from 1639-1666, producing one to two operas per year for the carnival season. 2 His

opera Calisto was written in 1651 and was set to a libretto by Giovanni Faustini. This essay will

give a brief history on Cavalli as well as analyze Calisto with the purpose of better

understanding developing compositional techniques in early opera.

On February 14, 1602 in the town of Crema (a small village about 50 miles from Milan)

was born Pier Francesco Caletti. A child of fairly normal upbringing, Caletti was raised in his

early years by his father, Giovanni Battista Caletti. Giovanni was an organist, teacher, and also

served as the maestro di capella at the Duomo. Francesco was taught music at an early age,

developing both his vocal and keyboarding skills and joining the boys’ choir at the Duomo. It

was while singing at the Duomo that young Francesco was discovered by a Venetian politician

named Fedrico Cavalli. In March 1616, Cavalli finished his term in Crema and convinced

Giovanni Battista Caletti to allow Francesco to return to Venice with him so he may receive “all

the benefits of a Venetian musical life.”3

Once he was in Venice, Francesco assumed the name of his now patron and became

Pier Francesco Cavalli. It was under this name that he would do all of his composing. In

December 1616, Cavalli joined the choir at St. Marks Basilica and began to work with the

1
Lorenzo Bianconi. Music in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1982. Pg 82.
2
Ibid.
3
Jane Glover. Cavalli, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978. Pg. 12
Zachary Thomas Newman

maestro di cappella, Claudio Monteverdi – this was a relationship that would influence the rest

of Cavalli’s musical career. The years to come in Venice would see Cavalli as both a singer and

organist at several churches in the area incluing St. Marks, SS Giovanni e Paolo, the Scuola di S.

Rocco, and others. Cavalli would continue his relationship with these churches throughout his

life and even succeed Monteverdi as the maestro di cappella at St. Marks in 1668.

Cavalli had a very active career outside of church music. His first opera, Le Nozze di Teti

e di Peleo, was not considered wildly successful, but he persisted in his compositions until

finally partnering with the librettist Giovanni Faustini in 1643.4 This partnership would be the

one that would propel Cavalli to operatic success and would also produce the opera Calisto.

Their collaborations were not just limited to compositions, as Cavalli and Faustini were both

patrons and impresarios of various Venice opera houses throughout the 17 th century.

Cavalli stayed on the cutting edge of music for decades in Venice, producing just under

30 operas – eleven of which were in his partnership with Faustini - until finally passing away in

1676.5 The eleven operas that came of the Cavalli-Faustini partnership helped to define the

style of Venetian opera in the 17th century. Cavalli’s compositional style, while still

experimental, began to develop into what became standard for baroque opera. Francesco

Cavalli made use of the developing styles of recitative as well as the popular styles of aria.

Calisto is an opera in three acts with a prologue which catalogues the tale of Calisto, a

nymph, and her struggle with love. In short, Calisto the water nymph is granted water from

Jupiter and in his typical fashion, he decides to pursue her. In the second act we find that

Calisto has been intimate with Diana (really Jupiter in disguise) and Hera attempts to exact her
4
Eve Marie Bordoli, Thesis. “An Analysis of the role Juno in Cavalli’s Opera, La Calisto.” California State University,
2005.
5
Ibid.
Zachary Thomas Newman

revenge upon Calisto for stealing the affections of her husband. In the end, Calisto’s sadness is

cut short by Jupiter’s mercy when he ends her life and places her among the stars for eternity. 6

One example of Cavalli’s popular opera can be found in Calisto’s aria “Non è maggior

paicere.” This aria is written in the ritornello form, including several verses with an instrumental

ritornello between each. “Non e Maggior…” is preceded by a secco recitativo accompanied by a

very sparse continuo, but when the aria-proper begins, the orchestra comes in with florid string

and flute parts setting up the impending vocal fireworks. Throughout this aria, examples of the

typical baroque musical rhetoric can be found. The line, “viver in libertade è il dolce, il caro” is

the prime showing of this. The translation for this line is “to live in liberty is sweet and dear.” 7

And on the word libertade (liberty) the singer echoes the ritornello group with four measures of

fioratura passages indicative of the liberty and freedom itself. This is followed with the sweet

descending diatonic thirds on the words dolce and caro.

While this aria does in fact have some marked melismas and vocal showmanship, it is

also common, as with most baroque music, for the singer to add ornaments of their own to

show off their own personal style and ability. One particular recording 8 shows the singer adding

various trills and rhythmic variations to paint the text and show off her own skill set. (ex: in

measures 51 and 52, the singer uses the dissonances between G#, A, and Bb to create tension

and resolves it with a trillo ornament on the held A natural in measures 53 and 54.) On top of

typical ornamentations, the ritornello group includes some interesting variation as well. In this

6
Aaron Green, “La Calisto Synopsis: the Story of Francesco Cavalli’s 3-act opera” https://www.thoughtco.com/la-
calisto-synopsis-724242. Accessed February 13, 2018.
7
David Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque: an Anthology of Scores. 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, New York,
2014. Pg. 41
8
Christina Pluhar, La Calisto, Act 1: "Non è maggior piacere." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YevgH-dmMpI.
Accessed February 13, 2018.
Zachary Thomas Newman

same recording, the initial ritornello is played by continuo and strings, while the repetitions of

the ritornello are played by one string instrument and one flute.

Compared to his predecessor – Monteverdi – Cavalli was an entirely new style of music.

When one looks back over the music of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, the differences are abounding. For

instance, in the aria “Tu Se’ Morta,” instead of a ritornello form, it is really somewhere between

recitativo accompagnato and arioso styles. Orpheus laments the loss of his wife Euridice

accompanied only by organ and/or theorbo playing figured bass accompaniment under a

languid, speech-like melody. Subsequently, this aria is one of only a few in this opera while by

the time Cavalli was producing his music, arias were in abundance.

Pier Francesco Cavalli wrote nearly 30 operas in his life time, as well as an abundance of

church music. He grew up in a musical family outside of Milan before moving to Venice to find

his successes. Cavalli’s compositional style is entirely underrated in today’s musical studies – as

the successor to Monteverdi, Cavalli was among the first true opera impresarios and set forth

what would be a real system of patronage for opera composition in Venice which would

subsequently spread throughout Italy and the rest of the western world.