What is Francesco Cavalli?
[[Image:Francesco Cavalli.png|thumb|right|200px|Francesco Cavalli]] '''Francesco Cavalli''' (born Crema, [[Lombardy]], 14 February 1602; died 14 January 1676) was an [[Italy|Italian]] composer. He lived in the early part of the [[Baroque music|Baroque music period]]. His real name was '''Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni''', but he is better known as Cavalli, which was the name of his [[patron]], a [[Venice|Venetian]] [[nobleman]]. He is remembered for his [[opera]]s. ==Life== Cavalli was born at Crema, [[Lombardy]]. He became a singer at [[San Marco di Venezia|St Mark's]] in [[Venice]] in 1616, then he was [[pipe organ|organist]] there, and in 1668 he became ''maestro di cappella''. He began to write for the theatre in 1639. Soon after that the [[Teatro San Cassiano|first public opera house]] opened in Venice. Cavalli became so famous that he was invited to [[Paris, France|Paris]] in 1660 where he performed his opera ''Xerxes''. He visited Paris again in 1662. He died in Venice at the age of 73. ==Music and influence== Cavalli lived at the time that opera had just been invented by [[Jacopo Peri]]. [[Claudio Monteverdi]] composed the first really good operas. Cavalli became the most important Italian writer of operas in the middle of the [[17th century]]. His operas use small orchestras, unlike those of Monteverdi, who was writing for the court in Mantua where there was lots of money for big orchestras. Cavalli had a good sense of drama and he wrote lovely melodies. He wrote 57 operas, of which 27 survived. He also wrote some [[church]] music and some [[musical instrument|instrumental]] music. {{bio-stub}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavalli, Francesco}} [[Category:1602 births]] [[Category:1676 deaths]] [[Category:17th-century Italian composers]] [[Category:Baroque composers]] [[Category:People from Lombardy]]