Giacomo Antonio Perti (6 June 1661 – 10 April 1756) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. He was mainly active at Bologna, where he was Maestro di Cappella for sixty years. He was the teacher of Giuseppe Torelli and Giovanni Battista Martini.
Life
He was born in Bologna, then part of the Papal States, and began studying music early, learning harpsichord and violin there; later he studied counterpoint. By the age of 17, he had already written a mass, a motet, and a setting of the Magnificat; and in 1678 he wrote his first opera and oratorio. During a stay in Parma, where he studied with Giuseppe Corsi da Celano, he formed his sacred music style; most of his psalm settings of the 1680s and 1690s show the influence of Corsi. Later he went to Venice, most likely for a production of one of his operas.
In 1690 he was appointed to the post of Maestro di Cappella at S Pietro, replacing his uncle Lorenzo Perti. In 1696 he became Maestro di Cappella in another Bolognese church, S. Petronio, after the death of Giovanni Paolo Colonna the year before. He remained in charge for exactly sixty years, until his death at age 95.
Perti was a prolific composer of operas and sacred music, and was recognized as a distinguished musician not only by other composers but also by aristocrats and emperors, including Ferdinando de' Medici (one of the last of the Medici) and Emperors Leopold I and Charles VI.
Works
Perti was highly regarded for his sacred music and his operas. Of the 26 operas he composed, few remain today. Perti maintained in his Op. 1 that he was influenced by the melodic style of Francesco Cavalli, Antonio Cesti, and Luigi Rossi; however, he shows considerable originality in instrumentation, use of dialogue and countermelody. His output of sacred music was even more remarkable: he wrote 120 psalm settings, for one voice, chorus, basso continuo, and various other instruments; 54 motets, for similar forces; 28 masses; 83 versetti and other liturgical works.
He also wrote secular music, including 142 solo cantatas (one of the commonest secular vocal forms in late 17th century Italy), and some instrumental music including sonatas and sinfonias for a variety of instruments.
Operas
Marzio Coriolano, 1683
Oreste in Argo, 1685
L'incoronazione di Dario, 1686
La Flavia, 1686
La Rosaura, 1689
Dionisio Siracusano, 1689
Brenno in Efeso, 1690
L'inganno scoperto per vendetta, 1691
Il Pompeo, 1691
Furio Camillo, 1692
Nerone fatto cesare, 1693
La forza della virtù, 1694
Laodicea e Berenice, 1695
Penelope la casta, 1696
Fausta restituita all'impero, 1697
Apollo geloso, 1698
Lucio Vero, 1700
Astianatte, 1701
Dionisio re di Portogallo, 1707
Il Venceslao, ossia Il fraticida innocente, 1708
Ginevra principessa di Scozia, 1708
Berenice regina d'Egitto, 1709
Demetrio, 1709
Rodelinda regina de' Longobardi, 1710
Un prologo per il cortegiano, 1739
Oratorios
Due gigli porporati nel martirio di santa Serafia e santa Sabina, Bologna, 1679
Abramo vincitor de' propri affetti, Bologna, 1683 (rev. Agar, 1689; spurious titles: Agar scacciata, Sara) Il Mosè conduttor del popolo ebreo, Modena, 1685 Oratorio della Passione, Bologna, 1685 (rev. Gesù al sepolcro, 1703) La beata Imelda Lambertini bolognese, (:it:beata Imelda Lambertini child saint), Bologna, 1686 «Oratorio à 6 Voci, con concertino, e concerto grosso» (unknown subject), Modena (?), 1687 (lost) San Galgano Guidotti, Bologna, 1694 La Passione di Cristo, Bologna, 1694 (= Oratorio sopra la passione del Redentore = Affetti di compassione alla morte del Redentor della Vita; composed in collaboration with pupils) Christo al Limbo, Bologna, 1698 La morte del giusto, overo Il transito di san Giuseppe, Venice, 1700 (lost) La Morte delusa, Milan, 1703 (collaboration to the pasticcio) I trionfi di Giosuè, Florence, 1704 (collaboration to the pasticcio; lost) La sepoltura di Cristo, Bologna, 1704 San Petronio, Bologna, 1720 (pasticcio) La Passione del Redentore, Bologna, 1721 I conforti di Maria Vergine addolorata per la morte del suo divin Figliuolo, Bologna, 1723 (spurious title: L'Amor Divino) Il figlio prodigo, undated Oratorio della nascita del Signore, undated San Francesco, undated La sepoltura di Cristo, undated (attributed to Perti; spurious title: San Giovanni)