Carlo Caproli: Roman violinist and opera composer

Life

Trained in the heart of the Baroque, his long career led him to reach artistic maturity in the Late Baroque phase, a transitional era that saw the conclusion of the seventeenth-century style and the emergence of the first rationalist ferments that would lead to the birth of Arcadia.

Carlo Caproli was born in Rome in 1615. He was a virtuoso violinist and a leading composer in seventeenth-century Roman and French musical life. He worked as a chapel master in various churches and was appreciated for his refined writing of oratorios and cantatas.

In 1643 he was sent to Paris by Pope Urban VIII to conduct the oratorio La Maddalena pentita, an experience that put him in contact with Cardinal Mazarin. In the following years, he composed operas for the French court, including Le nozze di Peleo e Tetide (1654), and created widely circulated sacred works in Italy.

He was a friend and collaborator of Giacomo Carissimi and a participant in the innovations that would pave the way for the birth of modern opera. He died in Rome in 1692.

Works

He composed oratorios such as La Maddalena pentita (1643, Paris) and various sacred cantatas. He wrote the opera Le nozze di Peleo e Tetide (1654, Paris) and other theatrical productions intended for the courts of Rome and France. His instrumental music includes sonatas and pieces for violin that attest to his virtuosity.