Mancini, Francesco
Mancini, Francesco
Mancini, Francesco, Italian composer and teacher; b. Naples, Jan. 16,1672; d. there, Sept. 22,1737. He became an organ student at the Cons, della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples (1688), where he later was organist (c. 1694–1702). He held the post of 1st organist at the royal chapel in Naples (1704–07), and subsequently was its director (1707–08), asst. director (1708–25), and again director (1725–37). He was also director of the Cons, di S. Maria di Loreto in Naples from 1720 until he suffered a stroke in 1735. He was held in high regard as a composer of operas and cantatas, and as a teacher.
Works
dramatic: opera(all 1st perf. in Naples unless otherwise given): Ariovisto (Nov. 15, 1702); (Lucia) Siila (Jan. 27?, 1703); La costanza nell’honore (June 1704); Gl’amanti generosi (Carnival? 1705; rev. as Hydaspes or L’Idaspe fedele, London, March 23, 1710); La serva favorita (1705); Alessandro il Grande in Sidone (1706); Turno Aricino (Feb. 4, 1708); Engelberta, ossia La forza dell’innocenza (Nov. 4, 1709; Act I and part of Act 2 by A. Orefici); Mario fuggitivo (Dec. 27,1710); Selim re d’Ormuz (Jan. 23, 1712); Artaserse re di Persia (Oct. 8, 1713); II gran Mogol (Dec. 26, 1713); II Vincislao (Dec. 26, 1714); Alessandro Severo (Rome, Carnival 1718); La fortezza [forza] al cimento (Feb. 16, 1721); Trajano (Jan. 17, 1723); L’Oront[e]a (Carnival 1729); Alessandro nelle’ ìndie (Carnival 1732); Don Aspremo (1733); Demofoonte (Jan. 20,1735; Act 2 in collaboration with Sarro, Leo, and Sellitto); also several intermezzos, serenatas, and over 200 secular cantatas. His sacred music includes oratorios, masses, motets, cantatas, a Magnificat, and Psalms for Vespers. He also pubi. XII Solos for Violin or Flute and Basso Continuo, whichSolos are Proper Lessons for the Harpsichord (London, 1724; 2nd ed., rev, 1727, by F. Geminiani).
Bibliography
J. Wright, The Secular Cantatas of F. M. (1672–1737) (diss., N.Y.U., 1975); A. Romagnoli, F. M.: I melodrammi (diss., Univ. of Pavia, 1987).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire