Marazzoli, Marco

Marazzoli, Marco, significant Italian composer; b. Parma, between 1602 and 1608; d. Rome, Jan. 26, 1662. In 1631 he gained the patronage of Cardinal Antonio Barberini in Rome. In 1637 he settled in Rome in the cardinal’s service and became a tenor in the Papal Chapel, a position he held until his death. He also was engaged by Cardinal Mazarin in Paris in 1643; returned to Rome in 1645. In 1656 he became virtuoso di camera to Queen Christina of Sweden, who held her court in Rome at the time. Marazzoli was a prolific composer of choral music; about 375 of his cantatas and oratorios are extant. His name is also associated with that of Virgilio Mazzocchi; they collaborated on the first comic opera, Chi soffre, speri (Rome, Feb. 27, 1639), which was a revision of II facone (Rome, Feb. 12, 1637). His other operas include L’amore trionfante dello sdegno (also known as V’Armida; Ferrara, Feb. 1641), Gli amori di Giasone e d’Issifile (Venice, Feb. 22, 1642; not extant), Le pretensioni del Tebro e del Po (Ferrara, March 4, 1642), II capriccio or II giudizio della ragione fra la Belta e l’Affetto (Rome, 1643), Dal male il bene (Rome, Feb. 12, 1653; in collaboration with A. Abbatini), Le armi e gli amori (Rome, Feb. 20, 1656), and La vita humana, ovvero II trionfo della pietà (Rome, Jan. 31, 1656).

Bibliography

M. Grace, M. M. and the Development of the Latin Oratorio (diss., Yale Univ., 1974).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire