Francisco António de Almeida

Francisco António de Almeida (c. 1702–1755) was a Portuguese composer and organist.

Caricature of Almeida by Pier Leone Ghezzi

From 1722 to 1726 he was a royal scholar in Rome. In 1724, Pier Leone Ghezzi drew his caricature, describing him as "a young but excellent composer of concertos and church music who sang with extreme taste". He returned to Portugal in 1726, where he became organist of the Royal and Patriarchal Chapel.

In 1728, the first of his serenatas, Il trionfo della virtù, was performed in Lisbon at the palace of Cardinal João da Mota e Silva. His comic opera, La pazienza di Socrate, was performed at the royal palace in 1733. It was the first Italian opera in Portugal. A contemporary diarist states that Almeida composed music for the popular performances of presépios (Nativity scenes) in the Mouraria quarter of Lisbon. He probably died in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

Selected works
  • Il pentimento di Davidde (componimento sacro), 1722
  • La Giuditta (oratorio), 1726 (first modern performances were in 1990, and it was described as a masterpiece.[1]
  • Il trionfo della virtù (componimento poetico), 1728
  • Il trionfo d'amore (Almeida) (scherzo pastorale), 1729
  • Gl'incanti d'Alcina (dramma per musica da cantarsi), 1730
  • La Spinalba, ovvero Il vecchio matto (dramma comico), 1739
  • L’Ippolito (serenata), 1752
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References
  1. "Almeida's oratorio La Giuditta, one of the masterpieces of Portuguese 18th-century music, was performed in Rome in 1726" // Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco. Portugal / The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. L.; N.Y., 2001.

Bibliography
  • Manuel Carlos de Brito: Almeida, Francisco António de, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-05-05), Grove Music Online
  • Manuel Carlos de Brito: Opera in Portugal in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1989)
  • Sinfonia (in F) - on-going cooperative transcription in the Wiki-score platform of the score of this symphony by Francisco António de Almeida.

See also


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