Scan 154
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.1 Ed.3, 1904
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1Mercadante, d’Arienzo made rapid progress and in 1860 produced at the Teatro Nuovo an opera in Neapolitan dialect, ‘Monzu Guazio,’ which was well received. This was followed six years later by ‘I due mariti,’ also in dialect; by ‘Le rose’ (Naples, 1868); ‘Il cacciatore delle Alpi’ (Naples, 1870); ‘Il cuoco’ (Naples, 1873); ‘I viaggi’ (Milan, 1875); ‘La figlia del Diavolo’ (Naples, 1879); ‘I tre coscritti’ (Naples, 1880); ‘La fiera’ (Naples, 1887); and other unpublished works. D’Arienzo also composed an oratorio ‘Il Cristo sulla Croce’; he is the author of a treatise L’invenzione del sistema tetracordo e la moderna musica, published in 1879.
3ARIETTA (Ital.), diminutive of ARIA, the name of a short air, usually possessing no second part, and of more or less simple kind.
5ARIETTO, (1) SIMONE (b. Vercelli, beginning of 17th cent.), violinist for a time at the court of Mantua; then at Vercelli; and in 1630 at the court of Savoy. Fétis considers him the first violinist to be mentioned as virtuoso on his instrument. His sons (2) FRANCESCO and (3) SIMONE were also excellent violinists but did not equal their father.
7ARIGONI, GIOV. GIAC., see ARRIGONI.
9ARICOSO (Ital.), literally ‘airy.’ Used substantively, it would seem to mean that kind of air which, partaking both of the character of air and recitative, requires rather to be said than sung.
11ARIOSTI, ATILIO (b. circa 1660 1), a Dominican friar and an operatic composer whose fame rests chiefly on his association with Handel in England. He was also a notable performer on the viola d’amore.
13Under a papal dispensation he gave up his ecclesiastical profession for that of music, of which he had from his youth been a regular student. His first opera was ‘Dafne,’ written to the words of Apostolo Zeno. It was brought out at Venice in 1686. Its success was sufficient to determine the direction of his talent, for thenceforth, with the exception of one oratorio and some cantatas to be hereafter mentioned, he wrote only for the stage. In 1690 he became either private composer or maestro di cappella to the Electress of Brandenburg, and from 1698 to 1705 was conductor and composer at the court theatre of Berlin; he remained a member of the Electress’s household until 1715, when, at the invitation of the managers of the Italian opera in London, he came to England. This interval, however, he does not seem to have spent altogether at Berlin. Apparently he had paid one visit at least to Italy, and one to Austria, bringing out his ‘Nabucodonosor’ at Vienna, 1706, his ‘La più gloriosa fatica d’Ercole’ at Bologna, and his ‘Amor tra nemici’ at Venice. His Passion Oratorio was given in 1709 at Vienna, and an earlier treatment of the same subject is dated Modena, 1693. ‘La madre dei Maccabei’ was written for Venice in 1704, and ‘La profezia d’Eliseo’ in 1705 for Vienna. His first appearance in London was at the representation of Handel’s ‘Amadis,’ at which he played a solo on the viola d’amore. Between this date and his second visit to England it seems probable that Ariosti held some position at the French court. Van der Straeten has discovered an opera by him, ‘La Fede ne tradimenti,’ which seems to have been produced at the Théâtre de Luxembourg ‘by order of Her Majesty.’ On the title-page Ariosti is described as master of Her Majesty’s Music (maestro di Mus. S. Mstà). In 1720 the Royal Academy of Music began its career in London with Handel, Bononcini and Ariosti as its three musical directors. Ariosti, a man of mild character and apparently of comparatively small ambition, took less part than the other two either in the operatic triumphs or the controversies which belonged to the institution. But he remained in its service until the final catastrophe of its bankruptcy and produced a number of operas.
15The oft-repeated story that he wrote the first act of a composite opera, ‘Muzio Scevola,’ with which the three composers opened the house, may be finally dismissed as false. That opera did not open the house but was produced on Apr. 15, 1721, and it was not Ariosti but Mattei (‘Pipo’) who contributed an act with Handel and Bononcini.2 Ariosti quitted England in 1728, and passed the rest of his life in an obscurity which no biographer has been able to pierce. Fétis says that on the eve of his departure from England he published his volume of cantatas by subscription, and that they realised £1000. It may be hoped that this is a fact, and that the destitution hinted at by other writers was not the absolute condition of his old age.
17Ariosti’s operas, as far as they have been identified, are as follows:
19Dafne, 1686; Eriphyle, 1697; La fest. d’Imenei, 1700; Atys, 1700; Nabucodonosor, 1706; La più gloriosa fatica d’Ercole, 1706; Amor tra nemici, 1708; La Fede ne tradimenti, 1716 20; Cirro, 1721; Coriolanus, 1723; Vespasian, 1724; Artaserse, 1724; Dario, 1725; Lucius Verus, 1727; Teuzone, 1727.
21To these must be added 6 cantatas dedicated to King George; some lessons for the viola d’amore, 1728. (See VIOL: subsection VIOLA D’AMORE); and another oratorio ‘Radegonda Regina di Francia,’ 1693.
23BIBL.—ALFRED EBERT, Attilio Ariosti in Berlin (1697-1703) (Giesecker Davrient, Leipzig, 1905); Inaugural dissertation for the doctorate of Philosophy, Bonn, July 1905.
25E. H. P., with corr. and addns. (see Mus. T., 1910, p. 367).
27ARISTIDES QUINTILIANUS (c. A.D. 150), a Greek writer who wrote Ἱερὰ μουσικὴς, three books on music which give the clearest and
291 Some works at Upsala bearing his name and dated 1683-85 have suggested that he was born considerably earlier. But since he was alive in 1728 it seems improbable that these are of his composition.
312 See Streitfeld’s Handel, p. 90.
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