Ariosti, Attilio (Malachia)

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Ariosti, Attilio (Malachia)

Ariosti, Attilio (Malachia), Italian composer, singer, and instrumentalist; b. Bologna, Nov. 5, 1666; d. England, c. 1729. He joined the order of S. Maria de’ Servi at the Bologna monastery in 1688, took minor orders in 1689, and received his diaconate in 1692. Abandoning the order, he was in the service of the Duke of Mantua in 1696. With Lotti and Caldara, he collaborated on the opera Tirsi (Venice, 1696). In 1697 he went to Berlin as a court composer and staged the first Italian operas there. From 1703 to 1711 he was in the service of the Vienna court. In 1716 he went to London, where he was a composer with the Royal Academy of Music. Among the operas he brought out there were Coriolano (Feb. 19, 1723), Artaserse (Dec. 1, 1724), Daño (April 5, 1725), and Lucio Vero, imperator di Roma (Jan. 7, 1727). He also publ. a vol. of six cantatas and six lessons for the viola d’amore (1724), on which he was an accomplished performer. In all, he composed at least 22 operas, instrumental music, five oratorios, and many cantatas.

— Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura kuhn/Dennis McIntire