Francesco Gasparini

Training under Bernardo Pasquini, Antonio Lotti and Giovanni Legrenzi is recorded. Benedetto Marcello, Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Joachim Quantz are recorded as having studied under Francesco Gasparini. The recorded working language is Italian. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera.

Born in Camaiore, near Lucca, he studied in Rome with Corelli and Pasquini. His first important opera, Roderico (1694), was produced there. In 1702, he went to Venice and became one of the leading composers in the city. In 1720, he returned to Rome for his last important work, Tigrane (1724). He wrote the first opera using the story of Hamlet (Ambleto, 1705) though this was not based on Shakespeare's play. Gasparini was also a teacher, the instructor of Marcello, Quantz and Domenico Scarlatti. He was musical director of the Ospedale della Pietà, where he employed Antonio Vivaldi as a violin master. He wrote a treatise on the harpsichord (1708). At one time, Metastasio was betrothed to his daughter. He died in Rome in 1727.

See List of operas by Francesco Gasparini.

• Missa canonica for four voices and basso continuo (Venice, 1705)

Gasparini's Missa Canonica was known to Johann Sebastian Bach, who, in 1740, copied it out and—after adding parts for strings, oboes, cornett, trombone, and organ—performed its Kyrie and Gloria in both the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig and St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.