Luigi Rossi

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Luigi Rossi (ca. 1597 - February 20, 1653) was an Italian Baroque composer. Rossi was born in Torremaggiore, a small town near Foggia, in the ancient kingdom of Naples and at an early age he went to Naples. There he studied music with the Franco-Flemish composer Jean de Macque who was organist of the Santa Casa dell’Annunziata and maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy. Rossi later entered the service of the Caetanis, dukes of Traetta.

An opera of Rossi's, Il Palazzo Incantato, was given at Rome in 1642; in 1646 he was invited by Cardinal Mazarin to Paris, where he gave his opera Orfeo (1647).

A collection of cantatas published in 1646 describes him as musician to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, and Giacomo Antonio Perti in 1688 speaks of him along with Carissimi and Cesti as "the three greatest lights of our profession."

Rossi is noteworthy principally for his chamber-cantatas, which are among the finest that the 17th century produced. A large quantity are in manuscripts in the British Library and in Christ Church Library, Oxford. La Gelosia, printed by F.A. Gevaert in Les Gloires d'Italie, is an admirable specimen.

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