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(b. Palermo, May 2, 1660; d. Naples, October 22, 1725)
 

Italian composer. He was the last “old A master” of the Italian Baroque and the most important operatic composer of the early 18th century in Italy. His parents were both musical and he received training in Palermo and, from 1672, Rome, where his talent quickly attracted important patrons and helped him become an established figure in the city’s cultural life while he was still in his teens. Between 1679 and 1683 he served as maestro di cappella at two important Roman churches and basked in the favor of leading Roman aristocrats, including Cardinal Pamphili and Sweden’s Queen Christina. But his desire to compose operas, public performances of which were banned in Rome, led him to accept an offer of a position in Naples as maestro di cappella at the royal chapel there. Despite intrigues against him on the part of Neapolitan musicians who resented an outsider’s being put in charge, and financial pressures associated with his growing family, Scarlatti flourished. He left Naples in 1703, for reasons having to do with what can best be described as political miscalculations, and spent several years in Rome and Venice before returning in 1708 to his old post as master of the royal chapel. He continued to crank out operas, his pace slower than before, his works less successful, and his debts still deep. He died famous, but in penury.

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