page_title: Francesco Maria Veracini
section_title: London
hierarchical_section_title: Francesco Maria Veracini / Life / London
caption_attribution_description: Metastasio, Teresa Castellini, Farinelli, Amigoni, Farinelli's dog, Farinelli's page boy; the score is "Vi conosco amate stelle" from Metastasio's Zenobia in a musical setting by Gaetano Latilla (1711–1788).
context_page_description: Francesco Maria Veracini was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. As a composer, according to Manfred Bukofzer, "His individual, if not subjective, style has no precedent in baroque music and clearly heralds the end of the entire era", while Luigi Torchi maintained that "he rescued the imperiled music of the eighteenth century". His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that "he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist". The asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him.
context_section_description: Back in London in 1733, Veracini appeared in many concerts (Hill 1979, 22). In 1735 he composed an opera for the Opera of the Nobility, Adriano in Siria. Francesca Cuzzoni, Antonio Montagnana, Farinelli and Senesino had a role (Burden 2007, 31). George Frederic Handel was present at the premiere in Haymarket Theatre. Charles Jennens liked the opera and ordered a score; Lord Hervey, not known for his musical perception, and Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth were bored (Dean 2006, 278–79; Van Til 2007, 121). However, the work enjoyed a run of twenty performances over six months (Helyard 2000). Many of the arias were published separately by John Walsh. Veracini composed the fifth version, based on Pietro Metastasio’s libretto, written for the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI. The score, which survived in the Newman Flower Collection (or the Henry Watson Music Library?) of the Manchester Central Library was developed by German musicologist Holger Schmitt-Hallenberg along with Fabio Biondi, who composed the recitatives that have not been preserved. It was performed in Kraków December 2013 and in Vienna and Madrid in January 2014 (Skowrońska 2013; Anon. 2013a; Anon. 2013c; Anon. 2013d).
  In 1737, he wrote La Clemenza di Tito, on a libretto by Angelo Maria Cori based on Metastasio.  In 1738 Veracini wrote his third opera, Partenio, and returned to Florence where he stayed till 1741. Back in London he composed his last opera, Roselinda, based on Shakespeare's play As You Like It, a most unusual choice of material at that time. In that opera Veracini included the well-known Scots ballad tune The Lass of Paties Mill. It was staged in London in 1744, the same year his oratorio (described as an opera in Burney 1789, 4:451) L'errore di Salomone was staged. Burney (1789, 4:451), scorned the music of Roselinda as "wild, awkward, and unpleasant; manifestly produced by a man unaccustomed to write for the voice, and one possessed of a capo pazzo", and ridiculed the inclusion of the ballad tune as an attempt "to flatter the English" that failed because "few of the North Britons, or admirers of this national and natural Music, frequent the opera, or mean to give half a guinea to hear a Scots tune, which perhaps their cook-maid Peggy can sing better than any foreigner", but confessed that "This opera, to my great astonishment when I examined the Music, ran twelve nights", whereas L'errore di Salomone was given only twice. Veracini left London a little more than a year later.
  In 1745 or shortly after, he survived a shipwreck in which he lost two of his Stainer violins (the ones he called St. Peter and St. Paul), "thought to have been the best in the world", and all of his effects (Burney 1789, 4:569). He returned to Florence, where he was appointed maestro di capella of the churches of San Pancrazio and San Gaetano, the latter one at which his uncle had worked, focusing on church music. Though he mostly conducted in his later years, he still sometimes appeared as a violinist. Veracini died in Florence.
caption: Metastasio on the left, Farinelli in the middle. Next to him the painter Jacopo Amigoni
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