ABSTRACT
Scarlatti’s professional activity took place largely in Naples, where he was maestro di cappella of the Royal Chapel between 1684 and 1702, and from 1708 to 1725, the year of his death. But Rome was singularly important to him: it was the city that received him as a youth and where he had his first great success, with the opera Gli equivoci nel sembiante, in 1679. Scarlatti worked very closely with important music institutions and patrons in the Eternal City, such as Queen Christina of Sweden, Benedetto Pamphilj, Pietro Ottoboni, and Francesco Maria Ruspoli. This chapter examines the most significant events in his life connected with his career as a composer of sacred music for the institutions where he was maestro di cappella, and also for other important music environments: the Sistine Chapel and patrons like Cardinal Francesco d’Acquaviva, for whom Scarlatti wrote his last masterpieces, the Mass and the Vespers for Santa Cecilia.
