Francesco Manelli

Biography

Francesco Manelli (Mannelli) (c. 1595 – 1667) was a Roman Baroque composer, particularly of opera, and a theorbo player. He is most well known for his collaboration with fellow Roman composer Benedetto Ferrari in bringing commercial opera to Venice. The first two works, in 1637 and 1638, to be put on commercially in the Teatro San Cassiano were both by Manelli – his L'Andromeda and La Maga Fulminata.
Francesco Manelli was for many years confused with the Franciscan friar Giovanni Battista Fasolo, because of the resemblances between Manelli's cantata Luciata (published in Musiche varie, op. 4 Venice, 1636), and Fasolo's dialogue Il carro di Madama Lucia (Rome, 1628), and the shared text of the first piece in both collections. In a comparison of the two cantatas Fasolo's version is "languid and melancholy", while Manelli's version is "spirited and biting".
A mid-14th-century Florentine scholar of the same name, also called dei Pontigiano, was a close friend of Giovanni Boccaccio.

Recordings

Duet - Ti lascio empia, inconstante. Musiche varie, Op. 4, Suzie LeBlanc (Soprano), Derek Lee Ragin (Countertenor), Love and Death in Venice, Teatro Lirico, dir. Stephen Stubbs, Virgin Classics, 1996