Italian librettist, composer(b Reggio nell’Emilia, probably in 1603 or 1604; d Modena, 22 Oct 1681). , instrumentalist, impresario and poet. Together with Francesco Manelli he established the tradition of public operatic performances at Venice. 1. Life. Most biographers have followed Tiraboschi in giving Ferrari’s date of birth as about 1597. Tiraboschi deduced this date from his reading of the libri camerali of Modena, in which Ferrari is recorded as having died in 1681 at the age of 84. He supported his conclusion with the (groundless) conjecture that a portrait with the inscription ‘aetatis ann. XXXX’ which appeared in the 1644 edition of L’Andromeda might have been reproduced from the first (1637) edition of the libretto. An earlier portrait does survive, in the first edition of the favola la maga fulminata (1638), in which Ferrari’s age is given as 34; both inscriptions thus suggest a birthdate of 1603 or 1604, and this seems to be confirmed by the earliest evidence of Ferrari’s career as a musician. Between 1617 and 1618 he was a member of the choir of the Collegio Germanico, Rome. The few references to him in the college archives for these years suggest that he was still a choirboy, since they record payments made to the rector of the college for clothing him and paying for his journeys to Parma (and once for rescuing his father from prison). By 17 July 1618 he had left the choir, and from 1 January 1619 until 31 March 1623 he was employed as a musician at the Farnese court at Parma. He may also have revisited his native town at this period: a ‘Benedetto da Parma’ was listed among the singers at Reggio nell’Emilia Cathedral in 1618 and 1620. The course of Ferrari’s career between 1623 and 1637 is uncertain, though he seems to have been known at the Modenese court. On 8 August 1623 he wrote from the home of his uncle, the governor of Sestola, near Lucca, to Alfonso d’Este, enclosing examples of his compositions for two and five voices (lost); ten years later he dedicated his first book of Musiche varie to Duke Francesco I d’Este. Between 1637 and 1644 Ferrari was active mainly in Venice, working both as librettist and composer to produce a steady stream of operas for the new commercial theatres. His Andromeda, set to music by Manelli and staged in 1637 at the Teatro S Cassiano, was in fact the earliest Venetian opera to which the paying public was admitted and it was staged, according to the libretto, largely at the performers’ expense. For this production he also acted as impresario and played the theorbo in the orchestra. The success of Andromeda prompted Manelli and Ferrari to collaborate again in 1638 to produce the opera La maga fulminata. After this their partnership lapsed, at least as far as Venice was concerned. In 1640 and 1641, however, they were both active in a touring company which presented Venetian opera at Bologna: Ferrari’s virtuosity as a theorbo player was again noted in 1640, when he played in the Bolognese revival of Manelli’s Delia; and in 1641 La maga fulminata and Il pastor regio, an opera with both text and music by Ferrari, were performed at Bologna. Little is known for certain of Ferrari’s career between 1644 and 1651, though it has been suggested that he was employed at Modena during these years. Certainly he wrote the ballet La vittoria d’Imeneo for performance there in 1648. His presence is also noted at other centres. He seems to have been responsible for productions at Genoa in 1645 of Delia and of Cavalli’s Egisto, and at Milan in 1646 of Delia and Il pastor regio. His Il pastor regio and Armida were revived at Piacenza on 15 April and 22 and 26 May 1646, respectively, and the same city saw a production of his setting of Egisto on 22 January 1651 (Bianconi and Walker). In 1651 he travelled to Vienna to serve the Emperor Ferdinand III as instrumentalist and director of court festivities. He arrived there on 12 November 1651, having broken his journey at Innsbruck where he was given gifts by Archduke Ferdinand Karl (see letter of 18 November 1651 in I-La). His L’inganno d’Amore, set to music by Antonio Bertali and given before the imperial electors at the Diet of Regensburg in 1653, effectively marked the introduction of Italian opera into imperial court circles. He returned from Vienna to Modena after 31 March 1653 and, according to Tiraboschi, was appointed court choirmaster there on 1 September 1653. At Modena his Andromeda was revived for the opening of the Teatro della Speltà in 1656. Apart from renewing his contact with the court at Parma in 1660, he remained at Modena until July 1662, when he was dismissed for economic reasons. He spent the next 12 years in his home city of Reggio nell’Emilia. When, in 1674, Duke Francesco II d’Este succeeded to the duchy and began the process of reconstituting the musical establishment at Modena, Ferrari was not immediately given his former position. On his behalf the court archivist Lodovico Tagliavini sent the duke a long and interesting petition (transcribed by Tiraboschi) in which he refuted charges that Ferrari was a dull, old-fashioned composer and gave an account of his career and achievements. In addition to Ferrari’s theorbo playing Tagliavini drew attention to his skill in performing accompaniments on the spinet. Ferrari was reinstated on 1 December 1674 and served as choirmaster, jointly with Giuseppe Paini, until his death. He was buried in the church of the Paradiso in Modena. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Benedetto+Ferrari">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.