Bellerofonte Castaldi

Bellerofonte Castaldi (1580 – 27 September 1649) was an Italian composer, poet and lutenist.^[1]

Castaldi was born in Collegara, near Modena. He wrote male parts in his songs for tenors as he was opposed to the practice of castrati or male falsettists singing female parts in cantatas. In the preface to his collection, Primo mazzetto he writes that it is "laughable that a man with the voice of a woman should set about proposing to his mistress".^[2][3]

He died in Modena in 1649.

Works, editions and recordings

• Primo mazzetto di fiori musicalmente colti dal giardino bellerofonteo - monodies, duets, and trios, with basso continuo (Venice, 1623).

Editions

• Capricci a 2 stromenti cioè tiorba e tiorbino e per sonar solo varie sorti di balli e fantasticarie (1622). Edited by David Dolata, as Capricci (1622), 2 vols. Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era 142 & 143. Part 1: Duos for Theorbo and Tiorbino; Sonatas for Theorbo. Part 2: Dances and Other Works for Theorbo; Songs with Tablature Accompaniment. Middleton, Wisc.: A-R Editions, 2006. ISBN 978-0-89579-591-5 (vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-89579-592-2 (vol. 2)

Recordings

• Battaglia d'amore. Castaldi's settings of his own poetry. CD. Gian Paolo Fagotto (tenor). David Dolata, lute. Victor Coelho, lute. Neil Cockburn, harpsichord. Il-Furioso. Toccata Classics

References

1. Nigel Fortune and David Dolata, "Castaldi, Bellerofonte", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
2. Julie Anne Sadie (ed.), Companion to Baroque Music, with a foreword by Christopher Hogwood (London: Dent, 1990). ISBN 0-460-04602-0. Reprinted New York: Schirmer Books, 1991. ISBN 0-02-872275-2. Reprinted Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816704-0.
3. Kathleen Coyne Kelly and Marina Leslie, Menacing Virgins: Representing Virginity in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1999): 233. ISBN 0-87413-649-0.