LUIGI DE

See also:

• LUIGI DE ROSSI
• ROSSI, PELLEGRINO LUIGI EDOARDO, COUNT (1787-1848)

ROSSI  , a 17th-century Italian musical composer, said to have been born at Naples towards the close of the 16th century . Of his life practically nothing is known . An opera of his, Il Palazzo Incantato, was given at Rome in 1642; in 1646 he was invited by Cardinal Mazarin to Paris, where he gave his opera Le Mariage d'Orphee et d'Euridice (1647), the first Italian opera performed in Paris . A collection of cantatas published in 1646 describes him as musician to Cardinal Antonio Berberini, and G . A . Perti in 1688 speaks of him along with Carissimi and Cesti as " the three greatest lights of our profession." Rossi is noteworthy principally for his chamber-cantatas, which are among the finest that the 17th century produced . A large quantity are in MS. in the British Museum and in Christ Church library, Oxford . La Gelosia, printed by F.A . Gevaert in Les Gloires d'Italie, is an admirable specimen .