(b Milan, 1686; d Turin, 6 Oct 1732). Italian composer, son of Angelo Maria Fiorè. He was a child prodigy: in the dedication of his Sinfonie da chiesa dated 20 April 1699 he explained that the pieces ‘are the last squalls of my infancy, and the first expressions of my boyhood, I having just turned 13’. The title-page of this collection of 12 trio sonatas indicates that he was musico di camera of the dedicatee, Vittorio Amedeo II, Duke of Savoy, a member of the Bolognese Accademia Filarmonica (which he joined with his father in 1697), and Milanese by birth. The royal account books in the Turin State Archive (I-Ta) show that the duke sent Andrea Stefano (mistakenly named Giovanni Battista in a document), with G.B. Somis, to study in Rome. Several payments for the trip were made between 24 June 1703 and 20 January 1707 although Somis had returned to Turin in 1706. If Engelberta, an opera previously attributed to B.G. Marcello and performed in Milan in 1704, is Fiorè’s work, as is now accepted, then he may have returned from Rome as early as 1704. An opera composed for Carnival 1707, La casta Penelope (if not also L’Anfitrione, attributed to Fiorè by Manferrari), was well received, and the Duke of Savoy soon thereafter appointed Fiorè his maestro di cappella (13 June 1707). Until his death in 1732 he was in charge of the 30 to 36 musicians at the Turin court and the singers at the cathedral. 16 scores of sacred music in the cathedral chapter archive (I-Td) testify to his direction of the choir there.
While Turin’s Teatro Regio remained closed (1704–14), Fiorè was at liberty to produce operas elsewhere; three in Vienna (1708–10) and one in Reggio nell’Emilia (1713) imply trips to those cities. For the reopening of the Turin opera house in 1715 Fiorè composed Il trionfo d’Amore. Two of his later operas for Turin, Sesostri (1717) and I veri amici (1728), were written with G.A. Giai, his successor as maestro at the Savoy court.
In a letter to B.G. Marcello from Turin, on 2 February 1726, Fiorè expressed admiration for Marcello’s counterpoint; Marcello printed the letter in his collection of psalm settings (Venice, 1726). Quantz, who visited Turin in June 1726 and praised Fiorè’s orchestra and its leader Somis, wrote that he regarded Fiorè one of the best Italian composers of church sonatas. Until more scores of his operas come to light, modern judgment of Fiorè’s music must be based chiefly on his published trios, a handful of solo cantatas and his surviving choral music.
WORKS operas
opere serie unless otherwise stated
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Engelberta (5, P. Pariati, after A. Zeno), Milan, Regio Ducal, 1704
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La casta Penelope (2, Pariati), Milan, Regio Ducal, carn. 1707
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La Svanvita (3, Pariati), Milan, Regio Ducal, 26 Dec 1707
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Atenaide [Act 1] (3, Zeno), ?Milan, Barcelona or Vienna, Hof, carn. 1709, A-Wn [Act 2 by A. Caldara, Act 3 by F. Gasparini]
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Ercole in cielo (Pariati), Vienna, Neue Favorita, 1 Oct 1710, Wn
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Il trionfo di Camilla (3, S. Stampiglia), Reggio nell’Emilia, Publico, fiera 1713
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Il trionfo d’Amore ossia La Fillide (favola boschereccia, 2), Turin, Regio, carn. 1715, ? collab. or by G.A. Giai
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Arideno (3), Turin, Ducal, 26 Dec 1715
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Merope (3, Zeno), Turin, Carignano, carn. 1716
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Teuzzone (3, Bursetti, after Zeno), Turin, Carignano, Sept 1716 [Acts 1 and 2 by G. Casanova]
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Sesostri, rè d’Egitto (3, Bursetti, after Pariati), Turin, Carignano, carn. 1717, collab. Giai, F-Pn
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Il trionfo di Lucilla (3, Zeno: Lucio Vero), Turin, Carignano, carn. 1718
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Publio Cornelio Scipione (5, A. Piovene), Milan, Regio Ducal, 6 Feb 1718
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Il pentimento generoso (3, D. Lalli), Venice, S Angelo, carn. 1719, perf. with La preziosa ridicola (int); 1 aria D-SWl
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L’Argippo (pastoral, 3, C.N. Stampa after Lalli: Il gran mogol), Milan, Regio Ducal, 27 Aug 1722
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Ariodante (3, G. Salvi, after L. Ariosto), Milan, Regio Ducal, 26 Dec 1722, 1 aria, F-Pn
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L’innocenza difesa (F. Silvani), Turin, 1722, perf. with Gildo e Nerina (int), 12 arias, Pc
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Il trionfo della fedeltà (3, Giovanetti), Turin, Ducal, carn. 1723, perf. with Lesbo e Nesa (int), arias Pn
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Elena (3, Stampa), Milan, Regio Ducal, Jan 1725
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I veri amici (3, Silvani and Lalli, after P. Corneille: Héraclius empereur d’Orient), Turin, Ducal, 1728, arias A-Wgm, F-Pn [Act 1 by Giai]
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Siroe, rè di Persia (3, P. Metastasio), Turin, Ducal, 26 Dec 1729, 4 arias Pc; arias, I-Vc
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Arias from unidentified operas in A-Wgm, D-RH, SWl, GB-Lbl, Ob, I-Ac
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Doubtful: Sidonio (3, Pariati), Milan, Regio Ducal, carn. 1706; L’Anfitrione (5, Pariati), Milan, Regio Ducal, carn. 1707; Agrippina, Vienna, Hof, 1709, incl. music by Handel and Caldara; Tito Manlio [Act 1], Milan, Regio Ducal, 1710, A-Wn; Zenobia [Act 2], Barcelona, 1711, perf. with Melissa contenta (int), Wn; Il Pirro [Act 2], Venice or Bologna, 1719, D-SHs
| cantatas -
Di quel sguardo fatal, S, bc, A-Wn, I-Bc
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Fileno, idolo mio, S, bc, D-Mbs
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Il lasciarti è il mio tormento, S, S, bc, I-Ac
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Le retour de Flore, S, bc, D-ROu
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Se lungi dal suo bel, S, S, bc, I-Ac
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Tortorelle imprigionate, S, bc, cited by Gerber
| sacred vocal
all in I-Td
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[2] Litanie a più voci e strumenti, B, C
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Messa, 8vv, insts
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Miserere, 8vv, insts
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2 Te Deum, vv, insts
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Vespro pro defunti, 8vv, insts
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Motets: Benedicite, vv, insts; Ecce nunc benedicite, 4vv, insts; Festinate, vv, insts; Magnus Deus de coelis, vv, insts; Quantae poenae, vv, insts; Voce mea, 5vv, insts
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[3] Annui Sacrae redunt, vv, insts
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[12] Sinfonie da chiesa a 3, 2 vn, vc, org, op.1 (Modena, 1699)
| BIBLIOGRAPHY
EitnerQ; FétisB; GerberNL; HawkinsH; SartoriB; WaltherML
P. Breggi: Serie degli spettacoli rappresentati al Teatro regio di Torino dal 1688 al 1872 (Turin, 1872)
S. Cordero di Pamparato: Il Teatro Regio dal 1678 al 1814 (Turin, 1930)
U. Manferrari: Dizionario universale delle opere melodrammatiche, i (Florence, 1954), 389–90
M.-T. Bouquet: Musique et musiciens à Turin de 1648 à 1775 (Turin, 1968, and Paris, 1969), 22, 38, 52ff, 159–60
R. Strohm: Italienische Opernarien des frühen Settecento (1720–1730); AnMC, no.16 (1976)
SVEN HANSELL
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