An international career, high European politics and court intrigue – it is high time Giovanni Alberto Ristori was brough back from oblivion. His parents were musicians and actors, so the young composer’s future seemed almost predetermined. What it still required, however, was talent and good fortune. His youthful opera Orlando furioso was such a great success in Venice that Antonio Vivaldi could not ignore it and soon produced his own version of the story of the mad paladin.

When fate brought Ristori to the Polish-Saxon court in Dresden, he was appointed ‘Composer of Italian Music’ and director of the cappella polacca – the ensemble that entertained Augustus II and Augustus III during their stays in Warsaw. On one such occasion, he presented a ‘royal serenata’, in which he displayed a keen sense of musical illustration by creating musical portraits of Vulcan, Fame, Peace and Oblivion. Soon afterwards, he presented in Warsaw a similar work of diplomatic propaganda to mark the anniversary of the coronation of Empress Anna Ivanovna, who had supported Augustus III in his struggle for the Polish succession.

The composer was associated with two musically gifted women: Maria Amalia, Queen of Naples, and Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis. The latter wrote the text for his cantata Didone abbandonata – the story of the tragically abandoned Queen of Carthage. During his stay in Naples, where his operas Temistocle and Adriano in Siria were staged with a star-studded cast, Ristori spied for the Saxon court. As the Queen's music teacher, he had access to her inner circle and regularly sent encrypted reports – some of which were intercepted – on court and political intrigues.

The music of this now-forgotten composer will be brought back from the shadows of history by Jakub Józef Orliński and the outstanding ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro under the direction of Maks Volbers.

Bartłomiej Gembicki