Camilla de Rossi

Camilla de Rossi (fl. 1670–1710) was an Italian composer known for composing oratorios in Vienna during the early 1700s. De Rossi has the most surviving works of any female composer in Northern Italy and Austria from the Baroque period.

Biography
Born in the late 17th century, Camilla likely had Roman citizenship, as she signed the title pages of her manuscripts as Romana, meaning 'a woman of Roman descent'. Rossi composed four oratorios for solo voices and orchestra, all of which were commissioned by Emperor Joseph I of Austria and were performed in the Imperial Chapel in Vienna.

Work
Rossi's surviving works have been praised for an "intimate knowledge" of stringed instruments, with professor Barbara Garvey Jackson describing her "keen interest in tone color". Her oratorios are all for solo voices with orchestral accompaniment; none of her works use choruses.

She calls for various instruments (chalumeaux, archlute, trumpets, oboe) with string orchestra (including continuo). Her oratorio, Il Sacrifizio di Abramo demands two chalumeaux, an instrument first heard in Vienna in 1707, one year before her oratorio was performed for the first time in 1708. Her cantata Frá Dori e Fileno is for strings and two soloists.

List of works

 * Oratorios, for solo voices, orchestra (MSS incl. some libs and orch pts in A-Wm; arias ed. B.G. Jackson in Arias from Oratorios by Women Composers of the Eighteenth Century, Fayetteville, AR, 1987–99):
 * Santa Beatrice d’Este (Benedetto Pamphili), 1707
 * Il sacrifizio di Abramo (F. Dario), 1708
 * Il figliuol prodigo (C. de Rossi),1709
 * Sant’Alessio, 1710
 * Frà Dori, e Fileno (cant.), S, A, str orch, D-Dl, ed. B.G. Jackson (Fayetteville, 1983)

Discography

 * Rossi, Camilla de: Sinfonia [with lute] from "Il Sacrifizio di Abramo, Perf. Terrie Baune, Judith Nelson and the Bay Area Women's Philharmonic. Providence, RI. Newport Classic, 1990
 * Oratorio "Sant'Alessio", perf. Ensemble Musica Fiorita, Daniela Dolci, director (soloists Graham Pushee, countertenor; Rosa Dominguez, soprano; Agnieszka Kowalezyk, soprano; William Lombardi, tenor), pan classics 510 136, 2001
 * "Il Sacrifizio di Abramo", Weser-Renaissance, Manfred Cordes, conductor (Soloists Susanna Rydén, soprano; Rolf Popken, alto; Jon Strömberg, tenor), Classic Produktion Osnabrück, cpo 999 3712, 1996
 * Santa Beatrice d'Este, Musica Fiorita; Daniela Dolci, conductor; (Soloists Graciella Oddone: Santa Beatrice, soprano; Denis Lakey: countertenor), ORF Edition Alte Musik, CD 3092