1659. =Alessandro Scarlatti= (Trapani), 1659-1725. Composer of one hundred and fifteen operas; is important as the first to largely employ set forms in his works. His use of the Da capo Aria, although at first attended with success, became so popular as to be the means of its own undoing. He also uses the orchestral ritornello, occasionally employed by Monteverde, and is the first composer to make full use of the orchestra for the accompaniment of recitative. While histrionically interesting, little of his music would be accepted to-day. 1659. =Francesco A. Pistocchi= (Palermo). A member of the Bolognese school of composers. 1660. =André Campra= (Aix, Provence). Popular writer of French opera, who attempted to combine the features of the Italian and French schools; he produced about thirty works of high rank. 1661. =J. A. Perti= (Bologna). Another member of the Bolognese school; produced operas in his native town and at Venice. 1667. =Antonio Lotti= (Venice). Produced an opera before he was sixteen years of age, and wrote many others in after life. 1667. =Dr. Pepusch= (Berlin). Famous German composer who settled in London, and collected the songs and pieces which made up _The Beggar’s Opera_, the first of a long line of such ballad operas. 1670 (?). =Johann Conradi.= Early writer of German opera; produced works at Hamburg. 1672. =Giovanni Batiste Buononcini= (Modena), 1672-1750 (?). Writer of twenty-two operas; mainly famous as having been the selected composer pitted against Handel, with disastrous results to both parties financially. 1672. =André Destouches= (Paris). Wrote a famous opera, _Issé_; and many other works for the stage. 1674. =Reinhard Keiser= (Weissenfels), 1674-1739. First important composer of German opera, composing sometimes as many as eight in one year; one hundred and sixteen works stand to his name, many with the recitatives in German and the arias in Italian. 1675. =Marc Antonio Buononcini= (Modena). Wrote an opera, _Camilla_, which was played sixty-four times in England during four years; brother of Handel’s rival. 1677. Production of Purcell’s _Dido and Æneas_, the first real English opera. 1678 (?). =Antonio Caldara= (Venice). Wrote sixty-six operas, besides a large number of oratorios and other works. 1680 (?). =Senesino.= Famous male soprano, who appeared in many of the operas Handel wrote for London; he retired from the stage in 1735 with a fortune of £15,000.