Giacomo Facco

Giacomo Facco (February 4, 1676 – February 16, 1753) was an Italian musical composer during the 16th and 17th centuries.

His life and work were rescued by the musicologist, composer, and conductor Uberto Zanolli.

Biography

Composer, violinist, and Italian teacher of chapel, Giacomo Facco was born—as he wrote up himself in a memorial, on "Venetian ground"—on February 4, 1676. He died in Madrid on February 16, 1753.

During many years he was conductor in Italy. In 1705 in Palermo (Sicily) in quality of teacher of chapel and virtuoso of violin of the Virrey Don Carlo Filippo Antonio Spinola Colonna, Marquess of the Balbases, Great of Spain, etc.; he released The Convite by Jose, oratorio to 4 voices and instruments. In 1708, when the Virrey transferred its residence to Messina, Giacomo Facco followed the Marquess of the Balbases and, in that city released, later, wrote The Fight between the Mercy and the Incredulity; and in 1710 presented, in the seat of the Cathedral, the composition Augury of Victories, dedicated to King Felipe V.

In a report of January 22, 1720, the Patriarch of the Indians, Cardinal D. Carlos de Borja de Centelles and Ponce of León, Archbishop of Trebisonda, notified that Giacomo Facco was with an excellent pay, in the Court of the King of Spain, after to have rejected equal received request of the Portuguese Court, where the Marquess of the Balbases was like Ambassador of S.M King Felipe V. On February 9, Giacomo Facco was named Masterful of clavicordio of the Prince of Asturias, the Infant Luis, future Luis I King. Successively was Masterful of the Infant and Prince of Asturias (future Fernando VI King); and on October 1, 1731 was named Musical Masterful of the Infant Don Carlos (future Carlos III King).

Considered between the best composers of music of its time, Madrid’s Council ordered to him, in 1720, the composition of an opera on text of Jose de Cañizares. The opera titled "Love is all Invention or Jupiter and Amphitrion", was released in the Coliseo of the Good Retirement and dedicated to Saints Martha and Mary to celebrate, in January 1721, the marriage of its student, Prince de Asturias, with Isabel of Orleans.

Victim of diverse intrigues of other colleagues without scruples, Giacomo Facco was slowly displaced of his positions until being, in the last years of its life, only like violinist in the Orchestra of the Real Chapel.

Giacomo Facco wrote a cycle of twelve concerts for violin, arcs and organ with the title of "Pensieri Adriarmonici (Thoughts Adriarmonicous)", published in Amsterdam, the first book in 1716 and the second in 1718, with the catalogue numbers 469 and 477 respectively. They were found in the Archive of Vizcain School (or La Paz Collegium), located in Mexico City. Exquisite and sensible poet, Giacomo Facco wrote texts for his own cantatas, like Clori, founded at the National Library of Paris and presented by soprano [http://bettyfabila.blogspot.com Betty Fabila] with the conducting of [http://www.ubertozanolli.com Uberto Zanolli] for the first time on 1962 at the Castle of Chapultepec in Mexico City.

Other compositions of Giacomo Facco are: "Celebrating for the days of Our Queen" (with text of Cañizares); the "Loa" opera and the "Serenade to six voices" that were released in Lisbon. In addition, it is of supposition which the religious music that surely wrote for the Real Chapel of Madrid was destroyed, next to other orquestales compositions in the 1734 fire.

All this information was provided from Uberto Zanolli, an Italian-Mexican composer who found the music of Facco’s "Pensieri Adriarmonici" justly at the Archive of Vizcain in Mexico City on 1962. Since then, Zanolli worked on the reconstructing of the biography and musicological rescue of Facco’s work. Product of it was, among others great things, the discovery of the act’s birth of Facco.

Thanks to Uberto Zanolli, the music of Facco could be knowledge newly not only to the Mexican people, but all the world.

References

* Giacomo Facco, teacher of kings (1965) Uberto Zanolli.