Carlo Francesco Pollarolo
Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (ca. 1653 – 7 February 1723) was an Italian composer, organist, and music director. He wrote about 85 operas and 13 oratorios. Early in his career his music followed the styles of Legrenzi and Pallavicino, but he later expanded aria forms and added richer orchestration. He was the first Venetian opera composer and one of the first Italian composers to use the oboe in opera.
Born in Brescia into a family of musicians, his father Orazio was an organist. Carlo Francesco trained with his father and began as organist at Santa Maria della Pace in Brescia. He then became organist of the Brescia Cathedral (1680) and later maestro di cappella there. He also led the Accademia degli Erranti (1681–1689), whose productions included his first opera Venere travestita (1678).
He returned to opera in 1684 with Il Roderico and La Rosinda (1685), and his works were performed in Brescia, Vienna, Venice, Milan, and Rome. His operas grew in popularity in Venice in the late 1680s, and he moved his family to Venice in 1689. In 1690 he became second organist at St Mark’s Basilica and was promoted to vicemaestro di cappella two years later; his son Antonio would later succeed him.
From 1691 to 1707 he was the most prolific opera composer in Venice and dominated the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo. He continued writing operas into his 60s, with his last, L’Arminio, staged in 1722 during illness. He died on 7 February 1723 and is buried in the Scalzi, Venice.
Besides opera, Pollarolo directed music at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice (roughly 1696–1718) and wrote several Latin oratorios for the conservatory students, including Tertius crucis triumphus, Samson vindicatus, Joseph in Aegypto, Rex regum, and Davidis de Goliath triumphus.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:45 (CET).