Songs and Arias Ornamented by Giovanni Battista Velluti, the Last Operatic Castrato

This edition consists of twenty-nine songs and arias from the early nineteenth-century solo vocal music repertoire to which Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Velluti (1780–1861) composed (and frequently, though not always, published) ornamentation. The last great operatic castrato, Velluti, over the course of his career, became increasingly well known not only for his singing, but also for his creative, adventuresome ornaments. His publications of ornamented songs and arias were frequent throughout the last decade of his career, when his singing style became less purely virtuosic and more concerned with affect. The edition includes only ornamented solo songs and arias with a secure attribution to Velluti. Those with doubtful or spurious attribution are excluded, as are Velluti’s ornamented duets and trios, as well as arias in full orchestral score.