Editing Domenico Scarlatti (section)

==Life and career ==
Scarlatti was born in [[Naples]], [[Kingdom of Naples]], then belonging to the [[Spanish Empire]]. He was born in 1685, the same year as [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] and [[George Frideric Handel]].<ref name=EB /> He was the sixth of ten children of the composer and teacher [[Alessandro Scarlatti]]. His older brother [[Pietro Filippo Scarlatti|Pietro Filippo]] was also a musician.

Scarlatti first studied music under his father.<ref>{{cite web |title=Domenico Scarlatti |url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Domenico-Scarlatti/Composer/10743-1 |website=ArkivMusic: the source for classical music |access-date=2 October 2018 |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027063015/http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Domenico-Scarlatti/Composer/10743-1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Other composers who may have been his early teachers include [[Gaetano Greco]], [[Francesco Gasparini]], and [[Bernardo Pasquini]], all of whom may have influenced his musical style.

Scarlatti was appointed as a composer and [[organist]] at the [[Chapel Royal of Naples]] in 1701 and briefly worked under his father, who was then the chapel's ''maestro di cappella''. In 1703 he revised [[Carlo Francesco Pollarolo]]'s opera ''Irene'' for performance at Naples. Soon after, his father sent him to [[Venice]]. After this, nothing is known of his life until 1709, when he went to [[Rome]] and entered the service of the exiled Polish queen [[Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien|Marie Casimire]]. It was there he met [[Thomas Roseingrave]]. Scarlatti was already an accomplished [[harpsichord]]ist; there is a story of a trial of skill with [[George Frideric Handel]] at the palace of [[Pietro Ottoboni (cardinal)|Cardinal Ottoboni]] in Rome, where Scarlatti was judged possibly superior to Handel on the [[harpsichord]], although inferior on the [[organ (music)|organ]]. Later in life, he was known to [[Sign of the cross|cross himself]] in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill.<ref>Boyd, Malcolm. ''Domenico Scarlatti: Master of Music'' (1986)</ref>

While in Rome, Scarlatti composed several operas, including ''[[Tolomeo e Alessandro]]'' (1711) and ''[[Amor d'un'ombra e gelosia d'un'aura]]'' (1714) for Queen Casimir's private theatre. He was ''Maestro di Cappella'' at St. Peter's from 1715 to 1719. In 1719 he travelled to London to direct ''Amor d'un'ombra e gelosia d'un'aura'' under the title ''Narciso'' at the [[Her Majesty's Theatre|King's Theatre]].

According to Vicente Bicchi, [[Nuncio|Papal Nuncio]] in Portugal at the time, Scarlatti arrived in [[Lisbon]] on 29 November 1719. There he taught music to the Portuguese princess [[Barbara of Portugal|Maria Magdalena Barbara]]. He left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728. In 1729 he moved to [[Seville]], staying for four years. In 1733, he went to Madrid as a music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house. She later became Queen of Spain. Scarlatti remained in Spain for the remaining 25 years of his life and had five children there. After his wife died in 1739, he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes. Among his compositions during his time in Madrid were most of the 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known.

Scarlatti befriended the [[castrato]] singer [[Farinelli]], a fellow Neapolitan also enjoying royal patronage in Madrid. Musicologist and harpsichordist [[Ralph Kirkpatrick]], who published a biography of Scarlatti in 1953, commented that Farinelli's correspondence provides "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day".

Scarlatti died in Madrid at the age of 71. His residence at 35 Calle de Leganitos is designated with a historical plaque, and his descendants still live in Madrid. He was buried at a convent there, but his grave no longer exists.

Minor planet [[6480 Scarlatti]] is named in his honour.<ref>|{{cite book|publisher=Springer |date=2003 |isbn=978-3-540-29925-7 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_5896 |chapter=(6479) Leoconnolly |title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |page=536 }}</ref>