Domenico Lalli

Domenico Lalli
Engraved portrait of Lalli published in 1818
Born	Sebastiano Biancardi (1679-03-27)27 March 1679 Naples, Italy
Died	9 October 1741(1741-10-09) (aged 62) Venice, Italy
Known for	Opera librettist

Sebastiano Biancardi (27 March 1679 – 9 October 1741), known by the pseudonym Domenico Lalli, was an Italian poet and librettist. Amongst the many libretti he produced, largely for the opera houses of Venice, were those for Vivaldi's Ottone in villa and Alessandro Scarlatti's Tigrane. A member of the Accademia degli Arcadi, he also wrote under his arcadian name "Ortanio". Lalli was born and raised in Naples as the adopted son of Fulvio Caracciolo but fled the city after being implicated in a bank fraud. After two years wandering about Italy in the company of Emanuele d'Astorga, he settled in Venice in 1710 and worked as the "house poet" of the Grimani family's theatres for the rest of his career. In addition to his stage works, Lalli published several volumes of poetry and a collection of biographies of the kings of Naples. He died in Venice at the age of 62.

Modern accounts of Lalli's life prior to arriving in Venice are largely based on a biography included in a book of poetry which he published in 1732. The biography was written by the Venetian poet Giovanni Boldini who collaborated with Lalli on several of his libretti. A further biography of Lalli by Andrea Mazzarella was published in 1818 in Biografia degli uomini illustri del Regno di Napoli.

Sebastiano Biancardi, as he was then known, was born in Naples to Caterina (née Amendola) and Michele Biancardi. His father's family were originally merchants from Milan who had moved to Naples in the Middle Ages. At the age of 11 months, he was adopted by Fulvio Caracciolo, a member of a Neapolitan noble family and the second son of the Duke of Martina. Under Caracciolo he was educated in law and literature and was exposed to many prominent Neapolitan intellectuals, such as Giambattista Vico, who frequented the house. His adoptive father died in 1692, leaving Biancardi as his sole heir. At the age of 18, with both his natural and adoptive parents dead, he married Giustina Baroni. According to a late 18th-century biography of Lalli by Eustachio D'Afflitto, she was the sister of the Bishop of Calvi. By 1700, Biancardi had gone through most of his inheritance and with an ever-growing family to support took up a post as chief cashier at the bank of the Santissima Annunziata.