Skirmishing Before the Battle: The Scarlatti-Roseingrave Narciso of 1720

At the end of August 1719, Domenico Scarlatti resigned as maestro of the Cappella Giulia, the choir of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The puntatore of the Cappella, Francesco Colignani, recorded in his official diary on 3 September that Giuseppe Antonio Pitoni had taken over as maestro, “Sig. Scarlatti having left for England”.1 In the event, Scarlatti did not go to England. But the following spring a revised version of one of his Roman operas was performed at the King’s Theatre as the third and final offering in the short first season of the Royal Academy of Music, the score adapted by his friend Thomas Roseingrave. Scarlatti himself was in Lisbon, overseeing music for the king of Portugal.