Cesti

In fact, she’s more famous today than celebrated male contemporaries like Luigi Rossi, Giacomo Carissimi and Antonio Cesti.

It devotes one program at Zankel Hall to Luigi Rossi, and the next to a mélange of Cavalli, Cesti, Monteverdi and Italian folk tunes.

Filippo Gallinella, an Umbrian legislator, called last week on Italians to support the region by choosing products like prosciutto di Norcia and Castelluccio lentils for their cesti natalizi, baskets stuffed with delicacies that are traditionally made and exchanged at Christmastime.

In 1977 he founded the ensemble Concerto Vocale, and he began his career as an operatic conductor in 1983 with a rarity: Cesti’s “L’Orontea.”

The earliest orchestral music for the horn occurs in the operas of Cavalli and Cesti, leaders of the Venetian Opera in the 17th century.