Ceruti, Roque (c. 1683–1760)

Roque Ceruti (b. ca. 1683; d. 6 December 1760), Italian composer active in Peru. Born in Milan, then under Spanish rule, Ceruti studied the violin there until 1706. When the Marquis Castell dos Ríus, viceroy of Peru, appointed him director of music, Ceruti settled in Lima, where he conducted the premiere of his opera El mejor escudo de Perseo at the viceroyal palace on 17 September 1708. In 1720 he moved to Trujillo and was named maestro de capilla of the cathedral there (1721–1728). In 1728 Ceruti succeeded Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco as maestro de capilla of the Lima cathedral, remaining in that position until his death. During Ceruti's tenure the cathedral continued to be an active music center. Ceruti composed and published numerous works: mythological operas and pastorals, secular and religious music, some in Spanish, others on Latin texts. His manuscripts are kept in the Lima Archives, in the San Antonio Abad Seminary in Cuzco, in Sucre cathedral, in Santa Clara Conventín Cochabamba, in private collections, and at the archive of the church of San Francisco de Asís in Montevideo. He died in Lima.

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robert M. Stevenson, The Music of Peru (1960) and Renaissance and Baroque Musical Sources in the Americas (1970); New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 4 (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Estenssoro, Juan Carlos. Música y sociedad coloniales: Lima, 1680–1830. Lima: Editorial Colmillo Blanco, 1989.

                                         Susana Salgado