Despite the many scandals in his life, Alessandro Stradella rose to a position of great eminence in Rome, where his music was consistently acclaimed. At a time when opera was often denigrated by the Papacy, Stradella’s cantatas and serenatas proved enormously successful, their form housing a succession of recitatives, arias and instrumental pieces. The theme is the pain of love, to which Stradella responds with a limitless variety of expression and virtuosity, whether in the soprano echo effects of Arsi già di una fiamma, the near-operatic breadth of Or ch’alla dea notturna or the structural perfection of Infinite son le pene.