composer who, with Francesco Cavalli, was one of the leading Italian composers of the 17th century.

Cesti studied in Rome and then moved to Venice, where his first known opera, Orontea, was produced in 1649. In 1652 he became chapelmaster to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at Innsbruck, a post he combined for a time with membership in the papal choir. From 1666 to 1669 he was vice chapelmaster to the imperial court in Vienna.

Throughout the 17th century his operas were widely performed in Italy and elsewhere. His most sumptuous opera, Il pomo d'oro (1667; The Golden Apple); his masterpiece, Dori (1661); and his most popular opera, Orontea, appear in modern editions. He is said to have written about 100 operas, but only 15 are extant. Christ Church, Oxford, Eng., possesses an important manuscript collection of 18 secular and three sacred cantatas. Numerous other cantatas are preserved elsewhere. His cantatas and his religious plays show the influence of the more conservative, contrapuntal Roman school; his operas, that of the more progressive Venetian school. But the solemn and lyrical vocal lines of his cantatas reflect the bel canto style that he helped introduce from the cantata into the opera. In this, in his harmonic language, and in his emphasis on the singer and the aria, as against text and recitative, he foreshadowed operatic developments of the 18th century.