Italian composer, born in Scandiano, near Modena. He directed music in various Italian cities (at the cathedrals of Reggio and Milan, the Accademia dello Spirito Santo at Ferrara, S. Maria Maggiore at Bergamo), and served at the courts of Munich and Modena. He wrote intermezzi and operatic music and was one of the more talented composers of small-scale concertato motets and madrigals, tempering melodic expressiveness with structural subtlety.