Alessandro Stradella, an Italian musician, born in Naples about 1G45, assassinated in Genoa in 1678. He was a singer, violinist, and composer. At Venice he was employed to teach Hortensia, a noble Roman lady of great beauty, with whom a Venetian nobleman was in love. Stradella and Hortensia fell in love and eloped to Rome. Assassins hired by the Venetian found them there, but were so moved by Stradella's music and singing at the church of St. John Lateran, where he was directing the performance of his oratorio "St. 1 John the Baptist," that they informed him of their purpose, and that they had abandoned it. Stradella and Hortensia fled to Turin, where they were favorably received by the duchess regent, and were married. The Venetian hired other assassins, who finally succeeded in wounding Stradella, but he recovered. The next year he and his wife went to Genoa to arrange for the performance of an opera which he had composed at the request of the city. Here other assassins rushed into their chamber and murdered them both.

His principal works are the Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista and Laforza dell' amor pater-no, opera seria (Genoa, 1G78).