Personalities | Tommaso Traetta | Classical Era | Classical
(To-ma’-zo Tra-ât’-te) 1727–79
Italian composer
Trained in Naples, Traetta began his career as an opera composer there and in Rome. He was appointed to the Parma court in 1758, where his first few operas included two based on translations of texts used by Rameau, so bringing French structure into Italian opera (Ippolito ed Aricia, 1759; I tintaridi, ‘The Heavenly Twins, 1760, after Castor et Pollux). Further operas to French-based texts followed, at Vienna as well as Parma. Traetta moved to Venice as director of the Ospedaletto conservatory in 1765, and to St Petersburg in 1768, where he composed Antigone (1772) and other works for Catherine the Great’s court; he returned to Venice in 1777. His music is renowned for its exceptional richness of colour and dramatic force.
Recommended Recording:
Antigona, Accentus Chamber Choir, Talens Lyriques (dir) Christopher Rousset (Decca)
Introduction | Classical Era | Classical
Personalities | Georg Christoph Wagenseil | Classical Era | Classical
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