‘The Barber of Seville’ Composed: 1782 Premiered: 1782, St Petersburg Libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, after Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Act I Count Almaviva stands below the window of Rosina, ward of Dr Bartolo, serenading her. Figaro, a self-important barber, arrives. Rosina appears at the window and drops a note for the Count, asking him ...
(Jo-van’-ne Pi-se-el’-lo) 1740–1816 Italian composer Paisiello was trained in Naples and had early successes as an opera composer there and in north Italy. He served as court composer to Catherine the Great in St Petersburg, 1776–84; there, in 1782, he wrote Il barbiere di Siviglia, his most admired comic opera. He returned to Italy and spent most of ...
1740–1816, Italian Giovanni Paisiello scored his first successes in opera buffa. Compositions such as L’idolo cinese (‘The Chinese Idol’, 1767) were performed to enthusiastic audiences all over Italy. Paisiello’s talents rivalled those of other prominent composers, such as Cimarosa. Like Cimarosa and others, he caught the interest of Empress Catherine of Russia, who invited Paisiello to St ...
(Jo-van’-e An’-ne-moo-chya) c. 1500–71 Italian composer Animuccia, who lived and worked in Rome in the 1550s and 1560s, was one of the earliest composers of music for the Catholic Counter-Reformation. For Filippo Neri and his Oratorians he composed two books of laudi spirituali, simple devotional songs with Latin or Italian texts. His first book of Masses (1567) was, ...
(Jo-van’-ne Gab-re-a’-le) c. 1553–1612 Italian composer Gabrieli was taught by his uncle Andrea Gabrieli and, like him, was first employed in Munich with Lassus. After Andrea’s death Giovanni became principal composer for St Mark’s, Venice, and he wrote much of his music with its choir (and building) in mind. His musical debt to his uncle is evident in ...
(Jo-van’-ne Gas-tol’-de) c. 1550s–1622 Italian composer Gastoldi spent much of his career in Mantua, where in the early 1590s he composed music for a production of Battista Guarini’s famous play, Il pastor fido (‘The Faithful Shepherd’); although the production was scrapped, Gastoldi published some of his music in 1602. He is best known, however, for his ballettos ...
(Jo-van’-e Per-loo-e’-je da Pa-les-tre’-na) 1525/6–94 Italian composer Palestrina is named after a small town near Rome, where he is thought to have been born. He was educated in Rome; in 1537 he was a choirboy at the basilica of S Maria Maggiore, one of the city’s principal churches and an important musical establishment. By 1544 he was back in Palestrina ...
(Jo-van’-e Bo-non-che’ne) 1670–1747 Italian composer Bononcini came from a musical family in Modena; his father Giovanni Maria was the maestro di cappella of Modena Cathedral and his younger brother, Antonio Maria, was a talented cellist and composer. The younger Giovanni was also a cellist and studied music in Bologna. He worked in Milan, then Rome – where he wrote ...
(Jo-van’-ne Bat-tes’-ta Pâr-go-la’-ze) 1710–36 Italian composer Pergolesi studied in Naples with Francesco Durante (1684–1755). He received his first commission in 1731 and the following year was appointed maestro di cappella to the equerry of the Viceroy of Naples. Pergolesi composed comic and serious opera, sacred music and a small quantity of instrumental music. He is chiefly remembered for two works of ...
(Jo-van’-ne Bat-tes’-ta Mär-te’-ne) 1706–84 Italian theorist and composer Padre Martini, as he was always known, was the most influential theorist and musical thinker of his time. He was born in Bologna, traditionally a centre of learning, where he studied with his father and leading musicians before entering a monastery. He returned to Bologna as organist and then as ...
(Jo-van’-ne Bat-tes’-ta Ve-ot’-te) 1755–1824 Italian violinist and composer The most influential violinist between Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770) and Paganini, Viotti is considered the founder of modern violin playing. He studied with Gaetano Pugnani and played in the royal chapel orchestra at Turin for five years (in the back desk of the first violins), before going on tour with his teacher. Viotti moved ...
1615–51, Italian Librettist and theatre manager Giovanni Faustini, who was born in Venice, wrote 11 libretti for Venetian opera houses in nine years – between 1642 and 1651 – and 10 of them were set to music by Francesco Cavalli. Cavalli owed a great deal to Faustini’s skill and to his unerring ‘feel’ for the pseudo-historical subjects of ...
1626–90, Italian Giovanni Legrenzi composed his first operas at Ferrara, where he became maestro di cappella at the Accademia dello Spirito Santo in 1656. He began with Nino il giusto (‘Nino the Just’, 1662) and in the next three years produced Achille in Sciro (1663) and Zenobia e Radamisto (1665). Subsequently, Legrenzi led a nomadic life, travelling ...
1653–97, Italian Castrato Siface made his singing debut in Rome in 1672. He enjoyed considerable early success in Italy and created a sensation in Venice as Syphax in Cavalli’s Sciopine affricano (‘Scipio Africanus’, 1685). Siface became so identified with the part that ‘Syphax’ became his nickname. Siface was taken up by many important personalities, including ex-Queen Christina of Sweden ...
1670–1747, Italian Bononcini was orphaned at the age of eight, and moved to Bologna, where he studied music and was accepted into the Accademia Filarmonica in 1686. By 1692, Bononcini had moved to Rome, where he met Silvio Stampiglia. They collaborated on several operas, including Il trionfo di Camilla (‘The Triumph of Camilla’, 1696), which ...
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