Niccoló Piccinni
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Niccolò Piccinni (1728, Bari, Italy – 1800, France) was a prominent Italian composer of the 18th century. Although he is somewhat obscure, even to music lovers today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly, the Neapolitan opera buffa (comic opera)—of his day. Historically, he had the misfortune of falling between the generations of his great predecessors such as Pergolesi and the greats who came after him, including Domenico Cimarosa and Mozart. Nevertheless, one critic has said that his comic opera, Pamela, La Buona Figliuola...
- "… was fantastically successful; it enjoyed a two-year run in Rome and was played in all the important European capitals. It can probably be called the most popular opera buffa of the 18th century...[even more than]... Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona…[and]… The first of the new era, culminating in the masterworks of Mozart." <ref>Holmes</ref>
One anecdote states that Mozart, himself, is supposed to have remarked that he wanted to compose comic opera as good as that of Piccinni. It is fair to say that between 1760—the year of La Cecchina (with libretto by Goldoni)—and the coming of the generation of composers such as Cimarosa in the 1780s, no Italian composer was held in higher esteem throughout Europe than Piccinni. The music conservatory in Piccinni's hometown of Bari is named for him.
Piccinni was precocious and entered the S. Onofrio Conservatory in Naples in May 1742 and studied there until 1754. He became a prolific composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera (some estimates claim he wrote as many as 300 operas). In 1776 he accepted a well–paying appointment at the court of France. He represented one–half of the debate raging in Paris between the Italian style of music and the influential school of Gluck. Thus, it was the "Piccinnists" versus the "Gluckists," Piccinni returned to Naples in 1791 when the French Revolution cut off his stipend. In Naples, he was accused of being a revolutionary and placed under house arrest for four years. At the end of his life, he returned to France, where he died in 1800. During his life, he worked with the greatest librettists of his age, including Metastasio.
[edit] Reference
[edit] Source
Holmes, William C. (Oct., 1952). "Pamela Transformed". The Musical Quarterly 38 (4): 581-594. ISSN 00027162.
