Gaspare Spontini
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini ( born November 14, 1774 Maiolati (now Maiolati Spontini ) in Jesi, Ancona, † January 24, 1851 ) was an Italian composer and conductor.
Life and work
Spontini was one of five children of poor parents, and should initially - like his brothers - priests. But he showed early signs of a special musical talent. Between 1793 and 1795 he studied at the " Conservatorio della Pietà de ' Turchini " in Naples, with Giacomo Tritto and perhaps at Domenico Cimarosa. After he had then already reüssiert in Italy as an opera composer, he went in 1803 to Paris, where he in 1804, then with his works Milton and Julie for the Opéra -Comique achieved initial success and then was then appointed court composer of the Empress Joséphine.
1807 composed Spontini La vestal, his today 's best known opera. Written with the support of the Empress, Spontini was able to be one of the most important composers of his time to establish since its premiere at the Paris Opera. Spontini's contemporaries Luigi Cherubini and Giacomo Meyerbeer viewed La vestal as a masterpiece, and also composers of the next generation, such as Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner admired. It was followed by the opera Fernand Cortez in 1809, which he revised in 1817, and Olimpie (1819 according to Voltaire ), which he in 1821 for Berlin ( German version: ETA Hoffmann ) and in 1826 for Paris a second time ( again in French) Revised.
From 1810 to 1812 he was director of the Théâtre de l' Imperatrice, head of the "Concert Spirituel " and from 1814 court composer. In 1820 he accepted an invitation of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. , To switch to Berlin, where he took over the post of director of music and Kapellmeister first at the Royal Opera and a member of the Sing-Akademie was. His position as music director he retained until his death, however, was in 1841, " dispensirt of its functions " at 67 years. On 31 May 1842 he was admitted as a foreign member of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. Then Spontini lived again in Paris and returned from 1850 ( shortly before his death ) to his birthplace ( in Jesi ) back.
Effect
In the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in French Tragédie lyrique. In his more than 20 operas, he strove to adapt the style of Gluck's classical works to contemporary taste: He composed large, high-contrast scenes, used as Italian melody such as the pathos of the French drama, through which he in a special way the monumentality of the French to be fair the Empire was looking for. His masterpiece and his greatest success was the opera La vestal.
In the 20th century, Spontini's operas were rarely performed. The most famous modern production is the revival of La vestal with Maria Callas, directed by Luchino Visconti at La Scala opening of the season in 1954, Spontini's 180th birth year. This performance was also the Scala debut of tenor Franco Corelli. Maria Callas took the arias Tu che invoco and O Nume tutela from La vestale 1955 also at the studio, just as Rosa Ponselle had done in 1926. 1969 resuscitated the conductor Fernando Previtali the opera again with soprano Leyla Gencer and the bass-baritone Renato Bruson (of this performance is an unofficial recording in circulation). 1995 produced a recording with Riccardo Muti lesser-known singers.
Other recordings of works by Spontini are Agnes of Hohenstaufen from 1954 from the Maggio Musicale in Florence, conducted by Vittorio Gui, and 1970, with Montserrat Caballé and Antonietta Stella, conducted by Riccardo Muti. Fernand Cortez was revived in 1951 in Naples with the young Renata Tebaldi, conducted by Gabriele Santini and recently (Paris 2002, Madrid 2003 and 2006 at the Theater Erfurt ) under the baton of French conductor Jean -Paul Penin.
Works
Operas
- Li delle donne puntigli (Francesco Cerlone ) Farsetta per musica 2 file (Carnival 1796, Rome)
- Adelina Senese o sia l' Amore secreto (Giovanni Bertati, La principessa d' Amalfi), dramma giocoso 2 Act ( October 10, 1797, Venice, Teatro San Samuele )
- Il finto pittore Farsetta / melodramma buffo? (Rome? , 1797, Palermo, Teatro Santa Cecilia )
- L' eroismo ridicolo (D. Piccinni ) farsa per musica 1 act (Carnival 1798, Naples, Teatro Nuovo sopra Toledo)
- Il Teseo riconosciuto ( Cosimo Giotto ), dramma per musica 2 Record (May 22, 1798 Florence, Teatro Regio degli Intrepidi )
- La finta filosofa (D. Piccinni ), commedia per musica 2 Act ( July 1, 1799, Naples, Teatro Nuovo ); Extension of L' eroismo ridicolo; Advanced recast, dramma per musica 3 giocoso Act ( February 11, 1804 Paris, Opéra -Comique, Salle Favart )
- La fuga in maschera (G. Palomba), commedia per musica 2 file (Carnival 1800, Naples, Teatro Nuovo )
- I quadri parlanti, melodramma buffo (1800, Palermo, Teatro Santa Cecilia )
- Gli Elisi delusi (M. Monti ), melodramma buffo 2 record ( August 28, 1800, Palermo, Teatro Santa Cecilia )
- Gli amanti in cimento ( Bertati? ) Dramma giocoso 2 file ( November 3, 1801, Rome, Teatro Valle)
- Le metamorfosi di Pasquale (G. Foppa ) farsa giocosa per musica 1 act (Carnival 1802, Venice, Teatro San Moise Giustiniani a )
- La petite maison (Joseph Marie Armand Michel Dieulafoy / N. Gersin ), opéra comique 3 record (May 12, 1804 Paris, Théâtre Feydeau )
- Milton (Victor Joseph Etienne de Jouy / Joseph Marie Armand Michel Dieulafoy ), fait historique 1 act ( November 27, 1804, Paris, Salle Favart )
- Julie, ou Le Pot de fleurs (Antoine Gabriel Jars ), comédie en prose, mêlée de chants 1 act ( July 12, 1805, Paris, Salle Favart )
- La vestal (Victor Joseph Etienne de Jouy by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Monumenti antichi Inediti, 1767), tragédie lyrique 3 record ( December 15, 1807, Paris, Opéra)
- Fernand Cortez (Victor Joseph Etienne de Jouy / Joseph- Alphonse d' Esménard after a tragedy of Alexis Piron ), opera Act 3 ( November 28, 1809 Paris Grand Opéra); Version 2 (revised Victor Joseph Etienne de Jouy ), opera Act 3 ( May 28, 1817 Paris, Opéra); Version 3 as Fernand Cortez or The Conquest of Mexico (revised M. Théaulon de Lambert, translated by JC May ), opera Act 3
- Pelage, ou le Roi et la paix (Victor Joseph Etienne de Jouy ), opera Act 2 ( August 23, 1814, Paris, Opéra)
- Les Dieux Rivaux, ou Les fêtes de Cythère (Joseph Marie Armand Michel Dieulafoy / C. Brifaut ), opéra - ballet 1 act (June 21, 1816 Paris, Opéra)
- Olimpie (Joseph Marie Armand Michel Dieulafoy / Charles Brifaut after the tragedy by Voltaire), tragédie lyrique 3 Record ( December 22, 1819 Paris Grand Opéra) ( December 22, 1819, Paris, Opéra)
- Lalla Rukh (SH Spiker by T. Moore, Lalla Rookh ), Festival ( January 27, 1821, Berlin, Royal Palace )
- Nurmahal, or the Rose Festival of Cashmeer (CA Herklots by T. Moore, Lalla Rookh ), lyrical drama with ballet Act 2 (May 27, 1822, Berlin, Royal Opera House )
- Alcidor ( Guillaume M. Théaulon de Lambert / C. Rochon de Chabannes by Nutty, German translation by CA Herklots ), magic opera ballet with three acts (May 23, 1825 Berlin, Royal Opera House )
- Agnes von Hohenstaufen, lyrical drama 2 Act or large historical- romantic opera 3 acts ( Act I: May 28, 1827 the whole opera on June 12, 1829 Royal Oper Berlin, revised in 1829 and 1837)