Pasquale Anfossi
Bonifacio Domenico Pasquale Anfossi ( born April 5, 1727 Taggia; † February 1797 in Rome) was an Italian composer of the 18th century, which was appreciated in his time because of his numerous operas.
Life
First, he aspired to the career of a practicing musician and studied from 1744 to 1752 at the Neapolitan Loreto Conservatory violin to play this instrument for about ten years an opera orchestra. He then decided to become a composer and took lessons with Sacchini and Piccini. When his first opera was the Farsetta " La serva spiritosa " listed for Carnival 1763 in Rome, but which he could establish himself as a composer, not immediately. Instead, he worked with his teacher and added Sacchini whose operas. A certain breakthrough he was able to achieve with the dramma giocoso " L' incognita perseguitata " 1773 in Rome.
From 1773 to 1782 he was maestro di cappella at Ospedaletto in Venice. Until 1782, he wrote about 30 operas, which were mainly performed in Venice and Rome, and occasionally in other Italy and in Vienna. 1782 was performed with Il trionfo della costanza his first opera in London, where he was until 1786 engaged as music director, five new own operas aufführte and various performances of works by other composers supervised, for example, Gluck's Orfeo with additional music by JC Bach and Handel. About his last opera in London, L' inglese in italia, a critic wrote: "The music suffers apparently under a tiresome monotony ."
Anfossi traveled back to Italy, and in the carnival in 1787 he won for himself the Farsetta " Le pazzie de ' Gelosi " again the Romans. Nevertheless, in 1789 broke the uninterrupted for twenty years, production of new operas from his pen directly from, and Anfossi was limited from now on church music. He was appointed maestro di cappella of San Giovanni in Laterano and retained the post until his death.
Work
Anfossi work is not complete estimate, but in addition to at least 20 oratorios in Latin and Italian, he composed at least 60 operas for sure, maybe 70 or more. His early work is understandable, closely related to the style of his teacher Piccini and Sacchini, with diatonic, something meaningless harmonies here and there inspired melody. His Orchestrierungsstil changed in the course of his career; He scored more colorful effects through the effective use of wind instruments. Until the mid-70s, he seemed in his opere serie to prefer the old-fashioned, pure da capo aria, and then, as before, to go into his comic works to freer forms. Larger shapes as finalized, seemed to him to lie, and for sentimental moments and characters he apparently had a preference.
Basically, his music has been criticized as not sufficiently dramatic and weak in characterization. His buffo characters have nowhere near the originality of those during his seria music a certain formulaic can not deny by contemporaries such as Cimarosa and Paisiello.
Anfossi was advised as an opera composer long time forgotten, since despite its great popularity among his contemporaries, his works of which Salieri, Rossini and Mozart were already outshines during the 19th century. Nevertheless staged Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as Weimar theater director Anfossi Farsetta " La Maga Circe " ( The sorceress Circe ). He had revised together with Christian August Vulpius The libretto and also planned an expansion that never materialized.
It was not until the last twenty years, the work Anfossi by various productions and recordings, such as again recognized by Giuseppe riconosciuto. At the Salzburg Summer Festival (2005) also works Anfossi listed.