Tommaso Traetta

Tommaso (Michele Francesco Saverio ) Traetta ( born March 30, 1727 at Bitonto Bari, † April 6, 1779 in Venice) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan school.

Life

From 1738 to 1748 he studied at the " Conservatorio S. Maria di Loreto " in Naples among others, Francesco Durante. In 1751 he was commissioned to write his first opera seria, which was already quite successful. In 1758 he became court conductor and music teacher at the court of Parma, a center for the reform efforts of the opera. His name was known all over Europe, which he has received commissions from Turin, Vienna and Mannheim. The death of Duke Philip of Parma and declining financial support for the opera led him to become director in 1765 at the "Conservatorio dell'Ospedaletto " in Venice. Here sacred music and other operas created.

From 1768 he served as Kapellmeister in Saint Petersburg for Empress Catherine II. , Where he wrote the opera Antigona, which is considered his most mature work. In 1774 he returned to Venice and died a respected man, 1779.

His son Filippo Traetta ( born January 8, 1777 Venice, † January 9, 1854 in Philadelphia ) was also a composer, had to flee in 1799 and immigrated to the United States. He was instrumental in the 1801 founding of the American Conservatory in Boston, the first music school of the United States.

Works (selection)

Tommaso Traetta created more than 40 operas, including Il Farnace (Naples, 1751 ), Ezio (Rome, 1754), Solimano (Parma, 1759), Enea nel Lazio (Turin, 1760), Sofonisba (Mannheim, 1762), Iphigenia in Tauris ( Vienna, 1763), Antigona (St. Petersburg, 1772), Germondo (London, 1776).

His work also includes oratorios, a Mass, a Stabat Mater (1750 ), a St. John Passion, as well as symphonies and Divertimenti.

Occasionally refers Traetta - as well as his contemporaries Niccolò Jommelli - as the Italian Gluck. He tried to involve the arias in the dramatic course of the opera and to dissolve the rigid form of the da capo aria.