|
|
| |
| Giovanni
Paisiello |
 |
 |
|
 |
Italian composer, considered the most important
author of comic operas after Mozart as well as one of the main reformers
of modern music. He studied music in Naples, at the Academy of Music
of St. Onofrio at Capuana, with Francesco Durante. His theatrical
activity started in 1764 in Boulogne, with the work: Il Ciarlone (The
Gossip). Afterwards, he dedicated himself with success to serious
operas, setting to music librettos written by Metastasio. In 1775
he was claimed in St. Peterborough, at the court of Catherine the
Great, as choir-master, taking the place of Tommaso Traetta. In 1784,
due to contrasts with the court musical environment and to the weak
health of his wife, he decided to return to Naples.
A supporter of Naples republic, during 1799 revolution, Paisiello
was invited in Paris for three years (1801 - 1804) during which he
reorganized Napoleon’s choir. Back in Naples, because of the
relationship established with Napoleonic France and the restoration
of the Bourbons on the throne, he was deprived of any tasks. Paisiello’s
opera production, developed through a period of over fifty years,
counts almost a hundred of comic and serious works. His stylistic
evolution keeps at its internal in a coherent way the elements which
immediately distinguished his expressive ability as a composer. On
one side his pathetic-sentimental inspiration well exemplified in
one of his masterpieces, ‘Nina pazza per amore’ (Nina fool
for love, 1789); on the other, the traditional Naples comic inspiration,
adapted to written works, such as ‘Il Mondo della Luna’
(The World of the Moon, 1782, on a text by Carlo Goldoni) and ‘Il
Barbiere di Siviglia’ (The Barber of Seville, 1782, from Beaumarchais
comedy). Among the other works by Paisiello, it is worth remembering
‘Il re Teodoro in Venezia’ (King Theodore in Venice, 1784),
‘Il Socrate Immaginario’ (The Imaginary Socrates, 1775),
and ‘La Molinara’ (1788). Paisiello was also the author
of masses, oratories and of instrumental music: orchestra symphonies,
concerts, quartets and sonatas.
 |
 |
|
|
Virtual tour in San Leucio |
|
|
