Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli (1752-1837)
- Sinfonia in Mi maggiore (c.1785)
Performers: Atalanta Fugiens; Vanni Moretto (conductor)
Further info: The Milanese Symphonies
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Italian teacher and composer. Following studies at the Conservatorio di
Santa Maria di Loreto under Pasquale Anfossi and Antonio Sacchini, he
was appointed as a violin teacher at Torre Annuziata in 1772. In 1781
his opera 'Montezuma' achieved success, allowing him to receive
commissions throughout Italy, where he became one of the leading
composers of opera. He attempted to achieve the same success in Paris in
1790, writing some works in collaboration with his pupil Isabelle de
Charrière, though these all failed and the Revolution forced his return
to Italy. In 1793 he was appointed maestro di cappella at the Cathedral
of Milan and in 1795 he assumed the same post at Santa Casa in Loreto,
Rome. By 1804 he was maestro di cappella at St. Peter’s in Rome, but a
conflict with the French occupiers landed him in prison. He was released
only at the special intervention of Napoleon. After Giovanni
Paisiello’s death in 1816 he was also appointed musical director of
Naples Cathedral. Zingarelli was an incredibly prolific composer
throughout his entire life, writing in virtually all genres. His works
include dozens of masses, eight oratorios, 57 operas, many Mass
movements and insertion arias, 15 Requiems, 55 Magnificats, 23 Te Deums,
541 Psalm settings, 21 Stabat maters, and 50 motets, as well as
numerous litanies, responsories, and sacred cantatas. He also wrote 20
secular cantatas, three large odes or hymns, 79 symphonies (mostly
singlemovement sinfonia da chiesa), eight string quartets, three duos,
eight sonatas, 11 pastorals, and 60 other works for organ. He was
considered the last great composer of opera seria, and he spent much of
his later years composing sacred music when his operas were overshadowed
by other Italians such as Giaocchino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini. His
music conforms to the late Italian style of the Classical period and,
thus, may have seemed anachronistic. He was renowned as a teacher,
numbering Bellini, Mercadante, Carlo Conti, Lauro Rossi, Morlacchi, and
Michael Costa among his students.
