Un portal on escoltar i gaudir de l'art musical dels segles XVI, XVII, XVIII i XIX. Compartir la bellesa de la música és l'objectiu d'aquest espai i fer-ho donant a conèixer obres de compositors molt o poc coneguts és el mètode.
Italian composer. He was taken by his father at an early age to Naples,
where he studied violin under Nicola Fiorenza and composition under
Francesco Durante at the Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto. In 1756 he
composed his first opera, Fra Donato, which launched his career as a
composer of opera in Italy. Although he served for several years as an
assistant maestro di cappella at the conservatory, he abandoned his
teaching profession by 1763 to concentrate on commissions from
throughout the country, eventually establishing a reputation as a
dramatic and talented composer. In 1768 while in Venice he became
director of the Conservatorio dell’Ospedaletto, teaching singing to
students such as Nancy Storace. In 1772 he moved to London, where he
obtained a great success with his operas but was known for a dissolute
lifestyle. This forced Sacchini to travel to Paris in 1781, where he was
caught in the middle of the feud between Niccolò Piccinni and Christoph
Willibald von Gluck, both of whose partisans condemned him as a member
of the other’s faction. In 1786 he produced his most enduring work,
Oedip à Colonne, at the request of Marie Antoinette, but his early death
from his lifestyle and acute gout prevented him from realizing its
success. As a composer, Sacchini was known for his dramatic musical
style, particularly in serious opera. He was able to move fluidly
between both the Italian and French styles, often using varied forms and
progressive harmonic structures. His works include 47 operas, seven
oratorios, two symphonies, six string quartets, six trio sonatas, and 12
violin sonatas or lessons, in addition to numerous insertion arias,
Masses, motets, Psalms, and other sacred works.
Italian composer. When Antonio was four, his father Gaetano, a cook,
attached himself to the retinue of the Infante Don Carlos and
accompanied them to Naples. At the age of ten Antonio entered the
Conservatorio S Maria di Loreto to study the violin with Nicola
Fiorenza. He also studied singing with Gennaro Manna, and the
harpsichord, organ and composition with Francesco Durante, who esteemed
him highly and predicted that he would be ‘the composer of the century’.
He was asked to serve as mastricello in 1756, the same year that his
first theatrical work, the intermezzo Fra Donato, was performed by the
students at the conservatory and in various houses throughout the city
and province. The success of Fra Donato and of Il giocatore, a second
intermezzo written for the conservatory in 1757, brought invitations to
compose comic works for two Neapolitan theatres. In January 1758 he was
nominated maestro di cappella straordinario at the conservatory, an
unpaid post in which he assisted Manna, the primo maestro, and
Pierantonio Gallo, the secondo maestro. When Manna retired in May 1761,
Gallo became primo maestro and Sacchini secondo maestro. On 12 October
1762 he was granted leave to go to Venice, where he composed Alessandro
Severo for the Teatro S Benedetto and Alessandro nell'Indie for the
Teatro S Salvatore. Neglecting to return to his duties in Naples, he
proceeded to Padua, where on 9 July 1763 his Olimpiade was such an
overwhelming success that it was performed throughout Italy. Further
triumphs in Rome, Naples and Florence led him to abandon his post at the
conservatory for a career as an opera composer. For the next few years
Sacchini lived in Rome, where he composed for the Teatro Valle a number
of comic works which achieved fame throughout Europe, including Il finto
pazzo per amore (1765), La contadina in corte (1765) and L'isola
d'amore (1766). In 1768 he moved to Venice, where he became director of
the Conservatorio dell'Ospedaletto. He quickly gained a reputation as an
excellent singing teacher (Nancy Storace and Adriana Gabrieli were
among his pupils).
In early 1770 he visited Germany to compose operas for Munich and
Stuttgart, and then returned to his post in Venice, where for the next
two years he combined his teaching with the composing of successful
operas for the major Italian theatres. In 1772 Sacchini moved to London,
where he remained for nearly ten years. When Traetta arrived in London
in 1776 his opera failed miserably because, according to Burney,
‘Sacchini had already taken possession of our hearts, and so firmly
established himself in the public favour, that he was not to be
supplanted by a composer in the same style’. But Sacchini's dissolute
life created many enemies and eventually brought financial ruin. His
former friend, the singer Venanzio Rauzzini, went so far as to claim
many of the composer's most famous arias as his own. Faced with the
threat of imprisonment, Sacchini left England in 1781 and went to Paris.
In autumn 1781 the composer appeared at Versailles, where he was
presented to Marie Antoinette and received with enthusiasm. Joseph II of
Austria was also visiting the French court at that time and, being
particularly fond of Italian opera, he recommended Sacchini to his
sister's protection. Determined to keep the composer in France, the
queen persuaded the directors of the Opéra to accept his demand for
10,000 francs for each of three operas. In autumn 1785 the queen had
Dardanus given at Fontainebleau in a revised version, which proved a
success. In the same year Sacchini completed his Oedipe à Colone, which
the queen had promised would be the first opera to be performed at
Fontainebleau during the court's forthcoming stay there, but mounting
criticism of her preference for foreigners forced her to revoke her
pledge and to cede the honoured place to the French composer Lemoyne.
Sacchini’s beloved pupil, Henri Berton, asserted that this
disappointment contributed greatly to the composer’s death, which
occurred shortly afterwards on 6 October 1786. Oedipe was performed at
the Opéra on 1 February 1787 and hailed as his masterpiece. The work
formed a standard part of the repertory until 1830 with 583
performances.
Vista de Venècia, obra de Francesco Guardi, pintor italià coetani de A. Sacchini
Antonio Maria Gaspare Sacchini (1730-1786) compositor italià nascut a Florència. Fill de pescadors pobres, la vida, obra i vicissituds de Sacchini serien un compendi de fama i de suposada mala vida derivada dels enormes èxits que obtindria com a compositor d'òperes tragicòmiques. Abans d'això, no obstant, es formaria amb el violí i amb el cant amb un mestre italià de cert renom, il signoreFrancesco Durante, professor teòric de l'Escola Napolitana d'Òpera tot i que curiosament, d'òpera, mai en va escriure ni signar cap. Viatger incansable, va viure en diverses ciutats en funció de l'èxit que obtenien les seves obres. Roma fou el seu primer escenari teatral i va ser el lloc ideal per moure's lliurement per una Itàlia culturalment molt activa i àvida de produccions teatrals jocoses i hilarants. Posteriorment, faria un viatge llampec a Alemanya que l'hi serviria d'enllaç al seu proper destí, Londres. Ciutat on hi residiria i on el seu caràcter més inestable i excèntric s'accentuaria. De fet, la opulència ve de lluny i com podem comprovar, en el cas de Sacchini, la ostentació no és recomanable ni al segle XVIII ni a la nostra era. Amant de les dones, de la festa i de tot allò prohibit i temptador es va veure obligat "amablement" a marxar d'Anglaterra, país de costums més aviat formals. De fet, el seu proper destí, el definitiu, seria París. Ciutat que el rebria amb certa indiferència i més centrada en la disputa entre Piccinni i Gluck i no tant en la intromissió de personatges peculiars. No obstant Sacchini, tot i ser un vividor desinhibit, gaudia de certa capacitat persuasiva i molta eloqüència amb la qual es guanyaria fàcilment el beneplàcit de la respectadíssima Maria Antonietta, reina de França, la qual promocionaria el seu nou protegit tot escombrant les argumentades objeccions a la representació de les seves òperes. El menyspreu dels seus col·legues era de tal magnitud que el fracàs d'alguna de les seves òperes a París fou antològica. Malauradament per ell, poc marge de temps va tenir per corregir els greuges comparatius ja que moriria als quatre anys d'establir-se a París. Doncs bé i en resum, avui escoltarem música instrumental variada d'aquest autor més o menys afortunat segons la perspectiva de cadascú. D'entrada, l'obertura de la seva òpera Oedipe à Colone, obra escrita l'any 1786. Seguidament, tres danses instrumentals de gran bellesa que també trobarem com a interludis de la seva òpera Oedipe à Colone. Totes elles de factura clàssica d'aquest artista íntegrament italià, en la forma i en el fons!
