Giovanni Francesco de Majo (1732-1770) - Sinfonia (Overture) 'Motezuma' (1765)
Performers: La Cappella della Pietà de' Turchini; Antonio Florio
(conductor)
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Italian composer. He studied with his father, Giuseppe de Majo
(1697-1771), who from 1745 was primo maestro of the royal chapel in
Naples, his uncle Gennaro Manno and his great-uncle Francesco Feo. As a
boy he assisted his father in the royal chapel in Naples as organista
soprannumerario without salary. In 1750, on the death of Pietro
Scarlatti, he was appointed to a salaried position, though still on the
same supernumerary basis, at one ducat per month, and by 1758 he was
second organist, with a salary of eight ducats. Two settings of Qui
sedes, both dating from 1749, are his earliest known compositions, two
of the many sacred works which he composed for the various services of
the royal chapel. His first opera, Ricimero, re dei goti, was given in
Parma and Rome (1759). Goldoni, in his memoirs, recorded Majo’s
overwhelming reception in Rome: ‘A part of the pit went out at the close
of the entertainment to conduct the musician home in triumph, and the
remainder of the audience staid in the theatre, calling out without
intermission, Viva Majo! till every candle was burnt to the socket’.
Early in 1760 an attack of tuberculosis forced him to renounce the
commission to set Stampiglia’s libretto Il trionfo di Camilla for the
Teatro S Carlo, Naples. Seemingly restored to health after several
months’ cure at Torre del Greco, he returned to the court at Naples,
where he resumed his duties in the royal chapel. Shortly thereafter he
set Astrea placata, a componimento drammatico, performed at the S Carlo
in June 1760 with Raaff, Manzuoli and Spagnuoli. With the enthusiastic
reception of Cajo Fabrizio at the S Carlo in November his fame was
firmly established, and he was called on to compose operas for Livorno,
Venice and Turin.
During his stay in northern Italy (April 1761 to February 1763) Majo
studied with Padre Martini, although an apologetic letter to the master
implies that his studies were erratic because of amorous distractions.
After another brief stay in Naples he left in February 1764 for Vienna,
where he was invited to compose an opera to celebrate the coronation of
Joseph II as Holy Roman Emperor. From Vienna he proceeded to Mannheim,
where his Ifigenia in Tauride was presented. By May 1766 he was back in
Naples but left shortly after for invitations in Mannheim, Venice and
Rome. Beset by his old illness he returned to Naples in August 1767,
where he sought to strengthen his position at court so as to succeed his
father as primo maestro; Piccinni had also returned to Naples and was
competing for the post. Discouraged by the king’s procrastination and
constrained by financial need, Majo was forced to undertake further
trips to northern Italy to fulfil commissions for new operas. Again in
Naples in January 1770 he resumed his activities as second organist and
composer of church music. In that year the Teatro S Carlo’s new
impresario Tedeschi commissioned him to set Eumene to celebrate the
queen’s birthday on 4 November, but by September he was so weak that the
opera had to be postponed until the following January. He rallied long
enough only to complete the first act, and the opera was finished by
Insanguine (Act 2) and Errichelli (Act 3). He died a year and a day
before his father, leaving his family destitute.
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