Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786) - Sinfonia (in Re maggiore) à più stromenti
Performers: Accademia Transalpina
Further info: Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786) - Overture Oedipe à Colone
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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.
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