Francesco Uttini (1723-1795)
- Overture 'Il re pastore' (1755)
Performers: Chamber Orchestra of the Drottningholm Theater; Ulf Björlin (1933-1993, conductor)
Further info: Musik På Drottningholm
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Italian composer and conductor, active in Sweden. He received his
musical education from Padre Martini and, according to Fétis, from Perti
and Sandoni in Bologna. In 1743 he was elected to membership in the
Accademia Filarmonica and produced his first opera, Alessandro nelle
Indie, in Genoa. During the next ten years he achieved some fame as a
composer of both operas (mostly opere serie) and oratorios throughout
Italy, joining the Mingotti theatre troupe in 1752 as resident composer.
It was in that troupe that he met his first wife, the singer Rosa
Scarlatti (1727-75). His first tour to northern Europe (1752) resulted
in the opera Siroe, performed in Hamburg, and in the following years he
directed L’olimpiade and Zenobia in Copenhagen; he also presented
numerous pasticcios in Rostock and elsewhere, of which only one, Armide,
survives (1754). In 1755 members of the Mingotti troupe including
Uttini were invited by Queen Lovisa Ulrika to visit Stockholm and
perform operas for the court. For the newly built theatre at
Drottningholm he composed the opera Il re pastore, which was later
printed in score. About this time he also composed a flute concerto and a
set of harpischord sonatas. After the troupe disbanded, Uttini remained
in Stockholm as the queen's private court kapellmästare, writing mostly
Italian opere serie but also instrumental chamber works, symphonies and
cantatas. He also began his long career as a conductor. In 1762 he
turned his attention to settings of French opéra comique texts, such as
Favart’s Soliman II and Quinault’s Psyché.
He was appointed Hovkapellmästare to replace Per Brandt in 1767, and the
following year his trio sonatas op.1 were published in London by the
Swedish printer Fougt. In 1772 he was commissioned by Gustavus III to
provide the music for the first Swedish grand opera, Thetis och Pelée,
which was successfully performed the following year. During the next ten
years he turned towards larger works such as Birger Jarl och Mechtilde
(1774, with H.P. Johnsen) and Aline, drottning uti Golconda (‘Aline,
Queen of Golconda’, 1776); he added choruses to Swedish versions of
Racine’s Athalie (1776) and Iphigénie (1777), and wrote ballet music and
prologues to Gluck’s operas. After 1778 his role as principal conductor
of the hovkapell was mainly taken over by other musicians and he
gradually retired from concert life. From 1781 onwards he was a board
member of the Catholic congregation in Stockholm. By 1788, when he
retired, he had largely ceased to compose; he married his second wife,
the singer Sophia Liljegren (1765-95), in the same year. Uttini’s early
musical style conforms to the opera seria style of the period; his
operas of 1766 onwards, however, tend to show a greater reliance on the
orchestral accompaniment, often resulting in colourful scores. In his
Swedish operas, the use of folk melodies is occasionally noticeable. His
orchestral writing favours sharp keys and brilliant instrumental
combinations. His five symphonies, with their occasional layered
crescendos, demonstrate the influences of Mannheim, while his chamber
works reflect an older galant style.
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