Pietro Generali (1773-1832)
- Chirie et Gloria In Pastorale (c.1810)
Performers: Solists from Coro della Radiotelevisione Ceka; Orchestra Sinfonica di Praga; Eduardo Brizio (conductor)
Painting: Ludwig Osipovich Premazzi (1814-1891) - Veduta della chiesa di San Fedele a Milano (c.1837)
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Italian composer. His surname was Mercandetti until his father changed
it when, bankrupt, the family moved to Rome. There Generali studied
counterpoint with Giovanni Masi, interrupted by four months spent at the
Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella at Naples. He graduated from the
Congregazione di Sancta Cecilia in Rome and began his career as a
composer of sacred music, but soon turned to opera. He traveled all over
Italy as producer of his operas, and also went to Vienna and Barcelona,
where he remained three years as director of the opera company at the
Teatro de la Santa Cruz. Returning to Italy, he became maestro di
cappella at the Cathedral of Novara, a position he held until his death.
He anticipated Rossini in the effective use of dynamics in the
instrumental parts of his operas, and was generally praised for his
technical knowledge. He wrote about 50 stage works, in both the serious
and comic genres, but none survived in the repertoire after his death.
The following were successful at their initial performances: Pamela
nubile (Venice, 1804), Lelagrime di una vedova (Venice, 1808), Adelina
(Venice, 1810), L'Impostore (Milan, 1815), I Baccanali di Roma (Venice,
1816; his best work), II Servo padrone (Parma, 1818), and Il divorzio
persiano (Trieste, 1828). From late 1820 to 1823 he was in Naples,
composing several operas and teaching; Luigi Ricci was among his pupils.
With the Naples period his activity as an opera composer came virtually
to an end. In 1823 he became music director of the Teatro Carolino in
Palermo.
