Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini| image2=Spontini signature from Olympie Overture ms page - Internet Archive.jpg| caption2=
Spontini's signature
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (14 November 1774spaced ndash24 January 1851) was an Italy|Italian opera composer and conducting|conductor , extremely celebrated in his time, though largely forgotten after his death.
Biography
Born in Maiolati in the province of Ancona , now Maiolati Spontini , he spent most of his career in Paris and Berlin , but returned to his place of birth at the end of his life. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in France|French opera . In his more than twenty operas, Spontini strove to adapt Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck 's classical Tragédie en musique|tragédie lyrique to the contemporary taste for melodrama, for grander spectacle (in Fernand Cortez for example), for enriched orchestral timbre, and for melodic invention allied to idiomatic expressiveness of words. His single great masterpiece and success was La vestale . On La Vestale , Fernand Cortez and Etienne de Jouy, see ''Les aventures militaires, littéraires et autres de Etienne de Jouy de l'Académie française by Michel Faul (Editions Seguier, France, 2009 ISBN 978-2-84049-556-7). Infos on E.de Jouy and his biography on http://etiennedejouy.site.voila.fr E. de Jouy site
As a youth, Spontini studied at the Music conservatories of Naples|Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini in Naples . In 1803, he went to Paris, where he was appointed court composer in 1805.
In 1807, Spontini wrote La vestale , his best known work. Written with the encouragement of Joséphine de Beauharnais|Empress Joséphine , its premiere at the Opéra in Paris established Spontini as one of the greatest Italian composers of his age. His contemporaries Luigi Cherubini|Cherubini and Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer considered it a masterpiece, and later composers like Hector Berlioz|Berlioz and Richard Wagner|Wagner admired it.
During the Peninsular War , " Napoleon promoted works such as Gasparo Spontini's Fernand Cortez (1809)," which concerned the Spanish conquest of Mexico under the reign of Charles V .Silke Leopold, “The Idea of National Opera, c. 1800,” Unity and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800 , ed. Tim Blanning and Hagen Schulze (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 22. Spontini's later opera Olimpie (1819, revised 1820, 1826) met with indifference, leading him to leave Paris for Prussia , where he became Kapellmeister and chief conductor at the Berlin State Opera|Berlin Hofoper . There he showed hostility toward the young Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn .
Modern revivals
During the 20th century, Spontini's operas were only rarely performed, although several had their first revivals in years. Perhaps the most famous modern production was the revival of La vestale with Maria Callas at La Scala at the opening of the 1954 season, to mark the 180th anniversary of the composer's birth. The stage director was famed cinematic director Luchino Visconti . That production was also the La Scala debut of tenor Franco Corelli . Callas recorded the arias "Tu che invoco" and "O Nume tutela" from La vestale in 1955 (as did Rosa Ponselle in 1926). In 1969, conductor Fernando Previtali revived the opera, with soprano Leyla Gencer and baritone Renato Bruson . (An unofficial recording is in circulation.) In 1993, conductor Riccardo Muti recorded it with a cast of lesser-known singers.
Other revivals of Spontini include Agnes von Hohenstaufen at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino|Maggio Musicale festival in Florence in 1954, starring Franco Corelli and conducted by Vittorio Gui , and in Rome in 1970, with Montserrat Caballé and Antonietta Stella , conducted by Riccardo Muti. Fernand Cortez was revived in 1951, with a young Renata Tebaldi , at the San Carlo in Naples, conducted by Gabriele Santini . The premiere of the integral version of the work took place at the Erfurt (Germany) opera house (2006, Jean-Paul Penin , conductor).
Li puntigli delle donne was performed at the Putbus Festival 1998, conducted by Wilhelm Keitel (recording Arte Nova 74321591982).
Works
See List of operas by Spontini .
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.fondazionepergolesispontini.com Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini of Jesi
http://www.esdf-opera.de/komponisten/spontini/spontini-urbesetzungen.htm ESDF-Opera: details of Spontini premieres
CathEncy|wstitle=Gasparo Luigi Pacifico Spontini
Berlin State Opera conductorsBerlin State Opera intendantsRomanticism Persondata | NAME = Spontini, Gaspare | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH = 14 November 1774 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = 24 January 1851 | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Spontini, Gaspare Category:1774 births Category:1851 deaths Category:Italian composers Category:Italian conductors (music) Category:Opera composers Category:People from the Province of Ancona Category:Romantic composers Category:Knights of the Royal Order of Francis I Category:Composers awarded knighthoods Category:Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods Category:Music directors of the Berlin State Opera Category:General directors of the Berlin State Opera
