Baldassare Galuppi

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Galuppi, Venetian painter, 1751

Baldassare Galuppi (born October 18, 1706 in Burano near Venice , † January 3, 1785 in Venice) was an Italian composer of central importance for the development of the opera buffa of his time, but also one of the most important representatives of the opera seria . After his place of birth he was also known as il Buranello or under the Venetian form of his given name Baldissara .

Life

Baldassare Galuppi probably received his first musical training from his father, a barber and amateur violinist. At the age of 16 he composed his first opera, Gli amici rivali , a “favola pastorale”, which, however, failed completely. Probably on the advice of the composer Benedetto Marcello , he studied counterpoint with Antonio Lotti , the first organist of St. Markus in Venice, although he did not, as Marcello further suggested, refrain from composing operas for the next three years.

In 1726 he was engaged in the Venetian theaters of San Samuele , Sant'Angelo (the "house theater" of Vivaldi ), and in the largest and most important theater in Venice, the San Giovanni Grisostomo , which concentrated on the opera seria . His work there consisted in arranging operas by other composers for certain ensembles, which also included composing inlay arias, and playing harpsichord.

Gli'odi del sangue from 1728, an opera seria like almost all of the operas from Galuppi's early work, the three acts of which he shared with his fellow student Giovanni Pescetti , had a certain degree of success and paved the way for the future. In December 1737 two of his operas premiered almost simultaneously, Alessandro nell'Indie in Mantua and Issipile in Turin , Galuppi probably only being present at the Mantuan premiere. The music composed by him for the feast of St. Maria Magdalena led to a position from 1740 to 1751 as "Maestro di coro" at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti , which assured him a certain financial independence.

In 1740 Oronte was his first opera for the stage of San Giovanni Grisostomo. Shortly afterwards he received an invitation to London , where he directed eleven opera performances during a year and a half, including four new works of his own. Opinions about him were divided in London: Handel mocked the only opera he had seen and, according to Walpole , his music was "a disappointment for everyone". Nevertheless, his operas were well received and other works by him were also performed after his stay in London.

After his return to Italy, Galuppi resumed his position in the Mendicanti and continued to work as a harpsichordist, composer and arranger. When he arranged operas by Gaetano Latilla , Rinaldo di Capua and others, he came into contact for the first time with the style of the Neapolitan - Roman opera buffa , which gradually spread to northern Italy. His first own attempt at the comic genre, La forza d'amore based on a libretto by Panicelli, was, however, a failure. Regardless of this, his career as a seria composer made great strides, and his operas were performed more frequently and better received abroad. In May 1748 he was given the important position of vice "maestro" of the Cappella ducale from S. Marco. Shortly afterwards he had an enormous success with Demetrio in Vienna , which set new box office records.

Although his first setting of a Goldoni text with the seria Gustavo I, re di svezia was made in 1740, the collaboration for which Galuppi is primarily known today and which, for himself, but also indirectly for the opera buffa, was to set the style as a whole should be a long time coming, until 1749: From this point on, and beginning with L'Arcadia in Brenta , Galuppi worked with this congenial partner in the field of comic opera. The fruits of this collaboration were 15 comic operas over the next eight years, including Il filosofo di campagna , Il mondo della luna and Le nozze , most of which premiered in the Venetian theaters of San Samuele and San Moisè. These works conquered Europe's stages with an ease that was second to none. A short time later, Galuppi was the most famous opera composer of his time.

Since this new career developed without prejudice to his work in the field of opera seria, he had to give up his post at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in 1751 due to overwork. With Demofoonte he wrote both the Madrid engagement opera and the Turin festa teatrale La vittoria di Imeneo , which was performed more than twenty times, on the occasion of the wedding of Maria Antonietta Ferdinanda of Spain to the Piedmontese heir to the throne Vittorio Amadeo. In 1762 he became "Maestro di cappella" at the Ospedale degl'Incurabili . At that time he held such an undisputed position in Venice that he was able to take the most important position in the city's musical life, that of “Maestro di coro” in St. Mark's Basilica, without any animosity.

In September 1765 Galuppi accepted an invitation to the court of Catherine the Great in Saint Petersburg . For this he composed, among other works, Ifigenia in Tauride and had great success with a performance of Didone abbandonata . He devoted himself to church music , which after his return to Venice in 1768 increasingly formed the focus of his work. His last opera was the dramma giocoso La serva per livigna from 1773. Nevertheless, Galuppi was very busy with his other musical and social activities. He was visited by the future Tsar Paul and directed the musical honors of Pope Pius VI. in Venice. From 1784 Galuppi had increasing health problems, but continued to fulfill his compositional and musical duties. Shortly before his death on January 3, 1785, he composed his annual Christmas mass for St. Mark's Basilica.

The music historian Charles Burney , who, after Niccolò Jommelli and before Niccolò Piccinni and Antonio Sacchini , considered him the most inspired Venetian composer, found him charming and witty on the occasion of a visit in 1770; he spoke to him of his study as “the room in which I dirty paper ”. He described Galuppi as "small and thin in stature, but he has the appearance of a gentleman," and he was impressed that Galuppi's excellent reputation in Venice appeared to be based on his character as well as on his public skills as a musician. “An extremely excellent composer” was the assessment of Johann Adolph Hasse in a letter to Pietro Metastasio , and his long-time partner Goldoni honored him with the following dedication: “What music! What style! What masterpieces! "

plant

Galuppi monument in Burano

Galuppi's main merit in music history is based on the impulses that he, together with Goldoni , was able to give to the opera buffa . The best example of this collaboration is the “ensemble finale ”, which Galuppi and Goldoni developed into a new, well-composed form that was to set the style for the entire opera buffa from that time to Haydn , Mozart , Rossini and many others. Goldoni's comical texts, spiced with puns and sometimes sentimental, find their equal echo in Galuppi's elegant, effortless melodies, whose rhythmic instinct contributes to the wit of Goldoni's verses. Numerous contrasts in tempo , key and time signature reflect the diverse, surprising elaborations of the plot and the facets of emotions within a musical "number" without resorting to the recitative , as was common at the time. Form, melody and harmony are clearly subordinate to the forward thrust of the action.

Although Galuppi is, from today's point of view, sometimes rightly associated with opera buffa, his opere serie contributed at least as much to his fame during his lifetime , which was certainly also due to the fact that Venice has been more of a center of seria since Monteverdi's time and the opera buffa of the Neapolitan character first had to establish itself here. Despite the enormous success of the Goldoni operas, which took the whole of Europe by storm, Galuppi's serious operas were performed more often during his lifetime, just as they clearly dominate his work numerically; out of a total of around a hundred operas there are only 21 comic works. His early operas of this type were still based entirely on the da capo aria , with its extensions and modifications typical of the time - as AABAA, AA'BAA 'or ABCAB forms and with meter and tempo changes for the middle parts - so his style later became more innovative.

In general, Galuppi stands clearly in the Italian tradition of music, which is primarily committed to charming, simple and beautiful melody , with a clear, transparent accompaniment that leaves enough space for virtuosity and emotion. In an interview with Burney, he named the most important elements of good music as "vaghezza, chiarezza e buona modulazione" ('grace, clarity and beautiful tone'). His often surprising musical ideas effectively characterize people and situations and sometimes open up new perspectives, but always subordinate themselves to the message of the text.

Galuppi, as a conductor and arranger an absolute theater practitioner, was a master of the dramatic, purposeful use of the orchestra, whose main features are motivic and thematic interlocking with the singing voice, paired with a clear orchestral composition that leaves enough space for the ensemble on the stage. The orchestra of St. Mark's Basilica , which he directed for a long time, was considered the best in Italy. Likewise, a main focus of his compositional activity, from his earliest years, was the setting up and adapting of arias and vocal parts for certain singers, a practice that was an integral part of Italian theater life at that time. Thanks to his position in Venice, one of the “capitals” of Italian opera, Galuppi had the opportunity to work with the most famous singers of his time, such as Caffarelli , Gioacchino Conti , Caterina Gabrieli, Guadagni, Amorevoli and Giovanni Manzuoli .

Although Galuppi only achieved musical historical significance in the operatic profession, his work for strung keyboard instruments is also noteworthy. They are mostly rather small pieces that can be classified between Scarlatti and Haydn. These quite demanding sonatas and divertimenti show their own character and avoid the overly short-winded melody, as is typical of Cimarosa and the younger Haydn in the early classical period. He also composed numerous instrumental works.

Stage works (selection)

plant premiere genus Librettist
Issipile Turin, 1737 melodramma Pietro Metastasio (second version: Bologna 1750)
Alessandro nell'Indie Mantua, 1738 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
Adriano in Siria Turin, 1740 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio (second version: Livorno, 1758)
Didone abbandonata Modena, 1740 opera seria Pietro Metastasio (second version: Venice, 1764)
Ciro riconosciuto Milan, 1745 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
Antigono London, 1746 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
L'olimpiade Milan, 1747 opera seria Pietro Metastasio
L'Arminio Venice, 1747 dramma per musica Antonio Salvi
Il Vologeso Rome, 1748 opera seria Apostolo Zeno
Semiramide riconosciuta Milan, 1749 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
Artaserse Vienna, 1749 opera seria Pietro Metastasio
Demofoonte Madrid, 1749 opera drammatica Pietro Metastasio
L'Arcadia in Brenta Venice, 1749 dramma giocoso Carlo Goldoni
Il mondo della luna Venice, 1750 dramma giocoso Carlo Goldoni
Lucio Papirio Reggio nell'Emilia, 1751 dramma per musica Apostolo Zeno
Antigona Mannheim, 1752 opera seria Gaetano Roccaforte
L'eroe cinese Naples, 1753 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
Siroe Rome, 1754 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
Il filosofo di campagna Venice, 1754 dramma giocoso Carlo Goldoni
La diavolessa Venice, 1755 dramma giocoso Carlo Goldoni
Le nozze Venice, 1755 dramma giocoso Carlo Goldoni
Ezio Milan, 1757 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
Ipermestra Milan, 1758 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
La clemenza di Tito Vienna, 1760 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
L'amante di tutte Venice, 1760 dramma giocoso Antonio Galuppi (son of the composer)
Viriate Venice, 1762 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
Il re pastore Parma, 1762 dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio
La pace from la virtu e la bellezza Saint Petersburg, 1766 Serenata Pietro Metastasio
L'inimico delle donne Venice, 1771 dramma giocoso Giovanni Bertati

literature

Web links

Commons : Baldassare Galuppi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Clive Unger-Hamilton, Neil Fairbairn, Derek Walters; German arrangement: Christian Barth, Holger Fliessbach, Horst Leuchtmann, et al .: The music - 1000 years of illustrated music history . Unipart-Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8122-0132-1 , p. 82 .
  2. ↑ Francesco Caffi: Storia della musica sacra nella già cappella ducale di San Marco in Venezia dal 1318 al 1797. Volume 1. Antonelli, Venice 1854, pp. 371-416 .
  3. ↑ A sensible way of rewarding the artists - an anecdote . In: Musical real newspaper . No. 1 , July 2, 1788, p. 3 ( onb.ac.at ).
personal data
SURNAME Galuppi, Baldassare
ALTERNATIVE NAMES il Buranello; Galuppi, Baldissara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1706
PLACE OF BIRTH Burano near Venice
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 1785
Place of death Venice