Luigi Caruso

Luigi Caruso (born September 25, 1754 in Naples , † November 15, 1823 in Perugia ) was an Italian classical composer and conductor.

Live and act

Luigi Caruso received his musical training first from his father, the conductor and cantor Giuseppe Caruso. This was followed by studies with Nicola Sala at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples.

Caruso began composing operas at an early age . In addition, in March 1788 he was appointed maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Perugia , which he exercised with interruptions until his death. He also worked as Kapellmeister in Cingoli (1790), after a long trip to Portugal in Fabriano (1796) and from 1808 at the Urbino Cathedral . There it came to differences with the cathedral chapter, which accused him of unreliability in compliance with his obligations, so that he resigned from this position in 1810.

There followed a time in church service in Palermo before he returned to Perugia, where he also worked as a cantor at the Oratorio di San Filippo Neri and founded a music school. From Perugia he made extensive trips to Portugal, France and Germany.

plant

Caruso's first known work as an opera composer is probably the opera Il barone Trocchia (1773). The opera L'Artaserse ( libretto by Pietro Metastasio ), performed in London in 1774 , is certainly attributed to him. Until 1790 he composed three to four operas per year in the genres opera buffa and opera seria , including settings of the Metastasio libretti Alessandro nell'Indie (Rome 1787), Antigono (Rome 1788) and Demetrio (Venice 1790).

He had his greatest success as an opera composer during the last 20 years of the 18th century. Despite the changes in musical style towards Romanticism, Caruso remained connected to the tradition of the Neapolitan opera and was unable to adapt to the changes of the time, which is why he then increasingly turned to composing sacred music.

In addition to an extensive work of operas, Caruso composed symphonies , chamber music , vocal music and numerous sacred works, including masses , oratorios and psalms .

His operas were successfully performed in both Italian and foreign theaters. a. in Germany, Austria, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Russia.

literature

Maria Caraci: Caruso, Luigi. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 21: Caruso – Castelnuovo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1978.

Web links

Works by Luigi Caruso in the RISM catalog

Works by Luigi Caruso at Musicalics

Literature by and about Luigi Caruso in the bibliographic database WorldCat

Search for operas by Luigi Caruso (search term in the Autore field : "Caruso Luigi") in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Maria Caraci: Caruso, Luigi. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 21: Caruso – Castelnuovo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1978.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Francesco Paolo Russo: Caruso, Luigi. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 4 (Camarella - Couture). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1114-4 ( online edition , subscription required for full access).

personal data
SURNAME	Caruso, Luigi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH	September 25, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH	Naples
DATE OF DEATH	November 15, 1823
Place of death	Perugia

[:0-1] Maria Caraci: Caruso, Luigi. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 21: Caruso – Castelnuovo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1978.

[:1-2] Francesco Paolo Russo: Caruso, Luigi. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 4 (Camarella - Couture). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1114-4 ( online edition , subscription required for full access).