Niccolò Piccinni

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Niccolò Piccinni

Niccolò Vito Piccinni , also Piccini , also Nicola Marcello Antonio Giacomo Picci (n) ni (born January 16, 1728 in Bari , † May 7, 1800 in Passy near Paris) was an Italian classical composer . His main field was the opera .

Life

Naples

Niccolò Piccinni received his musical education in Naples , 1742–1744 from the opera composer Leonardo Leo and then from Francesco Durante until 1754 at the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio . His father was a musician, his mother was the sister of the opera composer Gaetano Latilla . In Naples he made his debut at the Theatro dei Fiorentini in 1754 with his first opera buffa Le donne dispettose . The opera series Zenobia and Nitteti followed in 1756 and 1757 . On July 30, 1756, he married his 14-year-old singing student Sibilla Vincenza.

Rome

In 1758 Piccinni was invited to Rome and from here he had his first European success with the opera buffa La buona figliuola ( La Cecchina , 1760), the text of which came from Carlo Goldoni based on Richardson's novel Pamela . In Rome he continued to compose both operas in the style of opera seria based on texts by Pietro Metastasio and opera buffe. In 1773 he returned to Naples, where he became second cathedral conductor and second organist in the royal chapel.

Paris Opera and the Piccinnist Controversy

A public dispute over the style of opera had been going on in Paris since the beginning of the 18th century. Ever since the Abbé and church lawyer François Raguenet got to know Italian opera on a trip to Italy and publicly endorsed it in Paris in 1702, the royal court and Paris society have passionately discussed the question of the priority of Italian over French opera , and vice versa. Fifty years later the public Italian / French controversy flared up again in the so-called " Buffonist dispute" after a successful Italian buffalo troupe with La serva padrona ( The Maid as Mistress ) by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi had caused enthusiasm in Paris. Twenty years later, the Parisian opera audience - a special Italianizing party - asked again for an Italian composer to represent the Italian melos . The Neapolitan ambassador in Paris, Domenico Caracciolo, recommended his compatriot Piccinni. Since the French king, Louis XV. , died, there were delays so that Christoph Willibald Gluck was appointed from Vienna .

Piccinni himself - after his arrival in Paris in 1776 - was drawn into the new operatic dispute, now between the "Gluckists" and the rival "Piccinnists" who used him as a figurehead. This dispute made history in connection with the "Gluck opera reform".

“In this conflict, which went down in music history under the name of the“ Piccinnist Controversy ”, Piccinni was almost the only one who retained dignity and credibility. His ability to adapt to the requirements of the French opera stage (which, by the way, he did to a far greater extent than Gluck) shows great compositional skill and self-confidence. "

- Gerhard Allroggen

Gluck returned to Vienna in 1779, while Piccinni stayed in Paris and took over as opera director at the Académie royale, leading an Italian opera company. He created six operas in the style of the French tragédie lyrique , the main form of French opera. In 1783 his Didon had great success.

As an Italian singing teacher, Piccini became a professor at the newly founded École Royale de Chant et de Déclamation (royal school for singing and declamation), today's Conservatoire de Paris. After the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, he lost this position and returned to Italy, where he lived and performed operas alternately in Venice, Rome and Naples. For political reasons - he was accused of republicanism - he was served a four-year prison sentence. In 1798 he returned to Paris. There Piccinni was a member of a Masonic lodge , the so-called Philosophers Lodge Neuf Sœurs in Paris . In 1800 he died impoverished in Passy near Paris.

In Bari, the city of his birth, a memorial plaque was placed on the house where he was born and a street ("Via Piccinni") and the "Conservatorio di Musica N. Piccinni" were named after him. In 1854 the opera house named "Teatro Piccinni" in his honor was opened in Bari.

Works

Piccini's complete works have not yet been explored in terms of their scope. Extensive lists of his works are in MGG 2 2005, New Grove Dictionary of Opera 1998 and Rivista musicale italiana , viii. 75 published. The number of his (Italian) operas given in the sources - they show French and German influences in later years - fluctuates between 80 and 120. Other vocal compositions, including oratorios, belong to church music.

Operas (selection)

  • Le donne dispettose (Naples 1754)
  • Zenobia , opera seria after Pietro Metastasio (Naples 1756)
  • Nitteti , opera seria after Metastasio (Naples 1757)
  • Alessandro nell'Indie , opera seria after Metastasio (Rome 1758, new version Naples 1774)
  • La buona figliuola , opera buffa after Carlo Goldoni (Rome 1760)
  • Olimpiade , opera seria after Metastasio (1761, 2nd version 1768)
  • Ciro riconosciuto , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Naples 1759)
  • Siroe, re di Persia , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Naples 1759)
  • Il re pastore , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Florence 1760)
  • Demofoonte , opera seria (Reggio nell'Emilia 1761)
  • La buona figliuola maritata , opera buffa (Bologna 1761)
  • Antigono , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Naples 1762)
  • Artaserse , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Rome 1762)
  • Le donne vendicate , opera buffa (Rome 1763)
  • Il mondo della luna , opera buffa after Goldoni (Rome 1765)
  • La pescatrice , opera buffa after Goldoni (Rome 1766)
  • Demetrio , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Naples 1769)
  • Didone abbandonata , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Rome 1770)
  • Catone in Utica , opera seria after Metastasio (1770, re-performance in Mannheim 2007)
  • Ipermestra , dramma per musica after Metastasio (Naples 1772)
  • Iphigénie en Tauride (1781, Opera seria)
  • Didon (Fontainebleau 1783)
  • Pénélope (Fontainebleau 1785)

Oratorios (selection)

Instrumental

  • 1799 Hymn a l'hymen pour la célébration des mariages (Text: Ginguené )
  • Flute Concerto in D major
  • 2 Andantino for violin and piano
  • Sinfonia in B flat major
  • 3 sonatas

literature

  • Gerhard Allroggen : Opera reform and journalism in Paris. In: Sabine Ehrmann-Herfort, Ludwig Finscher, Giselher Schubert (eds.): European music history 1. Bärenreiter / Metzler Kassel 2002, ISBN 3-7618-2024-0 (Bärenreiter), ISBN 3-476-01909-8 (Metzler) , Pp. 551-585.
  • Sabine Ehrmann-Herfort, Ludwig Finscher, Giselher Schubert (eds.): European music history 1. Bärenreiter / Metzler Kassel 2002, ISBN 3-7618-2024-0 (Bärenreiter), ISBN 3-476-01909-8 (Metzler).
  • Wolfram Ensslin: Niccolò Piccinni: Catone in Utica. Sources transmission, performance history and analysis (= sources and studies on the history of the Mannheim court orchestra. Vol. 4). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1996, ISBN 3-631-49810-1 (At the same time: Heidelberg, University, Master's thesis, 1994).
  • Pierre Louis Ginguené : Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Nicolas Picinni. Panckoucke, Paris An. IX (1800/1801), digitized .
  • Riemann Music Lexicon. Vol. 4, Schott Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3-7957-0006-5 .
  • Elisabeth Schmierer : Article Piccini, Niccolò in Music in Past and Present (MGG 2), Person Part 13, Bärenreiter Kassel, 2005 (→ mainly relevant for the Vita).
  • Elisabeth Schmierer: The tragèdies lyriques Niccolò Piccinnis. On the synthesis of French and Italian opera in the late 18th century (= Thurnauer Schriften zum Musiktheater. Vol. 18). Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 1999, ISBN 3-89007-497-9 (also: Berlin, Technical University, habilitation paper, 1996).

Web links

Commons : Niccolò Piccinni  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Schmierer: Article Piccini, Niccolò. in music past and present.
  2. ↑ a b c d e 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. 88 .
  3. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Opera . Vol. 3, 1998. Article Piccinni, (1) Niccolò based on ancient sources.
  4. ↑ a b c Article Piccinni. In: Riemann Music Lexicon. 2012, vol. 4.
  5. ↑ July 30, 1756 on musicandhistory.com, accessed February 19, 2014.
  6. ↑ Piccini (Nicolo-Louis). in: General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes. Volume 8. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1827, OCLC 311708826 , p. 537. ( online )
  7. ^ Wilhelm Seidel: The dispute over the Italian and French opera around 1700. In: European music history 1. P. 320.
  8. ^ Gerhard Allroggen: Opera reform and journalism in Paris. (In it: The Buffonist dispute. P. 552ff). In: European Music History 1.
  9. ^ Gerhard Allroggen: The dispute between gluckists and piccinnists. In: European history of music 1. p. 568.
  10. ^ Gerhard Allroggen: European History of Music 1. S. 569.
  11. ^ Elisabeth Schmierer: MGG (2) 2005
  12. ^ Niccolò Piccinni on mvmm.org, accessed February 19, 2014.
  13. ↑ Conservatorio di Musica N. Piccinni at nuke.conservatoriopiccinni.it, accessed on February 19, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Piccinni, Niccolò
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Piccini, Nicola Vincenzo; Piccinni, Nicola Vincenzo; Piccinni, Niccolò Vito
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian classical composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1728
PLACE OF BIRTH Bari
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1800
Place of death Passy (Paris)