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SPONTINI, GASPARO LUIGI PACIFICO (177...

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 733 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SPONTINI, GASPARO See also:LUIGI PACIFICO (1774-1851) , See also:Italian musical composer, was See also:born on the 14th of See also:November 1774 at Majolati (See also:Ancona) in See also:Italy. He was the son of a poor cobbler and was intended for the priesthood. His musical propensities however were not to be restrained, and he obtained lessons from Kapellmeister Quintiliani. In 1791 he went to the Conservatorio de' Turchini at See also:Naples, where he was trained to write operatic See also:music under See also:Paisiello, See also:Cimarosa and Fiorivanti. His first See also:opera, L'Eroismo ridicolo, was successfully produced in 1796, and by 1799 he had already written and produced eight operas. After becoming See also:court composer to See also:King See also:Ferdinand of Naples in this See also:year an intrigue with a princess of the court compelled Spontini to leave Naples in 'Soo. For the next few years he wrote operas in See also:Rome and See also:Venice until 1803 when he settled in See also:Paris, where his reception was anything but flattering. His comic opera Julie proved a failure; a successor, La Petite maison, was hissed. Undaunted by these misfortunes, he abandoned the See also:light and somewhat frivolous See also:style of his earlier See also:works, and in See also:Milton, a one-See also:act opera produced in 1804, achieved a real success. Spontini henceforth aimed at a very high ideal, and during the See also:remainder of his See also:life strove so earnestly to reach it that he frequently remodelled his passages five or six times before permitting them to be performed in public, and wearied his singers by introducing new improvements at every See also:rehearsal. His first masterpiece was La Vestale, completed in 1805, but kept from the See also:stage through the opposition of a jealous clique until the 15th of See also:December 1807, when it was produced at the Academie, and at once took See also:rank with the finest works of its class. Spontini had abandoned the parlando of Italian opera for an accompanied recitative; he had increased the strength of the See also:orchestra and introduced the big See also:chorus freely.

His opera, Ferdinand Cortez, was received with equal See also:

enthusiasm in 1809; but another, See also:Olympia, was much less warmly welcomed in 1819. See also:Napoleon, whose approval of any See also:work of See also:art was at once a compliment to the artist and a serious imputation on the value of the work, professed immense admiration for Spontini's music. Spontini had been appointed director of the Italian opera in 181o; but his quarrelsome and grasping disposition led to his See also:summary dismissal two years later, and, though reinstated in 1814, he voluntarily resigned his See also:post soon afterwards. He was in fact very See also:ill fitted to act as director; yet on the 28th of May 1820, five months after the failure of Olympia, he settled in See also:Berlin by invitation of See also:Frederick See also:William III., commissioned to super-intend all music performed at the Prussian court and compose two new See also:grand operas, or three smaller ones, every three years. But he began by at once embroiling himself with the See also:intendant, See also:Count See also:Bruhl. Spontini's life at Berlin may be best described as a ceaseless struggle for See also:precedence under circumstances which rendered its attainment impossible. Yet he did See also:good work. See also:Die Vestalin, Ferdinand Cortez and Olympia—the last two entirely remodelled—were produced with See also:great success in 1821. A new opera, Nourmahal,' founded on See also:Moore's Lalla Rookh, was performed in 1822, and another, entitled Alcidor, in 1825; and in 1826 Spontini began the See also:composition of See also:Agnes von See also:Hohenstaufen, a work planned on a grander See also:scale than any of his former efforts. The first act was performed in 1827, and the See also:complete work in three acts graced the See also:marriage of See also:Prince William in 1329. Though the See also:German critics abused it bitterly, Agnes von Hohenstaufen is undoubtedly Spontini's greatest work. In breadth of conception and grandeur of style it exceeds both Die Vestalin and Ferdinand Cortez, and its details are worked out with untiring conscientiousness.

Spontini himself, however, was utterly dissatisfied with it, and at once set to work upon an entire revision, so that on its re-presentation in 1837 many parts were scarcely recognizable by those who had heard the opera in its See also:

original See also:form. This was his last great work. He several times began to rewrite his See also:early opera, Milton, and contemplated the treatment of many new subjects, such as See also:Sappho, La Colere d'Achille, and other classical myths, but with no definite result. He had never been popular in Berlin; and he has been accused of endeavouring to prevent the performance of Euryanthe, See also:Oberon, Die Hochzeit See also:des See also:Camacho, Jessonda, See also:Robert the See also:Devil, and other works of See also:genius, through sheer envy of the laurels won by their composers. But the critics and reviewers of the See also:period were so closely leagued against him that it is difficult to know what to believe. After the See also:death of Frederick William III. in 1840 Spontini's conduct became so violent and imperious that he was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment for lesemajeste. The See also:sentence was remitted by Frederick William IV., but on the 2nd of See also:April 1841, when he appeared at the conductor's See also:desk to See also:direct a performance of See also:Don Juan, he was greeted with hisses and groans, and his orders to raise the See also:curtain were ignored, so that he was compelled to leave the desk. The king dismissed him on the 25th of See also:August, with See also:power to retain his titles and live wherever he pleased in the enjoyment of his full See also:salary. He elected to See also:settle once more in Paris, after a See also:short visit to Italy; but beyond conducting occasional performances of some of his own works he made but few attempts to keep his name before the public. In 1847 he revisited Berlin and was invited by the king to conduct some performances during the See also:winter. In 1848 he became See also:deaf. In 1850 he retired to his birthplace, Majolati, and died there on the 14th of See also:January 1851, bequeathing all he possessed to the poor of his native See also:town.

End of Article: SPONTINI, GASPARO LUIGI PACIFICO (1774-1851)

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