View source for Gaspare Spontini

{{short description|Italian composer and conductor}}
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'''Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini'''  (14 November 1774{{spaced ndash}}24 January 1851) was an Italian [[opera]] [[composer]] and [[conducting|conductor]] from the [[classical period (music)|classical era]]. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in [[France|French]] ''[[opera]]'', and composed over twenty works. 

==Biography==
[[File:Portrait of Gaspare Spontini, composer (1774-1851) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON010925.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Gaspare Spontini, composer (1774-1851)]]
Born in Maiolati, [[Papal States|Papal State]] (now [[Maiolati Spontini]], [[Province of Ancona]]), 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 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.

As a youth, Spontini studied at the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini, one of four active [[music conservatories of Naples]]. Working his way from Italian city to city, he got his first break in Rome, with his successful comedy ''Li Puntigli delle Donne'' (Carnival 1793). In 1803, he went to Paris, where, on 11 February 1804, debuted his comic opera ''La Finta Filosofa'', his Neapolitan success of 1799. In part on the recommendation of the [[Charles de Rémusat|comte de Rémusat]] and [[Madame de Rémusat|his literary countess]], a ''dame du palais'', Spontini circulated in the Imperial court, was made a member of the [[Académie Impériale de Musique]] and gained a court position as ''compositeur particulier de la chambre'' of the Empress in 1805.

Though Spontini's earlier successes were comedies, with the encouragement of [[Joséphine de Beauharnais|Empress Joséphine]] in 1807, Spontini wrote his greatest success, the ''tragédie lyrique'' ''[[La Vestale]]'', which has remained his best-known work.<ref>Gerhard (n. d) §2</ref> Its premiere at the [[Opéra]] in Paris established Spontini as one of the greatest Italian composers of his age. His contemporaries [[Luigi Cherubini|Cherubini]], [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], [[Carl Maria von Weber|Weber]], [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]], [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]] and [[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]] all considered it a masterpiece, and later composers such as [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], 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, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]].<ref>Silke, p. 22.</ref> In 1811, Spontini married Celeste Érard, the niece of the Parisian maker of pianos and harps [[Sébastien Érard]]; it was a happy marriage, though childless.<ref>[http://www.fondazionepergolesispontini.com/fps/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=320&lang=it Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini: Gaspare Spontini] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201215200/http://www.fondazionepergolesispontini.com/fps/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=320&lang=it |date=1 December 2014 }}</ref> He was made a ''chevalier'' of Napoleon's [[Legion of Honor]]; its [[Maltese cross]] hangs round his neck in the portrait by Nicolas-Eustache Maurin (''illustration'').

Under the changed political climate of the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]], Spontini, closely identified with the former Empire, saw his opera ''[[Olimpie]]'' (1819, revised 1821, 1826) meet with indifference, leading him to leave Paris for [[Berlin]], where his operas had already achieved success. There he became Kapellmeister and chief conductor at the [[Berlin State Opera|Königliches Opernhaus]], and in this period he composed the Prussian National Anthem "Borussia". There he also met the young [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], but deprecated the 17-year old's opera ''[[Die Hochzeit des Camacho]]''.<ref>Todd (2003), pp. 167–168.</ref>

In 1842, a disillusioned Spontini, chagrined at the success of [[Giacomo Meyerbeer]] and others in Germany, returned to Italy, where he died in 1851.<ref>Gerhard (n. d) §4</ref>

==Compositions==
{{see also|List of operas by Gaspare Spontini}}

===For the opera===
* ''[[Li puntigli delle donne]]'' (1796)
* {{ill|L'eroismo ridicolo|scores|L'eroismo ridicolo (Spontini, Gaspare)|lt=''L'eroismo ridicolo''}} (1798)
* ''[[Teseo riconosciuto]]'' (1798)
* ''[[La fuga in maschera]]'' (1800)
* ''[[Le metamorfosi di Pasquale]]'' (1802)
* ''[[Milton (opera)|Milton]]'' (1804)
* ''[[Julie, ou Le pot de fleurs]]'' (1805)
* ''[[La vestale]]'' (1807)
* ''[[Fernand Cortez]]'' (1809)
* ''[[Olimpie]]'' (1819)
* ''[[Nurmahal (opera)|Nurmahal, oder das Rosenfest von Caschmir]]'' (1822)
* ''[[Agnes von Hohenstaufen]]'' (1829)

===Other compositions===
* ''L'eccelsa gara''<ref>{{in lang|nl}} [http://deredactie.be/permalink/1.2697703 "Unieke partituren van Spontini ontdekt in het kasteel van Hingene".] [[Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie|VRT]], {{nobreak|27 June 2016}}</ref> – Cantata, on a text by Luigi Balocchi (1806)
* ''Tout le monde a tort'' – Vaudeville (1806)
* {{ill|Bacchanale des Danaïdes|scores|Bacchanale des Danaïdes (Spontini, Gaspare)|lt=''Bacchanale des Danaïdes''}}, for [[Antonio Salieri]]'s ''[[Les Danaïdes]]'' (1817)
* [[Borussia (anthem)|''Borussia'']] – [[Prussia]]n anthem, on a text by {{ill|Johann Friedrich Leopold Duncker|de}} (1818)
* {{ill|Tout deuil|scores|Tout deuil (Spontini, Gaspare)|lt=''Tout deuil''}} (1820)
* ''Lalla Rûkh'' – Festspiel, on a text by S. H. Spicker, after [[Thomas Moore]] (1821)

==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 cinema 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 tutelar" 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 in the original French language with Karen Huffstodt, Denyce Graves, Anthony Michaels-Moore and Dimitri Kavrakos.

Other revivals of Spontini include ''Agnes von Hohenstaufen'' in Italian as ''[[Agnese di 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, both recorded live. ''Fernand Cortez'' was revived in 1951, with a young [[Renata Tebaldi]], at the [[Teatro di San Carlo|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).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Gerhard, Anselm (n.d.). [http://0-www.oxfordmusiconline.com.catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/subscriber/article/grove/music/26454 "Spontini, Gaspare"],  in ''[[Grove Music Online]]'', {{subscription required}}, accessed 13 September 2014.
* [[Silke Leopold]] (2006), "The Idea of National Opera, c. 1800" in ''Unity and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800'', (Ed.) [[Tim Blanning]] and [[Hagen Schulze]] New York: Oxford University Press.
* Todd, R. Larry (2003), ''Mendelssohn, A Life in Music''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-511043-2}}.
* ''Gaspare Spontini'' (French) [archive] by Patrick Barbier, bleu nuit éditeur, 2017, 176 p. ({{ISBN|978-2-3588-4067-5}})

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.fondazionepergolesispontini.com Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini of Jesi]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Spontini, Gasparo Luigi Pacifico|volume=25|pages=732–733}}
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Gasparo Luigi Pacifico Spontini}}
* {{IMSLP|author=Spontini, Gaspare|cname=Gaspare Spontini}}

{{Gaspare Spontini}}
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{{Romanticism}}
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