32 Facts About Baldassare Galuppi

Baldassare Galuppi was a Venetian composer, born on the island of Burano in the Venetian Republic.

Baldassare Galuppi achieved international success, spending periods of his career in Vienna, London and Saint Petersburg, but his main base remained Venice, where he held a succession of leading appointments.

Baldassare Galuppi was highly regarded as a virtuoso performer on and composer for keyboard instruments.

Some of Baldassare Galuppi's works were occasionally performed in the 200 years after his death, but it was not until the last years of the 20th century that his compositions were extensively revived in live performance and on recordings.

At the age of 15 Baldassare Galuppi composed his first opera, Gli amici rivali, which, according to Caffi, was performed unsuccessfully at Chioggia and equally unsuccessfully in Vicenza under the title La fede nell'incostanza.

From 1726 to 1728, Baldassare Galuppi was harpsichordist at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.

This, too, was modestly successful, and Baldassare Galuppi began to receive commissions for operas and oratorios.

In 1740, Baldassare Galuppi was appointed "maestro di coro" at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in Venice, where his duties ranged from teaching and conducting to composing liturgical music and oratorios.

Baldassare Galuppi petitioned the Mendicanti authorities for leave of absence, to which they agreed.

Baldassare Galuppi was in England for 18 months, supervising productions for the Italian opera company at the King's Theatre.

However, in Burney's view Baldassare Galuppi's skills were still immature during his spell in London.

Full-length comic operas from Naples and Rome were becoming fashionable; Baldassare Galuppi adapted three of them for Venetian audiences in 1744, and the following year composed one of his own, La forza d'amore, which was only a mild success.

Baldassare Galuppi continued to compose serious operas, sometimes in partnership with the librettist Metastasio.

In time this would lead to a large body of religious compositions, but for the present Baldassare Galuppi was chiefly engaged in operatic work.

Baldassare Galuppi was fortunate that when he turned once more to comic opera in 1749 he collaborated with Carlo Goldoni.

Baldassare Galuppi was as warm in his regard for Galuppi as Metastasio was cold.

Baldassare Galuppi persuaded the Basilica authorities, the Procurators, to be more flexible in payments to singers, allowing him to attract performers with first-rate voices such as Gaetano Guadagni and Gasparo Pacchiarotti.

Early in 1764 Catherine the Great of Russia made it known through diplomatic channels that she wished Baldassare Galuppi to come to Saint Petersburg as her court composer and conductor.

Baldassare Galuppi was reluctant, but Venetian officials assured him that his post and salary as maestro di cappella at St Mark's were secure until 1768 as long as he supplied a Gloria and a Credo for the Basilica's Christmas mass each year.

Baldassare Galuppi resigned his post at the Incurabili, made provision for his wife and daughters, and set off for Russia.

Baldassare Galuppi wrote one opera there, Ifigenia in Tauride, and two cantatas, La virtu liberata and La pace tra la virtu e la bellezza, the latter to words by Metastasio.

Baldassare Galuppi is reported to have exclaimed, "I'd never heard such a magnificent choir in Italy".

On his return to Venice, Baldassare Galuppi resumed his duties at St Mark's and successfully applied for reappointment at the Incurabili, holding the post until 1776, when financial constraints obliged all the ospedali to cut back their musical activities.

Baldassare Galuppi's output continued to be considerable in both quantity and quality.

Baldassare Galuppi's last known completed work is the 1784 Christmas mass for St Mark's.

Baldassare Galuppi was buried in the church of San Vitale, and, much mourned, was commemorated by a requiem mass "solemnized in the church of Santo Stefano, paid for by professional musicians, at which the actors of the Teatro S Benedetto sang".

Baldassare Galuppi's output was exceeded by his contemporaries Draghi, Piccinni, Paisiello, Guglielmi, and the most prolific of all, with 166 operas, Wenzel Muller; the only composer of later generations who approached his output was Offenbach 100 years later.

Baldassare Galuppi was called "the father of comic opera" by musicians of the generation that followed him.

However, Baldassare Galuppi applied the stile antico sparingly, and when he felt constrained to write contrapuntal music for the choir he would balance it with a bright modern style for the orchestral accompaniment.

In 2003, a Nisi Dominus previously thought to be by Baldassare Galuppi was reattributed to Vivaldi.

The music of the latter, a generation earlier than Baldassare Galuppi, had gone out of fashion after his death, and unscrupulous copyists and editors found that Baldassare Galuppi's name on the title page increased a work's appeal.

Robert Browning's poem A Toccata of Baldassare Galuppi's refers to Baldassare Galuppi and his work.