SPONTlNI, Gasparo
b Majolati, Italy, 14 November 1774
d Majolati, 24 January 1851, aged seventy-six

He studied at a music school in Naples and with Piccini. His operas were a success from the time he was twenty-two. In 1802 he left Italy for Paris, living there until 1819, taking French nationality and marrying a French wife. At first he received hostility from his critics, then acceptance, and the favours of Empress Josephine and Frederick William III of Prussia. The latter made him Kapellmeister at his court in 1820, where he met much opposition and where his output dwindled until he was pensioned off in 1842. He returned to his birthplace in Italy, his final years troubled by deafness.

1807 (33)

La Vestale, opera

1809 (35)

Ferdinand Cortez, opera

1819 (45)

Olympie, opera

1821 (47)

Nurmahal, opera

1829 (55)

Agnes von Hohenstaufen, opera