Pasquale Anfossi

Pasquale Anfossi(5 April 1727 – February 1797) was an Italianopera composer.Born inTaggia,Republic of Genoa,he studied withNiccolò PiccinniandAntonio Sacchini,and worked mainly inLondon,Veniceand Rome.

He wrote more than 80 operas, bothopera seriaandopera buffa,although he concentrated onchurch music,especiallyoratorios,during his last years. Anfossi died inRomein 1797.

Career

Aiming at first to become a performer, he studiedviolinat theNeapolitanLoretoConservatoriumfrom 1744 to 1752, and played in an operaorchestrafor ten years. He then turned to composing, studying with Sacchini and Piccinni. The first performance of his own work, theopera buffaLa Serva Spiritosawas at the Rome Carnival in 1763, though his authorship of the work was not clearly established at the time. It appears he preferred to work under his teacher Sacchini, supplementing his tutor's works. Nevertheless, he made a breakthrough with hisdramma giocosoL'incognita perseguitatain 1773 in Rome.

By 1782 he had written about 30 operas, performed mainly in Venice and Rome, although on occasion also in other parts of Italy and inVienna.His first London performance wasIl trionfo della costanzain 1782. He was engaged as musical director in London until 1786, where he performed five of his own operas and alternative versions of work by other composers; for example,Gluck'sOrfeo ed Euridicewith supplementary music byJohann Christian BachandHändel.His works were not always well received: one critic wrote "the music suffers obviously from a tiring monotony" about his last opera in London,L'inglese in Italia.

Anfossi returned to Italy, and won back Roman public opinion in 1787 with thefarsaLe pazzie de' gelosiat the Carnival. In 1789, the uninterrupted 20-year stretch of operatic composition stopped, and Anfossi restricted himself to church music. He was appointedMaestro di Capellaof San Giovanni inLaterano,and held this position till his death in 1797.

Works

A folio fromSalve reginaby Anfossi, written in his own hand.

The sum of Anfossi's work is not completely known, but he composed at least 60, possibly 70 or more, operas, and at least 20 oratorios inLatinandItalian.His early work is, understandably, closely related in style to that of his teachers, Piccinni and Sacchini, with diatonic harmony and intermittently inspired melody. His orchestration style changed significantly during the course of his career; he realised more colourful effects through the use of wind instruments. Until the middle of the 1770s hisopera buffashowed him to prefer the old-fashioned, pureda capotype of aria, in order to, as in his comic works, proceed to more freely shaped passages. He appeared to prefer longer passages such asfinali,and he clearly had a preference for sentimental moments and phrases.

Anfossi's music was fundamentally criticised as inadequately dramatic, and weak in characterisation. Hisbuffocharacters are generally not as original as those of some of his contemporaries, such asCimarosaandPaisiello,while hisseriamusic has a certain stereotypical nature.

As an operatic composer, Anfossi remained forgotten for a long time, despite his great popularity with his contemporaries, because his works were overshadowed by those ofSalieri,RossiniandMozart.Nevertheless, Johann Wolfgang vonGoethestaged Anfossi'sfarsettaLa maga Circe(Circe, the Sorceress) in his role as the theatre director ofWeimar.He adapted thelibrettowith Christian August Vulpius and also made plans for a continuation, which never came to bear.

Only in the last 20 years has Anfossi's work been appreciated anew, through diverse productions such asGiuseppe riconosciuto.His work was featured at the 2005SalzburgSummer Festival.

Operas

SeeList of operas by Pasquale Anfossi.

Cantatas

I dioscuri(libretto by Saverio Mattei, 1771, Naples)
L'armonia(libretto by Mattia Butturini, 1790, Venice)

Oratorios

La madre dei Maccabei(libretto by Giuseppe Barbieri, 1765, Rome)
Noe sacrificium(1769, Venice or Florence)
Carmina sacra camenda in nosocomio pauperum derelictorum(1773, Venice)
Jerusalem eversa(1774, Venice)
David contra Philisthaeos(1775, Venice)
Giuseppe riconosciuto(libretto byPietro Metastasio,1776, Rome)
Carmina sacra recinenda a piis virginibus(1776, Venice)
Samuelis umbra(1777, Venice)
Virginis assumptae triumphus(1780, Venice)
La nascita del Redentore(libretto by Giacomo Gregorio, 1780, Rome)
Esther(1781, Venice)
La Betulia liberata(libretto by Metastasio, 1781)
Sedecia(1782, Venice)
Il sacrificio di Noè uscito dall'arca(1783, Rome)
Prodigus(1786, Venice)
Sant'Elena al Calvario(libretto by Metastasio, 1786, Rome)
Ninive conversa(1787, Venice)
Il figliuol prodigo(libretto by Carlo Antonio Femi, 1792, Rome)
La morte di San Filippo Neri(libretto by Carlo Antonio Femi, 1796, Rome)
Gerico distrutta
Il convito di Baldassare
Per la nascita di Nostre Signore Gesù Cristo

Sources

The Oxford Dictionary of Opera,by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages,ISBN 0-19-869164-5
Giovanni Tribuzio,Pasquale Anfossi, operista alla moda,inIl secolo d'oro della musica a Napoli. Per un canone della Scuola musicale napoletana del '700,vol. II, a cura di Lorenzo Fiorito, Frattamaggiore, Diana Edizioni, 2019, pp. 133–148.

External links

Free scores by Pasquale Anfossiat theInternational Music Score Library Project(IMSLP)