Antonio Sacchini
The following year, he became a "mastricello" (a junior teacher in the school) and had the opportunity to compose, as the final exercise of his studies, his first operatic work, an intermezzo in two parts entitled Fra' Donato.
While continuing to pursue his career as an opera composer, he also spent time writing sacred pieces (oratorios, masses, hymns, motets) for the Conservatorio and various Venetian churches, as his contract required.
By then, Sacchini was enjoying an enormous reputation: he had just scored successes with the operas Scipione in Cartagena and Calliroe in Munich and Ludwigsburg,[3] and he was, in the opinion of the English writer, the only composer worthy to stand alongside the "giant" Baldassare Galuppi among all the "dwarfs" who then populated the Venetian musical scene.
Beginning with two new operas staged at the King's Theatre in 1773, Il Cid (in January) and Tamerlano (in May), in the words of Burney, Sacchini soon "captured the hearts" of the London public.
He was so popular that Tommaso Traetta was unable to make any impression with his operas when he arrived in the British capital in 1776, even though Sacchini himself had supported the move by his old friend.
At that time, the Parisian operatic scene was divided between supporters of the German composer Gluck, famous for his musical reforms, and followers of his Italian rival Niccolò Piccinni.
[14] During his stays in Paris in the seventies Sacchini is also said to have imparted the rudiments of a real singing education to the future European star of opera and refined cantatrice, Brigida Banti.
Sacchini received a warm welcome in the French capital: the Piccinnists saw him as a natural ally in their battle against the influence of Gluck; but, more importantly, Emperor Joseph II happened to be in Paris at the time, travelling incognito.
The emperor was a passionate devotee of Italian music, and Sacchini's in particular, and he eagerly recommended the composer to his sister Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France.
Piccinni's Didon, staged at court the previous month, had been hailed as a masterpiece, enjoying a further two performances there; in comparison, Chimène made less of an impression and was only given once.
"[2] Dardanus, with a libretto which was largely a reworking of Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera of the same name, provoked mixed reactions and appeared in two different versions in the first year of its life on stage.
Sacchini had shared the good news with us and continued his habit of meeting Her Majesty after she had heard mass, when she invited him to join her in her music salon.
Having noticed that, for several Sundays in a row, the Queen seemed to avoid catching his eye, Sacchini – tormented with anxiety – deliberately placed himself in her way so that Her Majesty had no choice but to speak with him.
The involvement of the queen and a sincerely appreciative article by Piccinni, who dedicated a moving funeral oration to the dead composer, turned popular opinion in his favour.
The management of the Académie Royale, without even waiting for the usual pressure from above, ordered Œdipe à Colone to go into rehearsal at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, then the temporary home of the Opéra.
Any such assessment is made more difficult by the comparative lack of interest the modern operatic world has shown in Sacchini's works, although this has begun to change in the early 21st century: there are now two complete recordings of Œdipe à Colone and one of Renaud.
[25] This melodic gift, along with the general facility Sacchini found in composing music, was undoubtedly the result of his upbringing amid the flourishing Neapolitan school of opera.
He also made frequent use of a cavatina-like two-part aria that approximates to the A portion of the da capo form, and of the vocal rondò, in both comic and serious works.
"[25] However, it was only when he became part of "an international musical milieu and with the acquisition of a much broader and more diverse experience that Sacchini's finest qualities achieved complete maturity.
"[3] This is true above all of the period in Paris, when he "strengthened his own style with an obviously Gluckian influence, which was not, however, strong enough to cancel out his melodic and sensuous gifts", which derived from the Italian tradition, "while his orchestral palette was also enriched by new and vivid colours, which frequently anticipated many aspects of the future Romantic movement.
"[3] The most characteristic work in this respect is undoubtedly Œdipe à Colone, but the description also applies to Dardanus: "these are operas in which every element lacking a dramatic function has been removed.
Accompanied recitatives, ariosos and arias blend naturally into one another...[giving life] to scenes whose unity is guaranteed by the use of the same thematic material...the combination of cavatina and cabaletta is particularly successful, and it was destined to become a common feature of opera in the following century...[finally] the choral scenes, alternating chorus and soloists, are highly effective, on the one hand revealing the influence of Gluck, and on the other showing the way forward to the grand opera of Spontini.
"[26] Writing in Grove, David DiChiera concludes, "With his masterpiece, Œdipe, Sacchini admirably achieved a synthesis of Italian melodic style and Gluckian principles within a French dramatic framework".
[42] Undated, but traceable back to the Venetian period (1768–1772) Georges Sauvé reports that there exist "numerous works not yet catalogued, in Italy, in London (including nine 1775 duets), in Paris, in Dublin, ariettas which were published long after his death, arias, cantatas ..." There also exists Fanny Bazin's Music Book,[44] a completely unpublished handwritten collection by Antonio Sacchini, dating back to 1785 and currently belonging to Sauvé himself, a descendant of Madame Bazin.
