Giuseppe Lillo

He received his earliest musical training from his father before entering the Naples Conservatory where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Giovanni Furno, piano with Francesco Lanza, and composition with Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli.

His first composition, a mass for four voices and orchestra, premiered to a warm reception in 1834.

He quickly gained a great deal of popularity with the Naples public with opera serias like Il gioiello (1835), Odda di Bernaver (1837), and Il conte di Chalais (1839).

The pinnacle of his success came with his only opera comica, L’osteria di Andujar, which premiered in Fondo on 30 September 1840.

[1] Around 1840 Lillo was appointed joint music director of the Teatro di San Carlo with Giacomo Cordella.