Giuseppe Sarti

In 1753 Sarti went to Copenhagen with Pietro Mingotti and in 1755 King Frederick V of Denmark appointed him Hofkapellmeister and director of the opera.

Here he exercised his true vocation of composer, in addition to at least twenty of his most successful operas, a vast amount of sacred music for the cathedral, and educating a number of clever pupils, the most distinguished of whom was Cherubini.

He reached St. Petersburg in 1785 and at once took the direction of the opera, for which he composed many new pieces, besides some very striking sacred music, including a Te Deum for the victory of Ochakov, in which he introduced the firing of real cannons.

His most successful operas in Russia were Armida e Rinaldo and The Early Reign of Oleg (Nachal'noye upravleniye Olega), for the latter of which the empress herself wrote the libretto.

[3] Sarti's opera Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode has been immortalized by Mozart, who introduced an air from it (“Come un’agnello”) into the supper scene in Don Giovanni.