Conti, Carlo
Conti, Carlo
Conti, Carlo , Italian composer and pedagogue; b. Arpino, Oct. 14, 1796; d. there, July 10, 1868. He studied in Naples with Zingarelli at the Reale Collegio di Musica di S. Sebatiano, where his opera Le truppe in Franconia was premiered while he was still a student in 1819 and won the high praise of Rossini. He also studied with J.S. Mayr. After teaching at the Reale Collegio di Musica di S. Sebastiano from 1819 to 1821, he pursued a career as a composer of operas, garnering his most popular success with L’Olimpia (Naples, oct. 28, 1826). In 1831 he gave up composing and settled in Arpino. From 1846 to 1858 he again taught at the Reale Collegio di Musica di S. Sebastiano, where he was made its asst. director in 1862. Conti was an honorary member, and later president, of the Royal Academy of Arts in Naples. He was also elected an assoc. member of the Institut de France in Paris. His operas, in the style of Rossini, are the work of a fine craftsman.
Works
DRAMATIC Opera (all 1st perf. in Naples unless otherwise given): Le truppe in Franconia (1819); La pace desiderata (1820); Misantropia e pentimento (Feb. 4, 1823); II trionfodelta giustizia (1823); L’Olimpia (Oct. 28, 1826); L’audacia fortunata (Rome, Carnival 1827); I finti sposi (Rome, Carnival 1827); Bartolomeo dela Cavalla, overo L’innocente in periglio (Rome, Sept. 10, 1827); Gli Aragonesi in Napoli (Dec. 29, 1827); Alexi (July 6, 1828; in collaboration with N. Vaccai); Giovanna Shore (Milan, Oct. 31, 1829).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire