Zingarelli, Nicola Antonio
Zingarelli, Nicola Antonio
Zingarelli, Nicola Antonio, Italian composer and pedagogue; b. Naples, April 4, 1752; d. Torre del Greco, near Naples, May 5, 1837. He studied at the Cons. S. Maria di Loreto in Naples with Fenaroli, Speranza, Anfossi, and Sacchini. His first stage work, I quattro pazzi, was performed at the Cons, in 1768. After finishing school in 1772, he earned his living as a violin teacher. He spent much time traveling throughout Italy, supervising the production of his operas. In 1793 he was appointed maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Milan, in 1794, at the Santa Casa in Loreto, and in 1804, at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. In 1811, for refusing to conduct a Te Deum to celebrate the birthday of Napoleon’s son, the “King of Rome/’ he was imprisoned at Civitavecchia, and later transported to Paris by order of Napoleon, who set him at liberty and libe rally paid him for a Mass written in Paris. As Fioravanti had meanwhile become maestro di cappella at St. Peter’s, Zingarelli went to Naples, and in 1813 became director of the royal Collegio di Musica; in 1816 he succeeded Paisiello as maestro di cappella at the Naples Cathedral. He was renowned as a teacher, numbering Bellini, Mercadante, Carlo Conti, Lauro Rossi, Morlacchi, and Michael Costa among his students. His operas, interpreted by the finest singers of the time (Catalani, Crescentini, Grassini, Marchesi, and Rubinelli), were highly successful. His facility was such that he was able to write an opera in a week. He wrote 37 operas in all.
Works
dramatic: Opera (all 1st perf. at La Scala in Milan): Alsinda (Feb. 22, 1785); Ifigenia in Aulide (Jan. 27, 1787); La morte de Cesare (Dec. 26,1790); Pirro, re d’Epiro (Dec. 26, 1791); II mercato di Monfregoso (Sept. 22, 1792); La secchia rapita (Sept. 7, 1793); Artaserse (Dee. 26, 1793); Giulietta e Romeo, after Shakespeare (Jan. 30, 1796); Meleagro (Jan. 1798); II ritratto (Oct.12, 1799); Clitennestra (Dec. 26, 1800); II bevitore fortunato (Nov. 1803). Other Opera:/ quattro pazzi (Naples, 1768); Montezuma (Naples, Aug. 13, 1781); Riamerò (Venice, May 5, 1785); Armida (Rome, Carnival 1786); Antigono (Mantua, April 13, 1786); Artaserse (Trieste, March 19, 1789); Antigone (Paris, April 30, 1790); Pharamond (1790); Annibale in Torino (Turin, Carnival 1792); Atalanta (Turin, Carnival 1792); L’oracolo sannita (Turin, Carnival 1792); La Rossana (Genoa, Carnival 1793); Apelle (Venice, Nov. 18,1793; rev. as Apelle e Campaspe, Bologna, 1795); Gerusalemme distrutta (Florence, 1794); Alzira (Florence, Sept. 7, 1794); Quinto Fabio (Livorno, 1794); II conte di Saldagna (Venice, Dec. 26, 1794); Gli Orazi e i Curiazi (Naples, Nov. 4, 1795); Andromeda (Venice, 1796); La morte di Mitridate (Venice, May 27, 1797); Ines de Castro (Milan, Oct. 11, 1798); Carolina e Mexicow (Venice, Carnival 1798); I veri amici repubblicani (Turin, Dec. 26, 1798); // ratto delle Sabine (Venice, Dec. 26, 1799); Edipo a Colono (Venice, Dec. 26, 1802); La notte dell’amicizia (Venice, Carnival 1802); II ritorno di Serse (Modena, July 16, 1808); Baldovino (Rome, Feb. 11,1811); Berenice, regina d’Armenia (Rome, Nov. 12, 1811); Malvina (Naples, Carnival 1829; in collaboration with M. Costa). Oratorios: Pimmalione (Naples, 1779); Ero (Milan, 1786); Telemaco (Milan, 1787); // trionfo di David (Naples, 1788); Francesca da Rimini (Rome, 1804); Tancredi al sepolcro di Clorinda (Naples, 1805); La fuga in Egitto (Naples, 1837). OTHER: A vast amount of church music; the Cons, di Loreto contains 541 MSS by Zingarelli, in a collection known as “Annuale di Zingarelli” (or “Annuale di Loreto”), including a series of masses for every day in the year; a 4-part Miserere “alia Palestrina” (1827); 73 Magnificats, 28 Stabat Maters, 21 Credos, many Te Deums, motets, hymns, etc.; also syms., solfeggi, arias, organ sonatas, some chamber music.
Bibliography
R. Liberatore, Necrologia di N. Z. (Naples, 1837); A. Schmid, Joseph Haydn und N. Z. (Vienna, 1847).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire