SPONTINI, GASPARE (LUIGI PACIFICO)

born Nov. 14, 1774, Maiolati, Papal States died Jan. 24, 1851, Maiolati Italian composer and conductor whose early operas, notably his masterpiece, La vestale (1807), represent the spirit of the Napoleonic era and form an operatic bridge between the works of Christoph Gluck and Richard Wagner. Entering the Conservatorio della Piet dei Turchini in Naples in 1793, he studied music with Nicola Sala and Giacomo Tritto before his first opera, Li puntigli delle donne (The Obstinacy of Women), was performed in Rome (1796). Its success led him to continue writing comic operas in Romethe most famous was L'eroismo ridicolo (1798; Ridiculous Heroism)before he moved to Paris, where he established himself with Milton (1804). Influenced by French composers, Spontini developed the dramatic composition La vestale (The Vestal Virgin) that established his European reputation. He became conductor of the Italian Opera in 1810 but left two years later for political reasons and became the court composer to Louis XVIII in 1814. He left Paris in 1819 after the failure of his opera Olimpie. In 1820 he received an appointment from Frederick William III of Prussia as director of music at Berlin. This appointment lasted until shortly after the king's death in June of 1840, when political intrigue forced Spontini to relinquish his duties and leave Berlin. Additional significant operas by Spontini include La finta filosofa (1799; The Fake Philosopheress), La fuga in Maschera (1800; The Masked Flight), Olimpie (1819), Nurmahal (1822), Alcidor (1825), and Agnes von Hohenstaufen (1829).