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Obscure
composers (5)  Like much of
Europe during the age of Napoleon, the San Carlo theater (photo,
right) entered upon some difficult times between 1800 and
1815. First of all, the revolution that set up the
short-lived and French-inspired Neapolitan
Republic of 1799 had actually damaged the theater,
and it took a while for it to become a fit venue for opera
once again. In broader cultural terms, we can look back
today and see that Romanticism was about to spill across
the Continent; that would change all art, including music.
In shorthand, we might say that music in Naples was biding
its time—waiting for Rossini.When the season opened in 1801, a number of names already mentioned in this series were present, such as Tritto and Guglielmi, and some names that might otherwise have been present but for the fact they had supported the Republic and were now in disfavor, such as Cimarosa, were absent. Among other composers present at the beginning of the 1800s, but whose reputations have simply not outlived their own lifetimes: Gaetano Andreozzi (1775-1826). He was nicknamed Jomellino, ("Little Jomelli)" probably because he was a relative and former student of that composer. Andreozzi's opera, Armida e Rinaldo, was performed in the 1801 season. He was regarded as a competent composer; he wrote about 50 operas, many of which toured even outside of Italy. He taught at the Pietà dei Turchini conservatory and was also the impresario of San Carlo for a while—the person who actually booked and set the performances; he held that post when the French took over Naples in 1806 and changed the administration of San Carlo. Andreozzi eventually left Naples for Paris, where he spent the rest of his life. Domenico Barbaia—known as the "prince of impresarios"—took over San Carlo in 1810 and produced a number of works by the best-known professional composers of his day: Simone Mayr, Stefano Paveri, Pietro Generali, Vincenzo Federici, Francesco Orlandi, Giuseppe Nicolini, and Giuseppe and Luigi Mosca. Unfortunately for their lasting reputations, they composed music firmly rooted in the past. The French Enlightenment and the subsequent revolution and age of Napoleon changed European culture greatly. Europe would no longer be satisfied with opera based on Greek mythology; even Metastasio, the most popular and prolific author of libretti in the history of Italian opera, by 1820 would be regarded as quaintly old-fashioned. The French consolidation of the various Neapolitan conservatories into one institution in the first decade of the 1800s also had the effect of tightening up the rather chaotic "anyone can compose opera" atmosphere in Naples. Thus, on the above list of composers, virtually none are remembered today. Perhaps of interest: Simone Mayer
 Simone Mayr (1763-1845). He
was born in Germany, but moved to Bergamo in northern
Italy in 1802. Bergamo was the birthplace of Donizetti, who became one of
Mayr's music students. Mayr was also responsible for
introducing and promoting the new music of his countryman,
Ludwig van Beethoven, into that part of Italy. Mayr
composed about 70 operas and was a staple in the San Carlo
repertoire for many years. In hindsight, his music was
rooted in the past, the 18th-century opera seria;
nevertheless, during his lifetime, his music was popular.
One of his works, Medea
in Corinto was premiered in 1813 and was
performed every year thereafter until 1827.Giuseppe Nicolini (1762-1842). He was from Piacenza (near Milan), but studied music in Naples at the Sant'Onofrio conservatory and was also a student of Cimarosa's. He composed almost 50 operas and significant sacred music. He and others of his generation were in the unfortunate position of having learned their craft and then having to compose music in a world that was about to change drastically. Nicolini's music was often on the stage at San Carlo until about 1815, but it was music from the Classical past and not the Romantic present. He and others were about to be overwhelmed by Rossini. In 1815 Rossini's name appeared on the San Carlo program for the first time with his opera Elizabetta regina d'Inghilterra. In the next four years, he wrote 15 more operas (!), including The Barber of Seville*, Cinderella, The Thieving Magpie, and Moses in Egypt, all of which are still played today. Historically, to say that Rossini made all other composers of Italian opera between 1800 and 1820 obscure is an understatement. Some of that competition: Carlo Soliva (1791-1853). He was from Casal Monferrato in the Piedmont area of Italy, studied in Milan, conducted the orchestra of La Scala, taught at the Warsaw conservatory, and became conductor of the St. Petersburg opera. His opera, Testa di Bronzo, was on the 1816 San Carlo program and enjoyed greater success even than Rossini's Otello and Mayr's Partenope (written specifically to reopen San Carlo after a disastrous fire earlier in the year). That opera, however, remains his one "flash in the pan." Francesco Morlacchi (1784-1841). His opera Boadicea was also on the 1816 program. Morlacchi was from Perugia. In 1811 he became the director of the "Italian opera company" in Dresden in Germany. He is enshrined in the Obscurity Hall of Fame as "one of those other guys who wrote an opera called The Barber of Seville." It premiered in Dresden in 1816 in Dresden, the same year as Rossini's work. (Bad timing, Francesco.) (The only other Barber of Seville ever performed in Naples—or anywhere else—is the 1782 work by Paisiello. As a matter of fact, the entire basement of said Obscurity Hall of Fame is given over to the many different composers who have written a Barber of Seville* and, man, does that ever give me a great idea for a summer opera festival!) * Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais' original play, Le Barbier de Séville, premiered in February of 1775. It was the first of a trilogy of plays; the second and third parts were Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable [A Mother's Guilt]. Subsequent musical versions of The Barber of Seville have included:
Spin-offs over the years have been countless. These include:
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1776—a German 
1905—