Ignazio Fiorillo was an Italian composer. He is known as an author of opera seria

Opera seria

Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...

, often composed to the libretti of Pietro Metastasio.

Biography

Fiorillo was born in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. His musical education was supported by Count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 Ferdinand Otto von Traun, who allowed him to study at the Naples Conservatory

Music Conservatories of Naples

The Music Conservatory of Naples is a music institution in Naples, southern Italy. It is currently located in the complex of San Pietro a Majella.-San Pietro a Majella:...

, as a pupil of Leonardo Leo

Leonardo Leo

Leonardo Leo , more correctly Lionardo Oronzo Salvatore de Leo, was an Italian Baroque composer.-Biography:...

 and Francesco Durante

Francesco Durante

Francesco Durante was an Italian composer.He was born at Frattamaggiore, in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, and at an early age he entered the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo, in Naples, where he received lessons from Gaetano Greco. Later he became a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti at the...

. His career began with opera L'egeste, premiered in Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

 in 1733. Another opera, Il vincitor di se stesso, was performed in 1741 in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, and Fiorillo introduced himself as an opera composer also in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 and Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

. In the middle of 1740s he made several European tours as a member of the ensemble of Phillip Nicolini, specialised in children mime (Teatro dell'Opera Pantomima dei Piccolo Hollandesi di Nicolini). Fiorillo was engaged as a composer for their performances. In 1749 he resided with Nicolini in Braunschweig

Braunschweig

Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....

, at the court of Carl I. von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. Fiorillo was appointed court composer in 1750, and Nicolini became the director of court theatres. In 1762 was Fiorillo engaged by Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel at his court in Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

. He significantly improved the quality of the court opera in Kassel. Ingazio Fiorillo retired in 1779, and died in Fritzlar

Fritzlar

Fritzlar is a small German town in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, north of Frankfurt, with a storied history. It can reasonably be argued that the town is the site where the Christianization of northern Germany began and the birthplace of the German empire as a political entity.The...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Works

Fiorillo composed the majority of his works during his stay in Braunschweig. His output include operas, intermezzos and stage music for Nicolini's ensemble. His composing style is similar to Johann Adolph Hasse

Johann Adolph Hasse

Johann Adolph Hasse was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music...

, with apparent melodic invention and with dramatic expression concentrated in the vocal parts. The instrumental elements in his compositions are minimalised.

Selected operas

• L'egeste (1733)
• Il vincitor di se stesso (1741)
• Adriano in Siria (1750)
• Il Demofoonte (1750)
• La Didone abbandonata (1750)
• Siface (1752)
• Alessandro nell'Indie (1752)
• Il Ciro riconosciuto (1753)
• Il Demetrio (1753)
• Lucio Vero (1756)
• La Nitteti (1758)

External links

• List of works - operone.de