ROOM 1 – THE ITALIAN PERIOD AND THE FRENCH DEBUT

In January 1793 Gaspare Spontini was admitted to the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples. In 1795, probably dissatisfied with the teaching, he decided to leave Naples and begin touring various Italian cities travelling from Rome to Naples again and from Palermo to Florence and Venice. His talent was spotted by a Roman impresario, Sigismondi, who commissioned him to compose Li puntigli delle donne, which was performed for the first time in Rome at the Teatro della Pallacorda during the 1796 Carnival. The libretto, possibly by Francesco Cerlone, is based on a traditional comic story. The debut was very successful and Spontini won new artistic commissions.

In 1803 Spontini arrived in Paris and in less than four years managed to enter the court of the Count of Rémusat, a friend of the future Empress Josephine and her daughter Hortense, and the Académie Impériale de Musique. On 31 December 1803, he made his debut at the Théâtre-Italien de Paris. On 27 November 1804, he premiered Milton, dedicated to Empress Josephine, an opera rich in Mozartian evocations, which marked the beginning of his literary collaboration with Victor-Joseph-Etienne de Jouy. Thanks to the success of these opéras comiques in French, Spontini was admitted to the Académie Impériale de Musique and in 1805 he was appointed compositeur particulier de la chambre de S.M l’impératrice.