Biography
An Italian composer produced roughly forty-five operas spanning both serious and comic styles. Serious works accounted for more than half of this output, yet his gifts in that realm never secured the complete recognition, refinement, or realization they deserved. Sacchini trained under Durante at the Naples Conservatory, where he became Durante’s most favored pupil. Following the presentation of his initial pair of operas in 1756, he advanced the next year to the post of second master of music at the same institution. Although the majority of his operas were written for Naples and Rome, several received performances in London and Paris. Upon taking the directorship of Venice’s Ospadeletto Conservatory in 1768, Sacchini created numerous oratorios and additional sacred pieces along with three operas that found strong favor in Germany. He resided in London for several years before establishing himself in Paris around 1780. In the French capital his operas earned acclaim from supporters of Piccinni while meeting resistance from adherents of Gluck. The composer’s most celebrated work, “Oedipe a Colone,” conveyed intense feeling and demonstrated a precise grasp of expressing human emotion musically through the deployment of rich harmonic resources.