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Spontini (GASPARO an Italian composer)

GASPARO, an Italian composer; born in Majolatti, near Jesi, in the Roman States, Nov. 14, 1774. He was educated at the Conservatorio de la Pietà of Naples, and began his career when 17 years of age as the composer of an opera, "The Punctilio of Women."

This was followed by some 16 operas, produced within six years, for the theaters of Italy and Sicily, but not a note of which has survived. In 1803 Spontini went to Paris; in 1807 he was_appointed music director to the Empress Josephine; and in 1808 he produced his most famous work, "The Vestal," with brilliant and decisive success. His "Fernando Cortez" appeared in 1809; and the next year witnessed his appointment to the directorship of the Italian Opera in Paris, which he held for 10 years. In 1820 the magnificent appointments offered by the court of Prussia tempted him to leave Paris for Berlin, in which capital his three grand operas, "Nourmahal"