Niccolo Piccinni (jan 1, 1728 – jan 1, 1800)

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Prominent opera composer. Rival of Gluck.

The issues Piccinni's career raised for contemporary audiences, critics, and composers continued to reverberate long after his death. His most famous oepra, La buona figliuola (The Virtuous Maiden), was one of the earliest to be based on a novel, then a new literary genre, with distinct social implications of its own. Piccinni picked up on the new sentimental tradition, creating a work that celebrated sensibility as expressed in contemporary novels. The opera's success was virtually unprecedented.


\The shape of a comic libretto depended on a plot that at first is hopelessly tangeld and then is sorted out, culminating in complex ensemble finales for all characters. Complex comic finales have a long run, from Mozart and Rossini to Wagner and Verdi (Falstaff!)

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