Gazzaniga, Giuseppe

1743-1819

Celebrated Italian opera composer; born at Verona, was a pupil of Porpora and Piccinni. His first opera, II finto cieco, was brought out in 1770 at Vienna, and was followed by more than thirty others, produced in Vienna, Naples, Venice and other Italian cities, also Dresden. Among these were the noted II Convitato di Pietra, a work based on the same subject as Mozart's Don Giovanni, and after its first success in Venice, 1787, repeated in Rome and London as well as in the Italian theatres. In 1791 Gazzaniga received the appointment as chapelmaster of the Cathedral at Crenia, and composed only sacred music thenceforth, including cantatas, masses, a Te Deum, and a Stabat Mater; but his reputation is decidedly based on his operatic works.