Liverati, Giovanni

1772-1817

Dramatic singer and composer; born at Bologna. His early musical instruction was under Giuseppe and Ferdinand Tibbaldi, who were celebrated composers. At the age of fourteen he began to study under Abbate Mattei for piano, organ, thorough-bass and composition. Later he took singing lessons from Lorenzo Gibelli. At seventeen he had composed some psalms, and two years later appeared his first dramatic composition, a one-act opera. About the same time he composed a mass for two voices with organ accompaniment, also The Seven Words of Jesus Christ on the Cross, for three voices with wind accompaniment, and A Grand Requiem Mass. In early youth he had been a singer in churches and concerts, and in 1792 he became first tenor in the Italian Theatre in Barcelona. Afterwards he went to Madrid, and for several years he directed Italian Opera at Potsdam, besides performing the duties of chapelmaster at Prague and Trieste. He went to Vienna in 1805, where he taught singing, remaining there until 1814, when he went to London as a composer to the King's Theatre. In Vienna he stood on terms of intimacy with the celebrated masters, Haydn, Beethoven, Kozeluch and Salieri, Liverati wrote fourteen operas; several cantatas; two oratorios; many vocal compositions; several stringed quartets; and much sacred music.