Piccinni (Piccini), Niccolò

Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini) – The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts XXII (Overture to Le contadine bizzarre)

Published by Robert Bremner at the Harp and Hautboy, opposite Somerset-House, in the Strand
Issued: 22 December 1767; price 2 shillings
Source: Henry Watson Music Library – Courtesy of Manchester Libraries,
Information and Archives, Manchester City Council: BR580Po34
Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 oboes, 2 horns [originally in G]
Editors: Barnaby Priest & Alyson McLamore

By late December 1767—less than four months after publishing the triumphant Periodical Overture No. 20 by Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini) (1728–1800)—Robert Bremner (c.1713–1789) had published two more works by Piccinni, with another to follow the next year.[1] This was the first time in the series that Bremner had showcased the same composer four times in a row. The initial overture had been drawn from Piccinni’s La buona figliuola, an opera buffa that had enjoyed an enthusiastic British reception. Although it is not known for sure if the second Periodical Overture by Piccinni was again taken from an opera, a surviving manuscript score verifies that the third work, Periodical Overture No. 22, had originally served as the sinfonia to Le contadine bizzarre (1763).[2]

Piccinni’s life as a theatrical composer had begun in Naples, where he had gone for training. His reputation was initially built on buffa operas, but the hit production of Zenobia, in 1756, proved his skill with seria topics as well. His reputation soon spread, and commissions began arriving from Rome. La buona figliuola was his second production for that city, and one commentator reported that it took Piccinni only eighteen days to compose.[3] It sparked a storm of enthusiasm, and the run in Rome lasted two years. Piccinni’s name began to be known internationally, since productions were soon staged in all of Europe’s leading capitals. In fact, La buona figliuola became the most popular opera buffa of the eighteenth century.[4]

Piccinni’s operatic career had continued to thrive in Italy after La buona figliuola’s Roman premiere. He sent works to Rome for Carnival season almost every year until 1773, even as he wrote thirty other operas for Naples and various European cities. He was lured to Paris in 1776 by a promised pension, in addition to the income from his operas and aristocratic support. His arrival in France then sparked the famous “war” between the “Gluckists” (supporters of Christoph Willibald Gluck) and the “Piccinnists.” The French Revolution brought Piccinni’s annual French pension to an end, so he returned to Naples—but although he initially received a warm welcome, the subsequent marriage of one of his daughters to a Frenchman meant that Piccinni found himself under house arrest in 1794. He was allowed to return to France in 1798, but his pension was no longer paid in full, and by the time Bonaparte awarded him a new post at the Conservatoire, Piccinni’s health had failed; he died in 1800.[5]

There seems to be some uncertainty about the origins of Le contadine bizzarre. Both The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart list two possible debuts: one in Rome in February 1763 at the Teatro Capranica, and the other in the autumn in Venice at the Teatro San Samuele.[6] In the Italian Wikipedia entry for “Niccolò Piccinni,” however, only the Venetian premiere is listed.[7] On the other hand, in the Annals of Opera, 1597–1940, Alfred Loewenberg assigns the opera buffa to the Roman theater only, and attributes his information to the Italian historian Giuseppe Pavan.[8] Curiously, a surviving manuscript score for Le contadina bizzarre, held by the Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica San Pietro a Majella, contains the annotation “Rappresentata a Roma l’anno 1761”—two years earlier than either of the commonly cited premiere dates.[9] …

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