Baldassare Galuppi was an Italian composer who achieved international success, spending periods of his career in London, Saint Petersburg, and his home, Venice. In his early career he made a modest success in opera seria, but from the 1740s, together with the playwright and librettist Carlo Goldoni, he became famous throughout Europe for his comic operas in the new dramma giocoso style. To the succeeding generation of composers he was known as “the father of comic opera.” Some of his mature opere serie were also widely popular.
Throughout his career Galuppi held official positions with charitable and religious institutions in Venice, the most prestigious of which was head of music at the Doge’s chapel, St Mark’s Basilica. In these various capacities he composed a large amount of religious music. He was also highly regarded as a virtuoso performer on and composer for keyboard instruments.
After Galuppi’s death his music was largely forgotten, but his name was brought back to public notice by the English poet Robert Browning’s 1855 poem “A Toccata of Galuppi’s,” but this did not restore the composer’s work to the general repertoire. Some of Galuppi’s pieces were occasionally performed in the 200 years after his death, but it was not until the last years of the 20th century that his works were extensively revived in live performance and on record. He lived from October 18, 1706, to January 3, 1785.—Excerpted from Wikipedia
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