A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Gazzaniga, Giuseppe

by Franz Gehring

GAZZANIGA, Giuseppe, one of the most celebrated opera composers of his time, born at Verona, Oct. 1743; pupil of Porpora, both in Venice and at San Onofrio in Naples. He also studied under Piccinni. Through Sacchini's influence his first opera 'Il finto cieco' was performed in Vienna (1770). Among his many operas may be mentioned 'Il convietato di pietro,' the forerunner of 'Don Giovanni,' which lad an extraordinary success in Venice (1787), Ferrara, Rome, Bergamo, and London, where it was performed repeatedly. Gazzaniga was afterwards maestro di capella at Cremona, where he devoted himself entirely to church music.

[ F. G. ]