Tommaso Traetta

Opera composer Tommaso Traetta, though largely forgotten today, was a major figure in mid-18th century music, active in several capitals, including St. Petersburg. Drawing on several national styles, he initiated operatic reforms related to those of Gluck. Traetta was born on March 30, 1727, in Bitonto, near Bari in Italy's Apulia region. He studied with Nicola Porpora, also Haydn's teacher, and his opera Il Farnace, premiered in 1751 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, gave him an early success. Backed by composer Niccolò Jommelli, he began to receive commissions from various Italian cities. His fortunes improved still further when he married the oldest daughter of France's King Louis XV. Appointed court composer in Parma, Italy, he began to write operas modeled on those of composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. He also aimed at a new simplicity that, in some ways, mirrored that found in Gluck's more famous works. His 1759 opera, Ippolito ed Aricia, was inspired by Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie. Traetta traveled to St. Petersburg in 1768 to take up a post as court kapellmeister to the Russian empress, Catherine the Great. Catherine preferred Italian styles, and some of Traetta's most critically acclaimed works, including the 1772 opera seria Antigona, were composed in Russia. Traetta left St. Petersburg under pressure, according to rumor, because Catherine had insisted on a happy ending for Antigona, a work based on a Greek tragedy; although Traetta complied, he inserted Polish independence songs into one of the opera's arias. Traetta escaped successfully, but his librettist for the opera was poisoned. He continued to compose, writing two operas to be staged in London. Traetta died in Venice on April 6, 1779. His son Filippo Traetta later traveled to the U.S. and wrote the first Italian opera performed there. By the mid-2020s, about 20 of Traetta's works had been recorded, including Ippolito ed Aricia and Antigona. ~ James Manheim, Rovi