Great Italian and French Composers | Page 6

fancy, though
hardly acquainted with the rudiments of composition, he determined to
compose a mass. The news got abroad that the little Niccolo was
working on a grand mass, and the great Leo, the chief of the
conservatory, sent for the trembling culprit.
"You have written a mass?" he commenced.
"Excuse me, sir, I could not help it," said the timid boy.
"Let me see it."
Niccolo brought him the score and all the orchestral parts, and Leo
immediately went to the concert-room, assembled the orchestra, and
gave them the parts. The boy was ordered to take his place in front and
conduct the performance, which he went through with great agitation.
"I pardon you this time," said the grave maestro, at the end; "but, if you
do such a thing again, I will punish you in such a manner that you will
remember it as long as you live. Instead of studying the principles of
your art, you give yourself up to all the wildness of your imagination;
and, when you have tutored your ill-regulated ideas into something like
shape, you produce what you call a mass, and no doubt think you have
produced a masterpiece."
When the boy burst into tears at this rebuke, Leo clasped him in his
arms, told him he had great talent, and after that took him under his
special instruction. Leo was succeeded by Durante, who also loved
Piccini, and looked forward to a future greatness for him. He was wont
to say the others were his pupils, but Piccini was his son. After twelve

years spent in the conservatory, Piccini commenced an opera. The
director of the principal Neapolitan theatre said to Prince Vintimille,
who introduced the young musician, that his work was sure to be a
failure.
"How much can you lose by his opera," the prince replied, "supposing
it be a perfect fiasco?" The manager named the sum.
"There is the money, then," replied Piccini's generous patron, handing
him a purse. "If the 'Dorme Despetose' (the name of the opera) should
fail, you may keep the money, but otherwise return it to me."
The friends of Lagroscino, the favorite composer of the day, were
enraged when they heard that the next new work was to be from an
obscure youth, and they determined to hiss the performance. So great,
however, was the delight of the public with the freshness and beauty of
Piccini's music, that even those who came to condemn remained to
applaud. The reputation of the composer went on increasing until he
became the foremost name of musical Italy, for his fertility of
production was remarkable; and he gave the theatres a brilliant
succession of comic and serious works. In 1758 he produced at Rome
his "Alessandro nell' Indie," whose success surpassed all that had
preceded it, and two years later a still finer masterpiece, "La Buona
Figluola," written to a text furnished by the poet Goldoni, and founded
on the story of Richardson's "Pamela." This opera was produced at
every playhouse on the Italian peninsula in the course of a few years. A
pleasant mot by the Duke of Brunswick is worth preserving in this
connection. Piccini had married a beautiful singer named Vicenza
Sibilla, and his home was very happy. One day the German prince
visited Piccini, and found him rocking the cradle of his youngest child,
while the eldest was tugging at the paternal coat-tails. The mother,
being _en déshabille_, ran away at the sight of a stranger. The duke
excused himself for his want of ceremony, and added, "I am delighted
to see so great a man living in such simplicity, and that the author of
'La Bonne Fille' is such a good father." Piccini's placid and pleasant life
was destined, however, to pass into stormy waters.
His sway over the stage and the popular preference continued until

1773, when a clique of envious rivals at Rome brought about his first
disaster. The composer was greatly disheartened, and took to his bed,
for he was ill alike in mind and body. The turning-point in his career
had come, and he was to enter into an arena which taxed his powers in
a contest such as he had not yet dreamed of. His operas having been
heard and admired in France, their great reputation inspired the royal
favorite, Mme. du Barry, with the hope of finding a successful
competitor to the great German composer, patronized by Marie
Antoinette. Accordingly, Piccini was offered an indemnity of six
thousand francs, and a residence in the hotel of the Neapolitan
ambassador. When the Italian arrived in Paris, Gluck was in full sway,
the idol of the court and public, and about to produce his "Armide."
Piccini was immediately commissioned to write a new opera, and he
applied to the brilliant