Nicola Vaccai

Nicola Vaccai
Nicola Vaccai.

Nicola Vaccai (15 March 1790 - 5 or 6 August 1848) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas, and a singing teacher.

Contents

Life and career as a composer

Born at Tolentino, he grew up in Pesaro, and studied music there until his parents sent him to Rome to study law. Having no intention of becoming a lawyer, he took voice lessons and eventually studied counterpoint with Giuseppe Jannaconi, an important Roman composer. When Vaccai turned twenty one, he went to Naples and became a disciple of Paisiello, whose Barber of Seville was considered a comic masterpiece until Rossini's Barber swept it from the stage a few years later.

Vaccai launched his career in Venice, initially earning his living by writing ballets and teaching voice. He had his first operatic success with I solitari di Scozia in Naples in 1815. In Parma he was commissioned to write Pietro il grande, where he was also one of the soloists in the first performance. This was followed by Zadig e Astartea (Naples, 1825) and then his best known opera Giulietta e Romeo (Milan, 1825).

Vaccai's sojourn in London began with a production of his most successful opera, Romeo and Juliet, at Kings Theatre in April, 1832. His charm and continental reputation ingratiated him to society and soon he was much sought after as a teacher.

Ending his wanderings with a return to Italy, Vaccai became a director and professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory in 1838. After six years he retired on account of poor health to his boyhood home, Pesaro, where he wrote his sixteenth opera. He died there in 1848.

Work as a singing teacher and Metodo pratico de canto

Later eclipsed by his rival Bellini, Vaccai is now chiefly remembered as a voice teacher. One of his notable students was soprano Marianna Barbieri-Nini. Nicola Vaccai wrote many books one of which is called Metodo pratico de canto (Practical Vocal Method). This book has been transposed for different types of voice (i.e. high or low), to teach singing in the Italian legato style. The Metodo pratico was written in 1832 and is still in print, from Edition Peters and Ricordi, and used as a teaching tool. Vaccai notes in his introduction that only the voice of a master demonstrating accurately his exercises can really teach the student the correct techniques of true legato. The book is also an important source of information about the performance of early 19th-century opera.

Elio Battaglia, voice teacher, edited a new teacher’s edition of the "Metodo practico" or “Practical Method of Italian Singing” by Nicholas Vaccai (Ricordi 1990, with CD of examples).

Operas

Title Place, theatre Première date
I solitari di Scozia Naples, Teatro Nuovo 18 February 1815
Malvina Venice, Teatro San Benedetto 8 June 1816
Il lupo di Ostenda, ossia
L'innocenza salvata dalla colpa
Venice, Teatro San Benedetto 17 June 1818
Pietro il grande, ossia
Un geloso alla tortura
Parma, Teatro Ducale 17 January 1824
La pastorella feudataria Turin, Teatro Carignano 18 September 1824
Zadig ed Astartea Naples, Teatro San Carlo 21 February 1825
Giulietta e Romeo Milan, Teatro della Canobbiana 31 October 1825
Bianca di Messina Turin, Teatro Regio 20 January 1826
Il precipizio, o Le fucine di Norvegia Milan, Teatro alla Scala 16 August 1826
Giovanna d'Arco Venice, Teatro La Fenice 17 February 1827
Saladino e Clotilde Milan, Teatro alla Scala 4 February 1828
Azmir e Netzareo Madrid, Principe 28 June 1828
Alexi Naples, Teatro San Carlo 6 July 1828
Saul Naples, Teatro San Carlo 11 March 1829, but
composed between
1825 and 1826
Giovanna Gray Milan, Teatro alla Scala 23 February 1836
Marco Visconti Turin, Teatro Regio 27 January 1838
La sposa di Messina Venice, Teatro La Fenice 2 March 1839
Virginia Rome, Teatro Apollo 14 January 1845

Sources

  • Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
  • G Schirmer Inc., Nicola Vaccai, 'Practical Method of Italian Singing', Edited with introduction, translation and notes by John G Paton, Library Vol. 1911
  • Legger, Gianni, Drammaturgia musicale italiana, Fondazzione Teatro Reggio di Torino, n.d.

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