- Ferdinando Bertoni
Ferdinando Bertoni (1725 –
1 December ,1813 ), was an Italian composer and organist.He was born in
Salò , and began his music studies inBrescia , not far from his birthplace. Around 1740 he went toBologna , where he studied till 1745 with the famous music theoristGiovanni Battista Martini . Then he moved toVenice , where in 1752 he was appointed as firstorganist at San Marco. From 1755 to 1777 he was choirmaster at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti, also inVenice . In the period 1778-1783 he was in London, where he composed operas for the King's Theatre. Back to Venice in 1784, he succeededBaldassare Galuppi in 1785 asKapellmeister ofSan Marco and preserved this position until his retirement in 1808. He died inDesenzano del Garda .A prolific writer of church music, Bertoni also composed 70
opera s which fell into oblivion, except "Orfeo" (Venice, Teatro San Benedetto, 1776), based on the same libretto ofRanieri de' Calzabigi of the work ofChristoph Willibald Gluck , "Orfeo ed Euridice " (Burgtheater ,Vienna , 1762). Bertoni composed this work especially for his friendGaetano Guadagni , acastrato , who would interpret the role of Orfeo (the same role he had interpreted in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice). Bertoni generally ignored Gluck's reforms and composed the work in the old style ofopera seria .Bertoni composed at least 200 sacred works (including about 50oratorio s) andcantata s, instrumental work and chamber music.
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