Ferdinando Paer
Celebreted composer, Ferdinando Paer was born in Parma in 1771 and died in Paris in 1839
After the education in the native town, from the ’90 of eighteenth century he begun famous in the main Italian theatres. In 1798, after he composed Griselda, he moved to Vienna, where he composed Camilla (1799) and Achille (1801). In 1802 he moved to Dresda at Federico Augusto III of Sassonia court and in 1804 he become Maestro of the chapel of the court. Here, he composed three important seriocomic operas: I fuorusciti di Firenze (1802), Sargino (1803) and Leonora (1804). In 1806 Napoleone passed to Dresda and he brought Paer to Paris, where Napoleone elected him director and compositor of Empire. In 1813, Paer become music director of Théâtre Italien, one of the main theatres of Europe.
He was a leading figure in the musical life of Paris, he was in contact with main musicians, he gave song lessons to Giuditta Pasta, music composition lessons to the young Franz Liszt and he introduced Chopin and Bellini in the most important salons of the capital. More, in the ’30 he was elected member of musical section of the Institut National de France (1831).
When he was in Paris he composed both his last Italian operas as Agnese (1809), Didone abbandonata (1811) and La primavera felice (1816) and his last French operas as opéras-comiques Le maître de chapelle (1821) and Un caprice de femme (1834).
