Pérez, David Or Davide
Pérez, David Or Davide
Pérez, David Or Davide, significant Italian composer; b. Naples (of Spanish descent), 1711; d. Lisbon, Oct. 30, 1778. He studied counterpoint and composition with Mancini, Veneziano, and Galli at the Cons. di S. Maria di Loreto in Naples (1722–33). Between 1735 and 1752 he produced some 19 operas, establishing himself as a leading opera composer in his day. He served as vice-maestro di cappella of the Royal Chapel Palatine in Palermo (1738–39) and as maestro di cappella in Palermo (1741–48); then was called to Lisbon (1752) as maestro di cappella and music master to the royal princesses, duties he retained for the rest of his life. He continued to compose until his last days, even though he was stricken with blindness. He was a master of the opera seria, being acclaimed as a worthy rival of Hasse and Jommelli.
Works
dramatic: Opera: La nemica amante (Naples, Nov. 4, 1735); Li travestimenti amorosi, opera buffa (Naples, July 10, 1740); Il Siroe (Naples, Nov. 4, 1740); L’eroismo di Scipione (Palermo, 1741); Demetrio (Palermo, June 13, 1741; 2nd version, Lisbon, 1766); Astartea (Palermo, 1743); Medea (Palermo, 1744); Alessandro nell’Indie (Genoa, Carnival 1744; 2nd version, Lisbon, March 31, 1755); Merope (Genoa, Carnival 1744); L’isola incantata (Palermo, 1746); Artaserse (Florence, 1748); La clemenza di Tito (Naples, 1749); Vologeso (Vienna, 1750); Il Farnace (Rome, 1750); Andromaca (Vienna, 1750); Semiramide (Rome, 1750); Ezio (Milan, Carnival 1751); La Bidone (Genoa, 1751); La Zenobia (Milan, 1751); Demofoonte (Lisbon, 1752); Adriano in Siria (Lisbon, 1752); L’Eroe cinese (Lisbon, June 6, 1753); Olimpiade (Lisbon, 1753); L’Impermestra (Lisbon, 1754); Lucio Vero (Verona, 1754); Solimano (Lisbon, Carnival 1757); Enea in Italia (Lisbon, 1759); La Berenice (Verona, Carnival 1762); Giulio Cesare (Lisbon, 1762); L’isola disabitata (Lisbon, 1767); Il Cinese (Lisbon, 1769); Creusa in Delfo (Lisbon, Carnival 1774); Il ritorno di Ulisse in Itaca (Lisbon, 1774); L’Eroe coronato (Lisbon, 1775); La pace fra la Virtù e la Bellezza (Lisbon, Dec. 17, 1777). vocal: secular:Il trionfo di Venere, serenata (Palermo, 1738); L’Atlanta, serenata (Palermo, 1739); L’amor pittore, componimento drammatico civile (Naples, July 24, 1740); La vera felicità (Lisbon, 1761). sacred:Mattutino de’ morti for 5 Voices and Orch. (London, 1774); Il martirio di S. Bartolomeo, oratorio; 8 masses for Chorus and Orch.; Mass sections; Magnificat; antiphones; motets; etc.
Bibliography
E. Soares, D. P.: Subsidios para a biografia’ do celébre mestre de musica da camera de D. José (Lisbon, 1935); P. Jackson, The Operas of D. P. (diss., Stanford Univ., 1967).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kaun/Dennis McIntire