Raimondi, Pietro
Raimondi, Pietro
Raimondi, Pietro , inventive Italian composer; b. Rome, Dec. 20, 1786; d. there, Oct. 30, 1853. He studied with La Barbara and Tritto at the Cons. della Pietà dé Turchini in Naples. In 1807 he brought out an opera buffa, Le bizzarie d’amore, at Genoa; it was followed by about 60 other dramatic works and 22 ballets, for whose production he traveled from place to place (Florence, Naples, Rome, Messina, Milan, etc.). He was director of the royal theaters at Naples (1824–32) and a prof. at the Palermo Cons. (1834–52); in 1852 he became maestro di cappella at St. Peter’s in Rome. Raimondi was a contrapuntist of remarkable skill, and many of his fugues were designed to be combined with others to form complex musical structures. His most astounding combinatorial feat, however, was the sacred trilogy Giuseppe (Joseph), comprising 3 oratorios (Potifar, Giuseppe, Giacobbe), performed at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, Aug. 7, 1852, at first separately, and then simultaneously, the ensemble of 400 musicians on the stage and in the orch. presenting a most striking effect and arousing great curiosity among professional musicians.
Bibliography
E Cicconetti, Memorie intorno a P. R. (Rome, 1867).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire