Page "Giuseppe Sarti" Paragraph 4

In 1765 he travelled to Italy to engage some new singers ; meanwhile the death of King Frederick put an end to his engagement for the time being.

In 1769 he went to London, where he could only survive by giving music lessons.

In 1770 he obtained a post in Venice as music master at the Conservatorio dell ' Ospedaletto.

In 1779 he was elected maestro di cappella at the cathedral of Milan, where he remained until 1784.

Here he exercised his true vocation of composer, in addition to at least twenty of his most successful operas, a vast amount of sacred music for the cathedral, and educating a number of clever pupils, the most distinguished of whom was Cherubini.

In 1784 Sarti was invited by the empress Catherine II to St. Petersburg.

On his way there he stopped in Vienna, where Emperor Joseph II received him with special favour, and where he made the acquaintance of Mozart.

He reached St. Petersburg in 1785, and at once took the direction of the opera, for which he composed many new pieces, besides some very striking sacred music, including a Te Deum for the victory of Ochakov, in which he introduced the firing of real cannons.

He remained in Russia until 1801, when his health was so broken that he solicited permission to return.

The emperor Alexander dismissed him in 1802 with a liberal pension ; letters of nobility had been granted to him by empress Catherine.

His most successful operas in Russia were Armida e Rinaldo and The Early Reign of Oleg ( Nachal ' noye upravleniye Olega ), for the latter of which the empress herself wrote the libretto.

Sarti died in Berlin.