He may respect too much the Italian tradition of letting singers hold on to their notes, but to restrain them in a singers' opera may be quite difficult.

The English never again developed a strong native music that could obliterate the traces of an earlier great age the way, say, the opera in Italy blotted out the Italian madrigal.

* 1710 – Caffarelli, Italian castrato and opera singer ( d. 1783 )

* 1738 – Premiere in London, England, Great Britain of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.

Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774 to 1792, Salieri dominated Italian language opera in Vienna.

Upon Gassmann's death on 22 January, most likely due to complications from an accident with a carriage some years earlier, Salieri succeeded him as assistant director of the Italian opera in early 1774.

During the next three years Salieri was primarily concerned with rehearsing and conducting the Italian opera company in Vienna and teaching.

After the financial collapse of the Italian opera company in 1777 due to financial mis-management, Joseph II decided to end the performance of Italian opera, French spoken drama, and ballet.

The Italian opera buffa company was therefore replaced by a German language Singspiel troupe.

Salieri's Italian tour of 1778 – 80 began with the production of Europa riconosciuta ( Europa Recognized ) for La Scala ( which was revived in 2004 for the same opera house's re-opening following extensive renovations ).

In 1783 the Italian opera company was revived with singers partly chosen and vetted by Salieri during his Italian tour, the new season would open with a slightly re-worked version of Salieri's recent success La scuola de ' gelosi.

The success of his opera Tarare was such that it was soon translated into Italian at Joseph II behest by Lorenzo Da Ponte as Axur, Re d ' Ormus ( Axur, King of Hormuz ) and staged at the royal wedding of Franz II in 1788.

As Salieri's political position became very insecure he was retired as director of the Italian opera in 1792.

And if Ponte is in league with Salieri, I'll never get a text from him, and I would love to show here what I can really do with an Italian opera.

Rather than the more aristocratic themes and music of the Italian opera, the ballad operas were set to the music of popular folk songs and dealt with lower-class characters.

Subject matter involved the lower, often criminal, orders, and typically showed a suspension ( or inversion ) of the high moral values of the Italian opera of the period.

Although female roles were performed by castrati in some of the papal states, this was increasingly rare ; by 1680, they had supplanted " normal " male voices in lead roles, and retained their position as primo uomo for about a hundred years ; an Italian opera not featuring at least one renowned castrato in a lead part would be doomed to fail.

Because of the popularity of Italian opera throughout 18th-century Europe ( except France ), singers such as Ferri, Farinelli, Senesino and Pacchierotti became the first operatic superstars, earning enormous fees and hysterical public adulation.

* 1716 – Felice Giardini, Italian composer and violinist ( d. 1796 )

* 1722 – Pietro Nardini, Italian composer ( d. 1793 )

* 1619 – Barbara Strozzi, Italian singer and composer ( d. 1677 )

* 1984 – L ' Aura, Italian singer-songwriter, pianist, and composer

* 1570 – Salamone Rossi, Italian violinist and composer ( d. 1630 )

* 1829 – Carlo Acton, Italian composer and pianist ( d. 1909 )

* 1739 – Agostino Accorimboni, Italian composer ( d. 1818 )

* 1867 – Umberto Giordano, Italian composer ( d. 1948 )

* 1605 – Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer ( d. 1674 )

* 2001 – Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor and composer ( b. 1946 )

* 1605 – Antonio Bertali, Italian composer and violinist ( d. 1669 )

While Italian by birth, Salieri had lived in imperial Vienna for almost 60 years and was regarded by such people as the music critic Friedrich Rochlitz as a German composer.

Anton Diabelli, lithograph by Josef KriehuberAnton ( or Antonio ) Diabelli ( 5 September 17817 April 1858 ) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer of Italian descent.

Alessandro Scarlatti ( 2 May 1660 – 24 October 1725 ) was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas.

* 1723 – Giovanni Marco Rutini, Italian composer ( d. 1797 )

* 1924 – Franco Mannino, Italian composer, playwright, and novelist ( d. 2005 )

* 1713 – Nicola Sala, Italian composer and music theorist ( d. 1801 )

* 1763 – Domenico Dragonetti, Italian double bass virtuoso and composer ( d. 1846 )

The Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti was an important figure in the transition from Baroque to Classical.

The Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola used some of the text in his choral work Canti di prigionia ( 1938 ).

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (; 15 May 1567 ( baptized ) – 29 November 1643 ) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.

1630 ), Italian composer

1710 – 14 October 1740 ) was an Italian singer, harpsichordist, and composer whose works bridge the Baroque and Classical periods.

* 1550 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer ( baptism ) ( d. 1605 )

* 1921 – Piero Piccioni, Italian musician and composer ( d. 2004 )