Alessandro Curmi (17 October 1801 – April 1857) was a Maltese composer and pianist. Born in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

, he studied privately with Pietro Paolo Bugeja and then under

Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli (; 4 April 1752 – 5 May 1837) was an Italian composer, chiefly of opera. Life Early career Zingarelli was born in Naples, where he studied (from the age of 7) at the Santa Maria di Loreto Conservatory under Fena ...

and

Giacomo Tritto Giacomo Domenico Mario Antonio Pasquale Giuseppe Tritto (2 April 1733 – 16 September 1824) was an Italian composer, known primarily for his fifty-four operas. He was born in Altamura, and studied in Naples; among his teachers were Nicola Fa ...

at the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

from 1821 to 1827. He later became a member of Bologna's Accademia Filarmonica. As a composer Curmi was primarily focused on writing operas. His first opera, ''Gustavo d'Orxa'', was received enthusiastically at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples in 1827. His greatest success, '' Elodia di Herstall'', came at the

Teatro di San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent t ...

in 1842. According to Curmi's personal friend and fellow composer

Paolino Vassallo Paolino Vassallo (born 24 July 1856 in Cospicua - deceased 20 January 1923 in Valletta) was a Malta, Maltese composer.Royal Opera, London The Royal Opera is a British opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Cove ...

while on a brief visit to Paris (where he wrote the cantata ''Sancte Paule'') in 1843. The three operas, ''La rosièr'', ''La reine des fates'', and ''Lodoïska'' were all performed there in 1844. Curmi returned to Paris in the winter of 1845 with the intent of composing a grand opera. However, these plans never came to fruition because of the political situation in France. Instead Curmi composed the orchestral fantasia in six sections, ''La rivoluzione'', which was also heard in Malta in 1853. He died in Naples in 1857.

Sources

* Joseph Vella Bondin. "Curmi urmy Alessandro", ''

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

''. 1801 births 1857 deaths Male classical composers Maltese composers Maltese classical composers Maltese opera composers 19th-century classical composers 19th-century male musicians 19th-century musicians Musicians from Valletta {{opera-bio-stub