Louis Alexandre Piccinni (variously Louis Alexandre, Luigi Alessandro or Lodovice Alessandro) (10 September 1779 – 24 April 1850) was a prolific music composer born in Paris of Italian ancestry. Alexandre Piccinni was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. The grandson of the Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera,

Niccolò Piccinni Niccolò Piccinni (; 16 January 1728 – 7 May 1800) was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly th ...

, and the son of Giuseppe Luigi Piccinni, Louis was already giving piano lessons at age 13. He studied piano, and later attended the

Conservatoire A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

where he studied composition from

Jean-François Le Sueur Jean-François Le Sueur (more commonly Lesueur; ) (15 February 17606 October 1837) was a French composer, best known for his oratorios and operas. Life He was born at Plessiel, a hamlet of Drucat near Abbeville, to a long-established family of ...

. He was accompanist at the

Théâtre Feydeau The Théâtre Feydeau (), a former Parisian theatre company, was founded in 1789 with the patronage of Monsieur, Comte de Provence (later to become Louis XVIII), and was therefore initially named the Théâtre de Monsieur. It began performing in t ...

, and from 1802 at the Opéra-Comique. From 1803 to 1816, he was conductor of the

Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. History It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to house th ...

, and from 1804 to 1818 accompanist in the chapels of

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

at the court. Piccinni taught singing and piano at Paris until 1836, when he moved to Boulogne to teach and direct at the National Conservatory in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

. He later moved to Strasburg and directed the

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

concerts. He returned to Paris in 1849 and died there the following year. Piccinni wrote over 200 works for the stage, including 25 comic operas. His genres also included melodrama; ballet; vaudeville airs; cantatas; romances; sonatas; piano-music; and opera.

References

Grande Musica
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piccinni, Louis Alexandre French ballet composers French composers Musicians from Paris 1850 deaths 1779 births