Nicola Conforto (25 September 1718 – 17 March 1793) was an Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. He studied music in his hometown at the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto (Music conservatories of Naples), under the tutorship of Giovanni Fischetti and Francesco Mancini . After receiving his training, he made his debut during the carnival of 1746 in Naples as an opera composer with ''La finta vedova (The false widow)''. In the following years he staged his other works both in Naples and in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

; the fame he achieved thanks to these successes meant that in 1750 he received the commission from the

Teatro 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 ...

for his first

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

, ''Antigonus'' . In 1749 he married the singer Zefferina Anselmi, with whom he had three children. In 1751 he wrote the cantata ''Gli orti esperidi'' (''The Hesperides gardens)'' in honor of the Empress

Maria Theresa of Austria Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' ( ...

, to celebrate the name day of the Spanish king

Ferdinand VI , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Savoy , birth_date = 23 September 1713 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Madrid, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Villavici ...

on 30 May 1752 he presented the drama ''Siroe,'' and on 23 September 1754 for the birthday celebrations of the King of Naples

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

he presented ''L'eroe cinese (the Chinese hero)''. These latter two works gained much acclaim in Madrid, so much so that in 1756 he was named ''compositore d'opera di corte'' (composer of the work of the court). Later he received the title of

Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

, but despite this his importance as a composer began to decline and in his later years he devoted himself less to creating compositions writing only occasionally music for the holidays. His style involved beautiful and pleasing melodies, similar to other composers in the Iberian peninsula. He played an important part in establishing the taste for Italian operas in Spain. His works were sung by Italian singers with bilingual librettos. His church music, written after 1759, shows the influence of Feijoo, who argued against the use of violins in liturgical music. Of his nine Lamentations for solo soprano and orchestra (1766) the three for Good Friday dispense with violins, while the first for Holy Saturday omits strings except violas d'amore; his Miserere for three choirs (1768) is accompanied by violas and woodwind.

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* * 1718 births 1793 deaths Italian opera composers Italian male opera composers 18th-century Italian composers 18th-century Italian male musicians {{Italy-composer-stub