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| Composers Biography |
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Ferdinando Paer
[ Life | Works | Operas | Photo Gallery | Home Page] |
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In 1792 Paer was made honorary "maestro di cappella" to the court of Parma, and in 1797 he went to Vienna, to assume the musical direction of the Kärtnertor-Theater. There he came to know Beethoven and in general profited by the wider musical horizons offered by the Viennese scene. After a short stay in Prague, Paer's next appoitment was as court Kappelmeister at Dresden, wehre he remained until 1806. One of Paer's greatest admirers was Napoleon: in 1806 he persuaded the composer to follow him to Posen (now Poznan) and Warsaw; the next year he appointed him his "maitre de chapelle" and from that time Paris was the composer's permanent home. He was director of the Opèra-Comique and of the Thèatre Italien, after the dismissal of Spontini. During the 1820s he was to number the young Liszt among his composition pupils. 
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Paer was the last of a breed of Italian musicians who, throughout the 18th century, were in demand as "maestri di cappella" in nearly every court in Europe. In the history of opera ("opera semiseria"), he occupies an important place: together with Mayr he dominated the Italian scene during the first decade of the 19th century, after the death of Cimarosa and the virtual retirement of Paisiello.
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The Operas of Ferdinando Paer
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