[Born at Naples, 1752. Died 1837. Aged 85.]
The author of several operas no longer performed. One, his most
celebrated work, “Romeo and Juliet,” still represented in France and
Germany, and rendered popular in England by Pasta’s personation of
Romeo. The last of the Italian composers for the church. His oratorio of
“The Destruction of Jerusalem,” a noble composition, written in the
classical style of the old ecclesiastical school. During his later years
he led the life of a recluse.