NICOLO, a celebrated composer of music, was born in 1728, at Bari, in the kingdom of Naples. In May 1742 he was placed under Leo, in the conservatory of Sant' Onofrio, at Naples. Leo dying soon afterwards, his successor Durante took charge of Piccini as a favourite pupil. In 1754 Piccini left the conservatory, and began to compose operas for the Teatro Fiorentino. His success was so great that he was engaged to write for the San Carlo theatre; and in 1758 was called to Rome to compose the music of Alessandro nelle Indie, an opera which he re-composed in 1775 at Naples. He revisited Rome in 1760, and composed La Cecchina, ossia la buona figliuola, which was received with rapture, and was soon after heard in every theatre of Italy, to the exclusion of all other operas. In 1756 he married Vincenza Sibilla, formerly one of his pupils in singing. She bore him several children. Induced by promises held out to him by the Neapolitan ambassador at Paris, Piccini went thither at the close of 1776. Not knowing a word of French, he had infinite difficulty in setting to music the opera of Roland; and, to add to his annoyances, Gluck raised a violent cabal against him, and endeavoured to prevent Roland from being performed. Nevertheless, Roland was performed in 1778, and received with great applause. He then composed Phaon, Atys, Iphigénie en Tauride, and Adèle de Pontlieu. Sacchini's arrival in Paris led to the forming of another party against Piccini. The court ordered a grand opera from each of the composers. Piccini produced his Didon, and Sacchini his Chimène. Both were admired, but especially the Didon, which is Piccini's best French opera. In 1784 he was appointed singing-master in the royal school of music and declamation. He wrote fifteen operas for the French theatre; but at last, suffering from injustice and neglect, and from the loss of a large sum due to him by the banker La Borda, he left France with his family in July 1791, and reached Naples in September. There he composed, in 1792, his oratorio of Jonathan, the best of his serious works. The marriage of one of his daughters with a young Frenchman settled at Naples exposed him to persecution. Two of his old pupils denounced him as a Jacobin, and the minister ordered him to remain shut up in his house. At the same time, he learned that everything he had left at Paris, including his Scores, was lost. He remained for four years in neglect and poverty. His friends in Paris encouraged him to return thither; and accordingly he arrived there on 3d December 1798. The French government granted him 7400 francs a year, and apartments in the Hôtel d'Angivilliers, where part of his family soon rejoined him. Through the good offices of the First Consul Bonaparte, he was appointed inspector of the Conservatory of Music; but the boon arrived too late—he was dying. He expired at Passy on the 7th May 1800, and was interred in the common burying-ground. Only those who have studied the operas of Piccini, Sacchini, Gluck, and Mozart, know how much the latter composer was indebted to the other three. The musical wars carried on in Paris by the partizans of Gluck, Piccini, and Sacchini, are narrated in various publications, such as Marmontel's Memoires, &c.; Ginguené's Lettres, &c., 1783, 8vo; and his Notice sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Piccini, 1800, 8vo. Piccini composed seventy-nine operas, comic and serious; several oratorios, of which the best are Jonathan and Sara; a number of pieces of church music; romances and canzonets, published at Paris in Desormery and Bouillet's Journal de Chant et de Piano, 1779.

(Piccolomini)