Antonio Maria Gasparo, a very eminent composer of the Neapolitan school, was born at Pozzuoli on the 23rd of July 1734, and not at Naples on 13th May 1735, as most of his biographers have stated. He was the son of a poor fisherman, and was destined for the same occupation. Durante, then at the head of the Conservatorio of Sant' Onofrio at Naples, happening accidentally to hear the boy Sacchini singing some popular airs, was so much pleased with his natural talent and intelligence as to ask his parents to give him up to be regularly instructed in music. Sacchini accordingly entered the Conservatory, and there learned the elements of music, and became a good violinist. He then studied musical composition under Durante, who looked upon him as the most promising of his pupils, although Piccini and Guglielmi, older than he, were his fellow-students. Soon after the death of Durante, in 1755, Sacchini quitted the Conservatory, and began to teach singing and to compose operas. In 1762 he was called to Rome to compose a serious opera, which was so well received that he resided chiefly at Rome for the next seven years, during which time he visited several other towns in Italy, in order to compose for them serious and comic operas. The great merit of his opera Alessandro nell' Indie, performed at Venice in 1768, obtained for him there the directorship of the Conservatory of L'Ospedaletto. He wrote much beautiful music for convents and churches while he occupied that post for a few years. Doctor Burney met him at Venice in 1770, and heard a Solea Reginae, of which he speaks very highly in his Tour, p. 143. Although then only thirty-six years of age, Sacchini had composed forty serious and ten comic operas, and possessed a high reputation. In 1771 he visited Germany and Holland, and composed two operas for Munich and Stuttgart. He arrived at London in April 1772, and brought out, at first, some of his old operas. Dr Burney says (History of Music, vol. iv., p. 498) that Sacchini's first opera for the English stage, Il Cid, came out in January 1773, and in May his Tamerlano. In November 1773 his Lucio Vero, and in the spring of 1774 his Niotti and Perseo; his Montezuma and II Croce in 1775; Erifile in 1776; L'Amor Soldato in 1777; II Calandrino in 1778; Enca e Lavinia in 1779. According to Dr Burney, who knew Sacchini intimately, the musical partizans of other composers immediately raised violent cabals against Sacchini when he first came to London; although his great merits were afterwards amply acknowledged. Unfortunately, Sacchini was thoughtless, dissipated, and extravagant, and was obliged to fly from his creditors in the summer of 1781, and take refuge in Paris. In Madame D'Arblay's Diary, vol. ii., p. 75, under the date July 16, 1781, we find a very melancholy portrait of Sacchini, then in London, ruined and miserable. In 1782 he returned to London, but only to get into greater difficulties. He finally left England in 1784, and settled in Paris, where his latter days were rendered more comfortable by a pension from the Queen of France, and also the theatrical pension. In Paris he composed his operas, Renaud, Chimene, Dardanus, and Ædipe; the latter a masterpiece in every respect. But even in Paris hostile jealousy pursued him. His health failed; and a severe attack of gout caused his death on the 7th October He was honoured with a public funeral and great marks of respect, which were certainly due to his extraordinary abilities, if not to his prudent conduct. Immediately after his funeral his friend and rival Piccini published a letter, in which his praises of Sacchini's musical powers did equal credit to his head and heart. How very rare are such noble tributes from rival musicians! The merits of Sacchini were very great. He was a perfect musician. His style was always free, graceful, and unconstrained in every kind of composition. His command of musical language embraced the grand, the serious, the comic, the pathetic, with equal ease. His influence upon the progress of his art is now too much lost sight of; but is known to those who have studied his works, and compared them with the works of his contemporaries and successors. Mozart, in his operatic music, was much indebted to Sacchini. There is a bust of Sacchini in the Pantheon chapel at Rome. Besides many of his compositions not published, his works include 16 pieces of church music; 5 oratorios; 38 operas; 6 trios for violins and bass; 6 quartets for violins, viola, and bass; 6 sonatas for the harpsichord, with violin accompaniment.

(S. F. G.)