SPONTINI, GASPARO LUIGI PACIFICO (1774 1851), Italian composer, was born on Nov. 14, 1774, at Majolati (Ancona) in Italy. He was the son of a poor cobbler and was intended for the priesthood. But he obtained lessons from Kapell meister Quintiliani, and in 1791 went to the Conservatorio de' Turchini at Naples, where he studied under Paisiello, Cimarosa and Fiorivanti. By 1799 he had already written and produced eight operas. After becoming court composer to King Ferdinand of Naples in this year an intrigue with a princess of the court compelled Spontini to leave Naples in 1800. In 1803 he settled in Paris, where he had no success until the production of Milton, a one-act opera, in 1804. Thereafter his powers and ambitions steadily developed, being manifested to the full for the first time in La Vestale, produced on Dec. 15, 1807. Ferdinand Cortez was received with equal enthusiasm in 1809; but Olympia (1819) had less success.
Spontini had been appointed director of the Italian opera in 181o; but his quarrelsome and grasping disposition led to his summary dismissal two years later, and, though reinstated in 1814, he voluntarily resigned his post soon afterwards. In 182c,
he settled in Berlin by invitation of Frederick William III., com missioned to superintend all music performed at the Prussian court and compose two new grand operas, or three smaller ones, every three years. But he began by at once embroiling himself with the intendant, Count Briihl. La Vestale, Ferdinand Cortez and Olympia—the last two entirely remodelled—were produced with great success in 1821. But Spontini's fame was entirely eclipsed by the appearance of Weber's Der Freischiitz. A new opera, Nourmahal, founded on Moore's Lana Rookh, was per formed in 1822, and another, entitled Alcidor, in 1825; and in 1826 Spontini began the composition of Agnes von Hohenstaufen, (produced in 1829), which undoubtedly will rank permanently as his greatest work.
Dismissed from his court position in 1841, he settled in Paris. In 185o he retired to his birthplace, Majolati, and died there on Jan. 14, 1851.