Ferdinando Paer
Ferdinando Paer was an Italian composer of Austrian origin. He was born in Parma on June 1, 1771, to Austrian parents. His father, Giulio Paer, played trumpet in the orchestra of the ducal court theater and was his first music teacher. Paer later studied with Gaspare Ghiretti and Gian Francesco Fortunati.
His first opera, The Inn for Vagabonds, was published in 1789 and staged in Parma in 1792 under the title The Tricks of Love, or Time Does Justice to All. The production was successful. His opera Circe, staged in Venice in 1793, brought him wider recognition in Italy, and he became chapel master to the ducal court in Parma. In 1797 he moved to Vienna to take up a post at the Kärntnertor Theater. He married singer Francesca Riccardi in 1798 and staged several operas there, including Camilla, or The Underground and Achilles.
In 1802 Paer became chapel master at the electoral court theater in Dresden, where Riccardi was engaged as an opera singer. His opera Leonora was staged in 1804, and he received a lifetime appointment as chapel master that year. His 1809 opera Agnese became his best-known work. It was performed in major theaters in Milan, Naples, Rome, Vienna, London, and Paris, and influenced later generations of composers.
In 1812 Paer succeeded Gaspare Spontini as conductor at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. He left the post in 1823, when Gioachino Rossini succeeded him, and went on to teach composition; his students included Franz Liszt and Ferdinando Orlandi. Paer was elected to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1831 and became chapel master to King Louis-Philippe in 1832. His output included 55 operas, nine sacred works, 13 cantatas, and vocal and chamber music. He died in Paris on May 3, 1839.