Giacomo David (born Giacomo Davide; 1750 in Presezzo – 1830 in Bergamo), was a leading Italian

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Biography

Probably self-taught as a singer, he studied composition in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

with

Nicola Sala Nicola Sala (7 April 1713 – 31 August 1801) was an Italian composer and music theorist. He was born in Tocco Caudio and died in Naples. He was chapel-master and professor at Naples, having devoted himself to the collection of the finest m ...

, and began his career in the early 1770s appearing on the stages of major Italian theatres such as the Teatro Regio in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent ...

in Naples, and the

Teatro San Benedetto The Teatro San Benedetto was a theatre in Venice, particularly prominent in the operatic life of the city in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It saw the premieres of over 140 operas, including Rossini's ''L'italiana in Algeri'', and was the t ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

. Here he participated in the inauguration of the newly erected theatre La Fenice, in 1792, performing the role of ''Eraclide'' in

Paisiello Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini. Life Paisiello was born i ...

's ''I giochi di Agrigento''. After having made his debut at

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

's Teatro alla Scala in 1782, he became a regular performer there at the beginning of the new century. In 1791 Davide travelled to London, where the ''-e'' in his surname seems to have been dropped, and where he appeared at the King's Theatre as the protagonist of Paisiello's ''Pirro'', one of his favourite roles. On 17 May 1791, he took part in a charity concert in the Hannover Square Rooms, where he executed the tenor aria "''Cara deh torna''", specially composed for the occasion by Joseph Haydn. In 1801, he took part in the inauguration of

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

's Regio Teatro Nuovo, performing two premières on 20 and 21 April:

Antonio Salieri Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy ...

's ''Annibale in Capua'' (''Scipione'') and

Simon Mayr Johann(es) Simon Mayr (also spelled Majer, Mayer, Maier), also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr (14 June 1763 – 2 December 1845), was a German composer. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the ...

's ''Ginevra di Scozia'' (''Polinesso''). His career was very long, continuing into the early twenty years of the 19th century, with a repertoire based upon such composers as Paisiello, Mayr,

Ferdinando Bertoni Ferdinando Bertoni (15 August 1725 – 1 December 1813) was an Italian composer and organist. Early years He was born in Salò, and began his music studies in Brescia, not far from his birthplace. Around 1740 he went to Bologna, where he studied ...

Domenico Cimarosa Domenico Cimarosa (; 17 December 1749 – 11 January 1801) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan school and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is '' Il matrimonio segreto'' (1792); most of h ...

Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi (9 December 1728 – 19 November 1804) was an Italian opera composer of the classical period. Biography Guglielmi was born into the Guglielmi family of musicians in Massa. His father, Jacopo Guglielmi, was a comp ...

Giuseppe Sarti Giuseppe Sarti (also Sardi; baptised 1 December 1729 – 28 July 1802) was an Italian opera composer. Biography He was born at Faenza. His date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 1 December 1729. Some earlier sources say he was born o ...

Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli (; 4 April 1752 – 5 May 1837) was an Italian composer, chiefly of opera. Life Early career Zingarelli was born in Naples, where he studied (from the age of 7) at the Santa Maria di Loreto Conservatory under Fena ...

, and Francesco Bianchi. In many operas he worked alongside the castrati Girolamo Crescentini and

Gaspare Pacchierotti Gaspare Pacchierotti (21 May 1740 – 28 October 1821) was a mezzo-soprano castrato, and one of the most famous singers of his time. Training and first appearances Details of his early life are scarce. It is possible that he studied with Mario Bi ...

, and the soprano Brigida Banti, who shared common artistic trends with him. In France, where he appeared opposite

Isabella Colbran Isabella Angela Colbran (2 February 1785 – 7 October 1845) was a Spanish opera soprano and composer. She was known as the muse and first wife of composer Gioachino Rossini. Early years Colbran was born in Madrid, Spain, to Giovanni Colbran, ...

in '' Otello'', David came to be known as ''Giacomo le père'' ("Giacomo the father"), because his son

Giovanni David Giovanni David (15 September 1790 in Naples – 1864 in Saint Petersburg) was an Italian tenor particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas. Overview David (also known as Davide) was the son of the tenor Giacomo David, with whom he studied ...

was also pursuing a successful career in opera. David can be considered as the initiator of the Bergamo tenor school which was going to produce such notable singers as Andrea Nozzari and Giacomo's aforesaid son, Giovanni (who were also actual pupils of his),

Domenico Donzelli Domenico Donzelli (2 February 1790 – 31 March 1873) was an Italian tenor with a robust voice who enjoyed an important career in Paris, London and his native country during the 1808-1841 period. Biography Donzelli can be regarded as an off ...

Giovanni Battista Rubini Giovanni Battista Rubini (7 April 1794 – 3 March 1854) was an Italian tenor, as famous in his time as Enrico Caruso in a later day. His ringing and expressive coloratura dexterity in the highest register of his voice, the ''tenorino'', insp ...

, and

Marco Bordogni Giulio Marco Bordogni (23 January 1789 – 31 July 1856), usually called just Marco Bordogni, was an Italian operatic tenor and singing teacher of great popularity and success, whose mature career was based in Paris.Principal source: Joannes Rochu ...

.Caruselli, II, article: ''David, Giacomo'', p. 334 David died in 1830.

Artistic features

Giacomo David represents the typical baritonal tenor of the late 18th century, gifted with remarkable voice volume, but not lacking in high-pitching capability, though singing sharp notes in

falsettone Falsettone is a term used in modern Italian musicology to describe a vocal technique used by male opera singers in the past, in which the fluty sounds typical of falsetto singing are amplified by using the same singing technique used in the modal v ...

. He had mastery of coloratura for which he was famous: "he was able to compete with the castratos in the florid music and far exceed them in his dramatic intensity", and, by 1786 he was the first tenor in the history of Turin's Teatro Regio that was paid more than the ''primo uomo'' during the carnival season. "Here was a sign that, with the castrati in decline, the tenor voice was beginning to engage the audience's interest as more than the stereotype utterance of kings and old men ...". In fact, David's popularity was enormous and, along with his contemporaries,

Matteo Babini Matteo Antonio Babini (19 February 1754 – 22 September 1816), also known by the family name of Babbini, was a leading Italian tenor of the late 18th-century, and a teacher of singing and stage art. Life and career Matteo Babini was born in Bol ...

and

Giovanni Ansani Giovanni Ansani (11 February 1744 – 15 July 1826) was an Italian tenor and composer. In 1770, he was singing at Copenhagen. About 1780 he came to London, where he at once took the first place; but, being of a most quarrelsome temper, he threw u ...

, he contributed " o laythe foundation of the forthcoming myth of the tenor" which would be established during the

Romantic era Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

Operatic roles

The list below is not exhaustive, but includes his most significant performances.for a wider list see Giacomo David/Ruoli creati in the Italian Wikipedia

References

Notes Sources * This article is a substantial translation from Giacomo David in the Italian Wikipedia. * * Salvatore Caruselli (ed.), ''Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica'', Longanesi &C. Periodici S.p.A., Roma, ''ad nomen'' *

Rodolfo Celletti Rodolfo Celletti (1917–2004) was an Italian musicologist, critic, voice teacher, and novelist. Considered one of the leading scholars of the operatic voice and the history of operatic performance, he published many books and articles on the subje ...

, ''A history of Bel Canto'', Oxford University Press (Clarendon Paperbacks), U.K., 1996, * Elizabeth Forbes, "Davide avid Giacomo", in Stanley Sadie (ed.), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997, I, p. 1088, {{DEFAULTSORT:David, Giacomo 1750 births 1830 deaths Italian operatic tenors Musicians from the Province of Bergamo 18th-century Italian male opera singers 19th-century Italian male opera singers