Domenico Fischietti

Who was Domenico Fischietti?

Domenico Fischietti was an Italian composer.

He was born in Naples and studied at the Conservatory of Sant'Onofrio Porta Capuana under the leadership of Leonardo Leo and Francesco Durante.

His first opera, Armindo, premiered in 1742 at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples, though there are doubts about whether he could have started composing at such a young age - it may have been by his father. In 1755 he was in Venice to present Lo speziale, the first opera with a libretto by Carlo Goldoni. He followed this success with La ritornata a Londra in 1756, Il mercato di Malmantile in 1758, Il signor dottore also in 1758, and La fiera di Sinigaglia in 1760. These works, all drammi giocosi, represent Fiscietti's chief claim to fame.

In 1764, he moved to Prague where he was associated with the impresario Giuseppe Bustelli at the Divadlo v Kotcích. Besides a number of operas, it is known that Fischietti's oratorio La morte d'Abel was staged in this theater in 1763. In 1766 he became the master of the chapel court and the director of sacred music in Dresden. Here he worked with Johann Gottlieb Naumann. In 1772, he left Dresden and first travelled to Vienna and then to Salzburg where he became a master of the chapel of the prince-archbishop, Count Hieronymus von Colloredo. He died in Salzburg in 1810.