Baldassare Galuppi

Galuppi, pupil of Lotti, was one of the most popular and successful Venetian 18th-century composers and received high praise for his operas by Burney in his travel reports. He praised the refined melodies and the dramatic effects. At the beginning of the 1740’s, Galuppi visited London, were operas such as Scipione in Cartagine and Sirbace became very successful.
Back in Venice, he was appointed as chapel master of the San Marco in 1762; he also became director of the conservatory degli incurabili. From 1765-1786, he stayed at the court of St. Petersburg at the invitation of Catharina the Great.
In La diavolessa, it is not about unusual mistaken identities and Machiavelli-like techniques before everything ends with a happy end in the best opera buffa style. In Il mondo alla roversa, he worked with Goldoni as librettist, which naturally resulted in a comic opera, in which the world is indeed turned upside down. The subtitle is Le donne che commando, and the women are indeed in command. Other operas which originated in collaboration with Goldoni are l’Arcadia in Brenta (1749), Il filosofo di campagna (1751) and Le nozze (1755); in contrary, Il re pastore has a libretto by Metastasio.
Of Galuppi’s about ninety piano sonatas, only the fifth is fairly known, mainly since it was part of Michelangeli’s repertoire. At the first introduction, the work seems a model of simplicity, but it is in fact through-composed, ingeniously based on continuously returning material.
(Source: Musicalifeiten.nl)