Morlacchi, Francesco (1784–1841)

Italian composer and conductor. He studied with his father, then at Perugia Cathedral, later with Zingarelli at Loreto, and finally with Mattei at Bologna. In 1810 he was appointed music director of the Italian opera at Dresden, where he remained to the end of his life.

Works Operas Il ritratto (1807), Enone e Paride (1808), Oreste, Le Daniadi (1810), Raoul de Créqui (1811), La capricciosa pentita, Il barbiere di Siviglia (after Beaumarchais, 1816), Boadicea, Gianni di Parigi (1818), Il Simoncino, Donna Aurora, Tebaldo ed Isolina (1820), La gioventù di Enrico V (1823), Il colombo, Francesca da Rimini (after Dante, unfinished, 1836), and c. ten others.

Other vocal 13 masses, Requiem for the King of Saxony (1827), Miserere for 16 voices, unaccompanied Mass for the Greek service, and other church music; oratorios Gli angeli al sepolcro (1803), La morte di Abele (1821) and Il sacrifizio d'Abramo, Passion oratorio (words by Metastasio, 1811); cantatas for the coronation of Napoleon as king of Italy (1805) and for the taking of Paris (1814); Narration of Ugolino from Dante's Inferno for baritone and piano.