Gennaro Manna (1715-1779) - Dies Irae à 4 voci

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Composer: Gennaro Manna (1715-1779)
Work: Dies Irae à 4 voci
Performers: Abchοrdis ensemble; Andrеa Buccarеlla

Painting: Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) - Vesuvius in eruption, viewed from Posillipo (1789)
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2mPMtCQ

Further info: https://www.amazon.es/Dies-Irae-Instr...
Listen free: https://open.spotify.com/album/3D7sVv...

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Gennaro Manna
(Naples, 12 December 1715 - Naples, 28 December 1779)

Italian composer, son of Giuseppe Manna and Caterina Feo (sister of the composer Francesco Feo), and cousin of Cristoforo Manna. He studied at the Neapolitan Conservatorio di S Onofrio a Capuana where his uncle Francesco Feo was primo maestro and Ignazio Prota secondo maestro. His first opera seria, Tito Manlio, was performed on 21 January 1742 in Rome. Its immediate success led to a commission from the Teatro S Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice for the carnival season 1743, for which he wrote Siroe re di Persia. After his return to Naples he collaborated with Nicola Logroscino in composing a festa teatrale. An outbreak of the plague caused the festivities planned for July 1743 to be cancelled, and the work was never performed. Manna then revised Leonardo Vinci's Artaserse, and in 1744 succeeded Domenico Sarro as maestro di cappella to the city of Naples. In January 1745 Manna presented a new work of his own at the Teatro S Carlo, the opera seria Achille in Sciro. Its enthusiastic public reception instantly made him the most sought-after composer in Naples, resulting in commissions from the French ambassador, the Saxon court, the Teatro S Carlo and theatres in other Italian cities. On 1 October 1755, after the death of Francesco Durante, the primo maestro of the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, Manna was appointed interim teacher to assist the secondo maestro Pietro-Antonio Gallo. From 13 February 1756 he served with Gallo as co-maestro, and then also with the aging Nicola Porpora. Manna's last theatrical works were Enea in Cuma, a serenata written for a fête given by the ambassador of the Maltese Knights on 4 September 1760, and (according to some sources) the opera seria Temistocle. He then retired from the operatic scene and composed only sacred music.

After the death of Francesco Feo in January 1761, he succeeded him as maestro of the SS Annunziata church, and on 9 May of the same year resigned from the Loreto conservatory citing his many duties, which included that of maestro of the cathedral of S Gennaro. On his nameday, 19 September 1762, Gennaro Manna was celebrated with the performance of a cantata written in his honour by Vincenzo Bidognietti. He remained active and revered as a composer of sacred music, and during the last decade of his life produced his major oratorios. Unlike Jommelli, Latilla, Abos and other Neapolitan opera composers of his generation, Manna never ventured into the field of commedia per musica, but concentrated exclusively on opera seria. Although his contributions to opera belong primarily to the first 12 years of his career, they established his contemporary fame as one of the most important composers of his time. He expanded the galant stylistic tendencies of Francesco Feo and solidified pre-Classical characteristics. Many of his arias are guided by the sonata principle and exhibit diversified textures, crescendo patterns, discriminate scoring for wind instruments, and forceful drives to cadences with strong confirmations. Arias in major keys often expressively articulate the beginning of the secondary tonal area with contrasting phrases in the minor key. Contemporaries praised the suavity, vivaciousness and delicate beauty of his arias: Burney, who heard one of Manna's sacred works performed under the composer's direction in Naples (October 1770), noted the ingenious instrumental accompaniment of the vocal solos, and lauded the music for its ‘fancy and contrivance’. Gennaro’s older brother Giacinto (1706-1768) was a harpsichordist at the Neapolitan opera houses S Bartolomeo and Fiorentini as well as S Carlo (1761-65). His sister Teresa married the composer Giuseppe de Majo in 1728; their gifted son Gian Francesco de Majo received some of his musical training from Gennaro.