Giuseppe Balducci (composer)

Giuseppe Balducci (2 May 1796 – 1845) was an Italian composer, primarily of operas. Born in Iesi, he spent most of his career in Naples and was one of the originators of the “salon opera” genre, the forerunner of chamber opera. Life and career Balducci was born in Iesi to a once-prosperous family in the city. He was a distant cousin of the composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (their grandfathers were brothers). Balducci’s father, a successful businessman, was kidnapped and killed on one of his travels shortly before Balducci was born. A business partner fraudulently took possession of most of his father’s wealth leaving Balducci’s mother and children in very straitened circumstances. Balducci studied music under the castrato singer Giovanni Ripa in Iesi and the composer in nearby Senigallia. By the age of 17 Balducci had formed his own opera troupe in which he also sang as the lead tenor. However, a year later he was forced to flee his native city after killing the nephew of the Papal Governor in a duel. On his arrival in Naples, he found employment as the music master to the three young daughters of Raimondo Capece Minutolo (1769–1827), a retired field marshal and member of an anc