Luigi Capotorti

Luigi Capotorti (17 March 1767 – 17 November 1842) was an Italian composer of both sacred and secular music. He was the maestro di cappella of several Neapolitan churches; the composer of ten operas, five of which premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; and a teacher of composition and singing whose students included Stefano Pavesi and Saverio Mercadante. Born in Molfetta, he studied violin and composition at the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio in Naples and spent his entire career in that city. In his later years, Capotorti retired to San Severo, where he died at the age of 75. Life Capotorti was born in the southern Italian town of Molfetta the son of Maria née Berardi and Michelangelo Capotorti. He showed an early talent as a violinist and at the age of 12 was hired by the town’s cathedral to play whenever the Eucharist was carried outside. In 1783 his father enrolled him in the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio in Naples where he studied violin under Michele Nasci and counterpoint and composition under Giuseppe Millico, Giacomo Insanguine, and Niccolò Piccinni. Further reading *Panunzio, Maria Pia (1999). Un musicista molfettese a Napoli. Società di Storia Patria per la Puglia (