IT has not unfrequently happened that the works of very superior composers have remained a long time unknown, except in the country where they were produced. We hardly need say that Mozart’s operas never reached London or Paris till twenty and more years after his death. His chef-d’oeuvre, Don Giovanni, was performed for the first time in England in 1817, no less than thirty years after it was first produced! Handel is now only beginning to be known on the continent! We do not mean to place the subject of this brief memoir on anything like a footing with either of those great masters, but he wrote many operas that deserve notice, some of which will, we are persuaded, ere long be thought worthy of being heard at the King’s Theatre, if being far superior in all respects to five out of every six lately brought out there, entitles them to be made known to a British audience.

VINCENZO RIGHINI was born at Bologna about the year 1758, where also he laid the foundation of his musical acquirements, under the direction of the very celebrated, and at that time still vigorous, Padre Martini. After having completed his vocal studies, he left Bologna about the year 1776 for Prague, where he contracted an engagement as a singer for the Italian Opera-buffa, under the management of M. Bustelli, which enabled him not only to cultivate his talents for vocal composition, but also to bring on the stage several operas and scenas, which were performed with success. And this is one of the many instances on record of Italian Maestri di Capella, previously mere virtuosi, becoming profound and distinguished musicians and composers, through their connexion with German musical chapels and orchestras.

After he had passed three years in Prague in so profitable and creditable a manner, he repaired to Vienna, where he had the good fortune to be chosen, by the Emperor Joseph II., singing-master to the beautiful Princess Elizabeth, of WÜrtemberg, and was appointed, at the same time, kapellmeister and composer to the Italian opera.

About the year 1788 he went to Mentz, whither he had been invited by the archbishop and elector, whose service he entered as kapellmeister. Here again he wrote much for the theatre, and a grand mass for the church. During his stay in that city the fame of his delicate and pleasing music procured for him the honourable commission from the elector of Treves, one of the most distinguished musical connoisseurs among the German princes of his time, to set to music the drama Alcide al Bivio, which was subsequently performed at Coblentz with the success it merited, under his own direction, in the presence of the court.

Lastly, he was called to Berlin by Frederich Wilhelm II., to write the opera seria, Enea nel Lazio, for the great opera-house there, which being favourably received by the king, he was appointed, in April, 1793, Master of the Royal Chapel, in the room of Alessandri, with a salary of 4000 thalers. Here, enjoying the favour of the sovereign, and the esteem of the public, and proud of his excellent orchestra, he married, in the year 1794, the young and handsome Madlle. Kneisel, with whom he had become acquainted as the favourite singer of the Frankfort Theatre, at Mentz. As, at the decease of the king (which took place in 1798) Righini was in the most honourable manner confirmed in his dignities by the new monarch, and remained, after his return from Hamburg—whither he, during that year, accompanied Mad. Righini for a short time—permanently fixed at Berlin until the year 1804, when, with the sanction of his court, he visited Italy in company with the youthful Madlle. Fischer, his pupil. He died at Bologna on the 19th of August, 1812, where he had arrived in the spring, in the hope of being relieved from a disease that had before afflicted him, and of which he had been once cured by an operation performed by an eminent professor in that place. The second attempt, however, of the same surgeon, proved fatal.

In his manner of composing Righini was entirely devoid of pretension, and remarkably pleasing; and with regard to his vocal abilities, every ear was charmed when he sang, with his soft and subdued voice, scenas from his own scores, accompanied by himself on the piano-forte.

His compositions are, 1. La Vedora Scaltra; Op. Buffa, (his first opera,) at Prague. 2. La Bottega del CaffÉ; Op. Buffa, ditto. 3. Don Giovanni, o sia il Convitato di Pietra; Op. Buffa, ditto. 4. Several scenes, duets, &c. for introduction in serious operas performed there. 5. La Sorpresa amorosa, Cantata À tre voci, with full orchestra, written at Vienna for three of his pupils. 6. Il natale d’Apollo, a grand Cantata, with full orchestra, ditto. 7. Grand Serenade, with full orchestra, ditto. 8. L’Incontro inaspettato; Op. Buffa, 1785. 9. Le Demogorgone, o sia il Filosofo confuso; Op. Buffa, ditto. 10. Several scenas and rondeaus, introduced in various operas produced at the Vienna theatre. 11. The scena Berenice, Che fai? from Metastasio’s opera, Antigono. 12. The scena Se cerca, se dice, from Metastasio’s Olimpiade. 13. Armida; Op. Seria; first performed at Aschaffenburg. 14. Alcide al Bivio; Op. Seria; produced at Coblentz, 1789. 15. A grand solemn mass, performed at the election of the Emperor Joseph II. 16. Enea nel Lazio; Op. Seria; composed for the theatre at Berlin. In this Righini himself sang, and made his first appearance on the stage of the great Opera-house in January, 1793. 17. Il Trionfo d’Arianne; Op. Seria, 1793. 18. Atalanta e Meleagro, Festa teatrale che introduce ad un ballo allegorico, performed at the Opera-house at Berlin, on 15th February, 1797, on the occasion of the marriage of the princess. 19. Armida; Op. Seria; the text remodelled by Filistri; the music almost entirely re-composed, 1799; published at Leipzig in 1805. 20. Tigrane; Op. Seria; Berlin, for the Carnival, 1799, 1800; score published 1810. 21. Gierusalemme Liberata; Op. Seria. 1802. 22. Various detached compositions for the church. 23. Der Zauberwald (La Selva incantata), an opera published at Leipzig.

Besides the above works, Righini’s minor productions, vocal and instrumental, but chiefly the former, are very numerous. He was a ready man, of most industrious habits, and his taste and judgment, the result of great experience, could be relied on. Hence he was resorted to when occasion demanded the prompt exertion of a composer’s talent. But it follows as almost a necessary consequence, that most of what was thus suddenly called for and brought forth, was calculated for an immediate purpose—not written with any hope that it would add much to his reputation. His fame he well knew would rest on his operas[2].