Giuseppe Carpani
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Giuseppe Carpani (28 January 1752[1] – 22 January 1825) was an Italian man of letters. He is remembered in large part for his role in the history of classical music: he knew Haydn, Mozart, Salieri, Beethoven, and Rossini, and served them in various ways as poet, translator, and biographer.
He was born at Vill'albese, in Brianza, Duchy of Milan (in what is now Lombardy) and was educated in Milan by the Jesuits.[2] His father wanted him to study law, which he did in Pavia.[3] Already during his studies, he turned to literature on his own time, writing poetry and plays, some in standard Italian and some in Milanese dialect.[4] An early success (1780) was Gli antiquari in Palmira, an opera composed by Giacomo Rust to Carpani's libretto,[5] which led to his being invited to write libretti for the Milanese court, performed in the country residence at Monza. These were translations/revisions of French works, some of which appeared under Carpani's own name.[6]
From 1792 to 1796, Carpani edited the Gazzetta di Milano. This was the historical period in which Napoleon's conquests in Italy began, and Carpani wrote some sharply anti-French pieces in the journal. In 1796, the French occupied Milan, and Carpani, needing to leave,[7] fled to Vienna. In 1797, he was nominated to serve as became censor and stage director in the theaters of Venice, but apparently remained in Vienna.[8]
Carpani was a "passionate royalist", supporting the (at the time, highly repressive[9]) imperial Austrian government by working as an internal spy. He sent his reports (written in French) to his superiors in the Police and Censorship Office, Baron Hager and later Count Sedlnitzky.[10] Eventually, Carpani received a pension from the Emperor.[11]
Carpani was acquainted with Ludwig van Beethoven and in 1822 apparently mediated the only visit to Beethoven by Gioachino Rossini.[12] He interpreted the conversation (in one direction: on paper, since Beethoven was totally deaf at the time). Beethoven received Rossini politely and expressed praise for his comic operas (which were, at the time, greatly eclipsing Beethoven's work in popularity in Vienna). Rossini, who admired Beethoven greatly, later expressed sorrow over the squalor of his surroundings and the "indefinable sadness spread over his features".[13]
In August 1824, the aging Carpani marshaled his efforts in defense of the composer Antonio Salieri, at a time when the story that Salieri had poisoned Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was circulating broadly. Carpani obtained testimony from Guldener von Lobes, a doctor who was close to those treating the dying Mozart, and from two nurses who had attended Mozart. Carpani published his findings in an Italian journal. They constitute part of the evidence on the basis of which the poisoning myth is generally discredited today.[14]
Carpani died of natural causes in the smaller Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna at the age of 73.
