{{Short description|Italian ballet dancer, composer, and choreographer (1731–1803)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Gasparo Angiolini | image = | caption = | alt = | birth_name = Domenico Maria Angiolo Gasparini | birth_date = {{birth date|1731|2|9|df=yes}} | birth_place = Florence, Italy | death_date = {{Death date and age|1803|2|6|1731|2|9|df=yes}} | death_place = Milan, Italy | occupation = Dancer, choreographer and composer | spouse = {{Interlanguage link multi|Marie Thérèse Foliazzi|ru|3=Фольяцци, Тереза|vertical-align=sup}} | children = 2 }} [[File:Gluck's Orphée - title page illustration (lightened and cropped).jpg|thumb|Title page of the original full score of Gluck's 1762 opera ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' (Duchesne, Paris, 1764). [The original image has been cropped and lightened.]] '''Gasparo Angiolini''' (7 February 1731 – 6 February 1803), real name '''Domenico Maria Gasparo''', son of Francesco Angiolini and Maria Maddalena Torzi, was an Italian dancer, choreographer and composer. He was born in Florence and died in Milan.
He is known thanks to the polemics with the French ballet master Jean-Georges Noverre.<ref>Arianna Béatrice Fabbricatore, La Querelle des Pantomimes : Danse, culture et société dans l’Europe des Lumières, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, coll. « Le Spectaculaire Arts de la scène », 2017 (471p.).</ref> Gasparo Angiolini directed the ballet at the Imperial Theatre in Vienna, taking over the post in 1758, working closely with Christoph Willibald von Gluck on such works as ''Don Juan ou le Festin de Pierre'' (1761), and the opera ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' (1762). The dancing in both Don Juan and Orpheus was said to have insisted on the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110706033734/http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/woa/520352.htm "primacy of drama".] In addition to collaborating with Gluck, he also composed music for many of his ballets.
He later succeeded Franz Hilverding as director of the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1766. Both Hilverding and Angiolini are credited with bringing the pantomime ballet<ref>Arianna Béatrice Fabbricatore, « Gasparo Angiolini et la réforme morale de la danse italienne » in Danse et morale « European Drama and Performance Studies », n. 8, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2017, p. 143-162.</ref> to Russia. Likewise, Angiolini also attempted to introduce elements of Russian culture into his own work through the use of songs, folk dances, and Russian themes.
In 1772–1773, Angiolini worked in Teatro San Benedetto in Venice. In 1778, he came to Milan to direct the theatre of La Scala.
Angiolini was a choreographer interested in the dramatic possibilities of dance. He was also an early spokesman for a sense of Italian nationalism and spoke of the sad state where Germany and Russia were supporting better cultural institutions than Italy.
His wife was a ballerina {{Interlanguage link multi|Marie Thérèse Foliazzi|ru|3=Фольяцци, Тереза|vertical-align=sup}} (1733–1792). Giacomo Casanova was in love with her and admits in his memoirs that he stole her portrait. His son (or nephew) Pietro Angiolini was also a dancer and choreographer; his daughter {{Interlanguage link multi|Fortunata Angiolini|ru|3=Анджолини, Фортуната|vertical-align=sup}} (1776–1817) and her partner Armand Vestris danced in Lisbon and London with great success.
Gasparo Angiolini was a ballet teacher of Vincenzo Galeotti.
== References == <references /> * [http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9007566 "Angiolini, Gasparo."] Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 23 Jan. 2007. * Christopher Duggan. ''The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796''. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008) p. 4–5. * Au, Susan.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110706033734/http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/woa/520352.htm] Ballet and Modern Dance, Second Edition. 2002. London: Thames and Hudson. Pages 34,36,38,61.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Angiolini, Gasparo}} Category:18th-century Italian ballet dancers Category:Italian male ballet dancers Category:Italian choreographers Category:Italian expatriates in the Russian Empire Category:Musicians from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany Category:Musicians from Florence Category:1731 births Category:1803 deaths