Biography
Gian Francesco de Majo was born in Naples in 1732, the son of the court composer Giuseppe de Majo, and trained within one of the leading Neapolitan musical families of his time, studying among others with his uncle Gennaro Manna and great-uncle Francesco Feo. At fifteen he became second harpsichordist of the royal chapel; from 1763 he deepened his counterpoint studies with Padre Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna. During the 1760s he wrote operas in rapid succession for the stages of Parma, Venice, Turin, Rome, Vienna and Mannheim, and was for a time among the most sought-after composers of Italian opera seria. The young Mozart, who met him in Naples, praised his church music as 'bellissima'. He was passed over for the hoped-for succession to his father as maestro di cappella of the royal chapel, a post that later went to Niccolò Piccinni. De Majo died in Naples in 1770, aged only 38, of tuberculosis.
On Stagelog
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