Davide Perez

Davide Perez (1711 – 30 October 1778) was an Italian opera composer born in Naples of Italian parents, and later resident court composer at Lisbon from 1752. He staged three operas on librettos of Metastasio at Lisbon with huge success in 1753, 1754, and 1755. Following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Perez turned from opera mostly to church music.

Perez was born in Naples, the son of Giovanni Perez and Rosalina Serrari, both Neapolitans. At the age of 11 he became a student at the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto in Naples, where he remained until 1733, studying counterpoint with Francesco Mancini, singing and keyboard playing with Giovanni Veneziano, and violin with Francesco Barbella.

On completion of his studies, Perez immediately entered the service of the Sicilian Prince d’Aragona, Naselli. From 1734 date his first known pieces, the Latin cantatas Ilium Palladio astu Subducto Expugnatum and Palladium performed in Palermo’s Collegio della Società di Gesù, for the laurelling festivities. In the following years, he was active both in Palermo and Naples, as his patron became Chamberlain of the newly crowned king, Carlo I. His first opera, La nemica amante, was composed for the king’s birthday on 4 November 1735 and presented in the gardens of the Neapolitan royal palace and later in the Teatro S Bartolomeo. In the libretto’s dedication the impresario of the theatre, Angelo Carasale, referred to Perez and Pergolesi as 'dei buoni virtuosi di questa città'. Unlike Pergolesi's opera, which was then considered a failure, Perez's was a great success, and his early career granted him, in 1738, an appointment as vicemaestro di cappella at Palermo’s Cappella Palatina, the Church of St. Peter in the royal palace, to become maestro the next year upon the death of its former titular, Pietro Puzzuolo.

In the early 1740s Perez firmly established himself as a mature master. The opera he composed for the Roman Teatro d’Alibert, in the Carnival of 1740, was not presented due to the sudden death of Pope Clement XII, but on Perez's return to Naples he staged an opera buffa, I travestimenti amorosi and a serenata L’amor pittore for the court, and an opera seria, Il Siroe, for the Teatro San Carlo. Caffarelli and Manzuoli sang in the later.

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