David Perez

David Perez was born in Naples, the son of Giovanni Perez and Rosalina Serrari. At the age of 11, he entered the Conservatorio di Maria di Loreto in his native city and, after completing his studies in 1733, entered the service of the Sicilian Prince of Aragona, Diego Naselli, who would become chamberlain to King Carlo I. In the early years of a career spent between Naples and Palermo, Perez composed, among other works, his first opera La nemica amante (1735) and became maestro of the Royal Cappella Palatina in Palermo, the church of the royal palace dedicated to St. Peter.
In the 1740s, the composer composed mainly sacred music and some serenatas, but after leaving his post in Palermo in 1748, he managed to produce and present several operas in different Italian cities and in Vienna, thus establishing an excellent reputation in the field of dramatic music. In February 1749, he applied for the position of maestro di cappella at the Vatican, but was unable to surpass Niccolò Jommelli’s candidacy. Three years later, in 1752, he was offered the position of master of the Royal Chapel and teacher to the princesses at the court of King José I, and the composer accepted, moving to Lisbon. With Perez came other prominent figures, among whom the poet and librettist Gaetano Martinelli, the architect and set designer Carlo da Bibiena – who would go on to be responsible for the design and construction of the Ópera do Tejo, inaugurated in 1755 – and several renowned Italian singers¹.
In Portugal, David Perez began a new compositional phase marked by the exchange of monumentality for a sentimental style, greater textural clarity, greater phrase symmetry, frequent use of rhythmic motives, and an emphasis on the pathetic². Following the Lisbon earthquake, although the Portuguese court decided to interrupt the production of operas for several years, Perez did not completely abandon the dramatic genre. Among the many sacred works he wrote in this period, some new operas reflect the influence of the French style³.
In total, David Perez composed more than 45 dramatic works between 1733 and 1777, 38 of which are operas. Of these, 14 were written for Lisbon, most of them presented between 1752 and 1755. In the last years of his life, he suffered from a chronic illness and lost his eyesight, but continued to compose and work for the Portuguese court until his death in 1778, having been made a Knight of the Order of Christ by Queen Maria I in that same year⁴.