Domenico Corri

Domenico Corri (4 October 1746 – 22 May 1825) was an Italian composer, impresario, music publisher, and voice teacher. Corri was born in Rome and studied voice with Nicola Porpora in Naples. The son of a confectioner in a religious house, the Cardinal Portocaro nearly persuaded young Corri to study for the priesthood; but his musical aptitude early asserting itself, he found himself in Naples, a pupil of Porpora. In the house of this prince of singing masters—himself a pupil of Scarlatti and the world-renowned master of Mingotti and Farinelli—Corri boarded for five years (1763-1767), and chiefly owed his introduction into the best English society at Rome to the fame of Porpora and the estimation in which that great singer was held by a section of our nobility. In 1781 he moved to Scotland with his family to become an opera conductor. He became an important singing master in Edinburgh. Both his wife Sophia Bachelli and daughter (Sophia Giustina Corri), who was a talented singer and pianist, were pupils of his. He was manager of the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh, and also conducted the concerts of the musical society there. Around 1790, Corri moved to London and began publishing vocal music in Soho. Corri had financial problems on several occasions. With a musician named James Sutherland and his son John Corri he founded a publishing business. When Sutherland died in 1790 the company ceased to exist. His son-in-law Jan Ladislav Dussek joined the company in 1794. When the company of Dussek and Corri went bankrupt, Dussek left England for Germany, leaving behind his family, and his father-in-law (Corri) apparently in a debtor's jail. The business was later taken over in 1804 by his son Philippe Corri. An apprentice to Corri in London was Isaac Nathan. Domenico Corri was also the manager of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London. In 1812, Corri organised a concert in the Argyll Rooms in Regent Street, London. In this, the favorite concert hall in London at this time, Corri put together quite a contrasting program as the evening's entertainment: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater combined with a Ball. Corri died in London, aged 78.