ABSTRACT
Theoperatic reforms of Gluck and his subsequent conquest of Paris have received much critical attention, but discussion of his rival Piccinni tends to be anecdotal rather than analytical. In practice, then, 'Piccinnisme' means opera of serious dramatic pretensions, giving free play to symmetrical musical development in arias. Piccinnisme is a trend, an atmosphere; it is not a school, and to give it Piccinni's name is perhaps a convenient falsification, since at least two operas before Gluck, and Gluck himself, were aiming at the same sort of synthesis of French and Italian elements. Piccinnisme outlived the Academie Royale; as it became Nationale and Imperiale, many of the pre-revolutionary operas were still played, and it contributed much to the opera comique of the Revolution although by definition that was not Piccinniste. Piccinnisme was a perfectly satisfactory formula for musical drama, and it needed only a composer of substance at the Academie to exploit its possibilities.
