Leader, Alfred Cave
Conducted by Leslie Heward
Gasparo Spontini (1774-1851) was one of the greatest Italian composers of opera of his period. His opera La Vestale was finished about the year 1805 and was first performed in Paris with enormous success on December 15, 1807. At the same time it is interesting to hear that a good many people considered the music to be the height of modernity. A well-known physician took a deaf friend to hear it, as he considered the ' noisy ' music was an excellent remedy for deafness!