Composer, born in Maiolati, Italy. He studied at the Conservatorio de Turchini in Naples, and his first opera Li puntigli delle donne (Women's Points of Honour) was well-received in Rome in 1796. He continued with comic operas, then in 1803 settled in Paris, where his major work, the opera La Vestale (1807, The Vestal Virgin) was greeted with enthusiasm. In 1812 he was appointed by Frederick William III of Prussia as director of music at Berlin, where he stayed until the king's death in 1840.