) was an Italian composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. He is best known for his opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s. He graduated from the Music Lyceum in Palermo (1820), and then studied at Naples with Pietro Raimondi

Pietro Raimondi

Pietro Raimondi was an Italian composer, transitional between the Classical and Romantic eras...

. In 1829 his first opera , L'isola disabitata, premiered in Naples. From 1834-1848 he worked in Milan as an opera and ballet composer and taught at the Milan Conservatory

Milan Conservatory

The Milan Conservatory is a college of music which was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year with premises in the cloisters of the Baroque church of Santa Maria della Passione. There were initially 18 boarders,...

. He was friends with Gaetano Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...

 and was a part of the artistic circle centered around Countess Yuliya Samoylova

Yuliya Samoylova

Countess Yuliya Pavlovna Samoylova was a granddaughter of Count Martyn Skavronskiy and the last scion of Skavronskiy family. She was born to Pavel von der Pahlen and Mariya Skavronskaya, but grew up in the house of Count Yuliy Litta due to early death of her mother...

. To Samoylova hed dedicated his opera Il buontempone di Porta Ticinese (1841). He spent the last years of his life in Genoa.