Known as ‘Il Buranello’, after Burano, his place of birth, Baldassare Galuppi played a leading part in the development of opera buffa, although his name may now be more familiar to readers of Robert Browning’s poem A Toccata of Galuppi’s, an elegy for the vanished heyday of Venice. A pupil of Antonio Lotti, Galuppi worked first in Florence before returning to Venice, where, in 1740, he was appointed maestro di musica at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti. He established a lasting reputation in England, where he spent two years, from 1741 to 1743, writing operas for the King’s Theatre, Haymarket. In Venice he was involved in the adaptation of Neapolitan opera buffa for Venetian audiences and then, in collaboration with Goldoni, writin...