The Procuratoria de supra of San Marco received notice that Galuppi was en route from Saint Petersburg, and on September 13, 1768 approved payment of his salary. Galuppi assumed his duties at the Basilica and discovered that his old post of maestro di coro at the Incurabili was vacant, as well. The ospedale had enjoyed a renaissance during the 1760s because of the solid technical formation the singers received under Galuppi’s direction, and was aided in no small part by the efforts of Francesco Giovanni Brusa during the three-year period from 1765 to 1768, while Galuppi was in Russia.145 After Brusa’s death in 1767, the governatori of the Incurabili consulted composer Johann Adolph Hasse for
suggestions on whom to offer the position to, and rehired Galuppi on his return
143 Ms. Correr 348, C. 579, C. 580, cited in Antonenko, “K istorii otnoshenij
Bal'dassare Galuppi,” 95.
144 Domenico Carboni, Fortuna delle opere di Baldassare Galuppi in
Russia, in Galuppiana 1985: Studi e ricerche: atti del convegno internazionale, (Venice,
28-30 ottobre 1985), ed. Maria Teresa Muraro and Franco Rossi (Florence: L.S.
Olschki, 1986), 125-126. Franco Piva, introduction to Passatempo al cembalo; sonate, by Baldassare Galuppi (Venice: Istituto per la collaborazione culturale, 1963).
in 1768. Hasse, whose interests were financial as well as personal, was content with their choice. As he mentioned in his letter of August 13, 1768 to Abbé Gian Maria Ortes, “"They surely could not have done better; and I; therefore, am happy for them as well as for the pious place."146 The fact that the coro grew to
include more than sixty women upon Galuppi's return is supported by a notation from June 6, 1770 which mentions “the absence of one girl from the prescribed number of 63.”147
The decade following Galuppi’s return to Venice saw an increase in oratorio production, mostly for the Incurabili. Galuppi had previously produced a string of oratorios during the 1740s, corresponding to his work at the
Mendicanti. Now the composer produced at least more twelve oratorios as well as Vespers psalms and some fine settings of Marian antiphons for female voices with orchestra.148 However, mounting financial problems for the institution
meant that Galuppi was continually expected to do more with less; money was tight, and eventually even funds for copyists’ fees and instrument repairs were difficult to come by.149 Galuppi's petition to the governatori on February 26, 1771
146 Sven Hostrup Hansell, "Sacred Music at the ‘Incurabili’ in Venice at the
Time of J. A. Hasse, I," Journal of the American Musicological Society Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 1970): 283.
147 Geyer, "Le opera sacre di Baldassare Galuppi," 214. “Nella particular ispezione di noi infrascritti Deputati sopra la Chiesa, a sopra le Figlie, che si chiamano alla ben dovuta vigilanza per l’avanzamento utilissimo del Coro, remarcando la vacanza di una Figlia dal numero delle prescritte 63.”
148 Geyer, Das venezianische Oratorium, 52-53.
149 Geyer, Das venezianische Oratorium, p. 53. Geyer, "Le opere sacre di
revealed the extent of the gradual financial decline of the Incurabili. In it he noted the loss of one of the best soloists, Pasquetta Taccioli, and he asked permission to bring in two new sopranos and two new altos. It is telling that instead of automatically approving the recruitment of new students as they had previously, the Congregazione chose to postpone their decision until new Deputati could be elected.150 By the time Galuppi left the ospedale in 1777 its debts were
ten times greater than its assets.151 Its musical program was ultimately
terminated that year and the institution was handed over to public control.152
Galuppi resumed his activity as an opera composer upon his return to Venice, but at a slower pace than before. Franco Piovano lists seven new operas between 1768 and 1773.153 Reinhard Wiesend lists the final production, La serva per amore in 1773, as “incomplete” and Piovano notes that in the autograph score
one piece in Act I and three pieces in Act II are not in the composer’s hand.154 He
says, “With this opera, at 67 years of age, Galuppi withdrew from the theatrical arena being by now tired of the tempestuous life of the stage, a life he endured for more than a half century.”155
150 Geyer, Das venezianische Oratorium, 455.
151 Hensell, “Sacred Music at the Incurabili,” 515. 152 Geyer, Das venezianische Oratorium, 53.
153 Piovano, “Baldassare Galuppi,” (1908): 236-243.
154 Reinhard Wiesend, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart;
allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, s.v. “Galuppi” Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2007.
155 Piovano, “Baldassare Galuppi,” (1908): 243. “Con quest’ opera, a 67 anni, Galuppi si ritrasse dall’ arringo teatrale, essendo omai stanco della vita turbinosa della scena, vita da lui durata per oltre mezzo secolo.”
In 1782 Venice was preoccupied with the upcoming visit of pope Pius VI, and Galuppi composed the sacred oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia for the occasion. Ludovico Manin, procurator of San Marco (and later Doge) seems to have spared no expense.156 Gasparo Gozzi was commissioned to write the libretto, and
Galuppi composed the score.157 The Incurabili was chosen as the venue, but
because it was in a state of disrepair, the procurator overhauled it and
commissioned artists to paint giant murals with biblical scenes from the libretto on the walls. On May 18 and 19, 1782, girls from the other three ospedali joined what remained of the former choir at the Incurabili, seventy in all, to perform the oratorio, clothed in black silk.158 This turned out to be the final dramatic
composition of the composer, as well as the final performance of the celebrated musicians in the Incurabili.159 The souvenir pamphlet Arrivo, soggiorno, e partenza da Venezia del S. P. Pio VI from that year says that “In attendance were two
distinguished cardinals, Buoncompagni and Cornaro, many bishops and
prelates, as well as the ministers of the foreign courts, and the Venetian nobility
156 Piovano, “Baldassare Galuppi,” (1908): 247. 157 Cicogna, Delle inscrizioni veneziane, 556. 158 Piovano, “Baldassare Galuppi,” (1908): 247. 159 Cicogna, Delle inscrizioni veneziane, 331.
in patrician dress, and the ladies dressed in black.”160 Cicogna reports that 1400
spectators came to the performance.161 The pope, however, did not.162