A student of Leonardo Leo and Francesco Durante, Piccinni scored a notable success with La Cecchina, ossia la buona figliuola, an opera buffa to a text by Goldoni. He was called to Paris in 1766 and held up as a model composer in opposition to Gluck; the so-called war of the gluckists and Piccinnists centred on the two composers composition of the same text, Iphigénie en Tauride (Gluck`s version was produced in 1779, Piccinni`s in 1781). He moved to Naples in 1789 and thereafter worked in Venice, Naples and Rome before returning to Paris in 1798. There is no evidence Mozart and Piccinni met, although Wolfgang attended a rehearsal of Piccinni`s opera Cesare in Egitto on 2 Feburary 1770. Lit.: Profio and Melucci, Niccolò Piccini musicista europeao; Basso, I Mozart in Italia, 636-637