A violinist and then a conductor, Peter Winter was born in Mannheim, where he later played in the court orchestra and briefly took lessons with Abt Vogler. When the court moved to Munich he became deputy director of the orchestra, composing, under the influence of Georg Benda, melodramas and other stage works. He studied with Salieri in 1780–1 in Vienna, where his ballets were being staged; there he again met Mozart, who inveighed against him, in a letter home, for his insinuations about Mozart’s betrothed, Constanze Weber. From 1791 to 1794 he was in Italy, where he wrote operas for Venice and for Naples. He remained Kapellmeister at Munich from 1798 until his death.

Stage Works

Winter wrote a large number of melodramas, Singspiel, tragédies-lyriques, and serious, tragicomic and comic Italian operas, enjoying considerable contemporary success. His opera Maometto is based on the play by Voltaire and was first staged at La Scala, Milan, in 1817.