Niccolò Piccinni was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the Neapolitan opera buffa—of the Classical period.

In music history, the Neapolitan School is a group, associated with opera, of 17th and 18th-century composers who studied or worked in Naples, Italy, the best known of whom is Alessandro Scarlatti, with whom "modern opera begins". Francesco Provenzale is generally considered the school's founder. Others significant composers of this school are Giambattista Pergolesi, Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello.It is with the Neapolitan school...that the History of Modern Music commences—insofar as that music speaks the language of the feelings, emotions, and passions.