Probably self-taught as a singer, he studied composition in
Naples with
Nicola Sala, and began his career in the early 1770s appearing on the stages of major Italian theatres such as the
Teatro Regio in
Turin, the
Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and the
Teatro San Benedetto in
Venice. Here he participated in the inauguration of the newly erected theatre
La Fenice, in 1792, performing the role of
Eraclide in
Paisiello's
I giochi di Agrigento. After having made his debut at
Milan's
Teatro alla Scala in 1782, he became a regular performer there at the beginning of the new century. In 1791 Davide travelled to London, where the
-e in his surname seems to have been dropped, and where he appeared at the
King's Theatre as the protagonist of Paisiello's
Pirro, one of his favourite roles. On 17 May 1791, he took part in a charity concert in the
Hannover Square Rooms, where he executed the tenor aria "
Cara deh torna", specially composed for the occasion by
Joseph Haydn. In 1801, he took part in the inauguration of
Trieste's
Regio Teatro Nuovo, performing two premières on 20 and 21 April:
Antonio Salieri's
Annibale in Capua (
Scipione) and
Simon Mayr's
Ginevra di Scozia (
Polinesso). His career was very long, continuing into the early twenty years of the 19th century, with a repertoire based upon such composers as Paisiello, Mayr,
Ferdinando Bertoni,
Domenico Cimarosa,
Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi,
Giuseppe Sarti,
Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, and
Francesco Bianchi. In many operas he worked alongside the
castrati Girolamo Crescentini and
Gaspare Pacchierotti, and the
soprano Brigida Banti, who shared common artistic trends with him. In France, where he appeared opposite
Isabella Colbran in
Otello, David came to be known as
Giacomo le père ("Giacomo the father"), because his son
Giovanni David was also pursuing a successful career in opera. David can be considered as the initiator of the Bergamo tenor school which was going to produce such notable singers as
Andrea Nozzari and Giacomo's aforesaid son, Giovanni (who were also actual pupils of his),
Domenico Donzelli,
Giovanni Battista Rubini, and
Marco Bordogni. David died in 1830. ==Artistic features==