Pietro Auletta (ca.1698 - 09/1771), an Italian composer, born in San Angelo, Avellino, died in Napels. He was a student at the conservatory of S. Onofrio, Naples, and worked as maestro di cappella at S. Maria la Nova while composing operas for production at theatres in Naples. In 1752 a pasticcio derived from his comic opera Orazio ( 1737 ) was given in Paris as Il maestro di musica, forming one of a series of Italian operas which provoked the Querelle des Bouffons. Auletta continued as a popular and successful opera composer in Naples until 1740, when there was a sudden drop in his output.