Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (1779–1851)

The Italian Spontini, an Empire-style opera composer best remembered for his La Vestale of 1807, spent most of his career working for royalty in Paris and Berlin. In 1805, he was made chamber composer to Empress Josephine; after her death in 1814, he accepted an invitation to become court composer to the newly restored Louis XVIII. In 1820, King Frederick William III of Prussia appointed Spontini, whom he had long admired, chief Kapellmeister and general director of music of the Berlin Court Opera, where the Italian would remain until after the king's death in 1840.

Source: Scher, Stephen K., et al. The Scher Collection of Commemorative Medals. New York and London, 2019.