Nicola De Giosa
Nicola De Giosa | |
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Born | |
Died | 7 July 1885 Bari, Italy | (aged 66)
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Nicola De Giosa (3 May 1819 – 7 July 1885) was an Italian composer and conductor active in Naples. He composed numerous operas, the most successful of which, Don Checco and Napoli di carnevale, were in the Neapolitan opera buffa genre. His other works included sacred music and art songs. His songs were particularly popular, bringing him fame as a salon composer both in Italy and abroad. De Giosa died in Bari, the city of his birth, at the age of 66.[1]
Life and career
De Giosa was born in
In 1842 De Giosa made his debut as an opera composer with the premiere of his
In middle age, De Giosa began an active conducting career. According to musicologist Andrea Lanza, as a conductor he was "particularly admired for the scrupulousness of his orchestral balance and ensemble."
Despite his concentration on conducting after 1860, De Giosa continued to compose operas, although several of them were revisions of earlier works. The most successful of these later works was Napoli di carnovale. The project was a protest against the "invasion" of Neapolitan opera stages by French operetta at the expense of the city's native musical culture. Set in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples at Carnival time, it recounts the ultimately successful campaign by Temostocle, nephew of the wealthy and pretentious Don Gasperone, to marry the daughter of a shoemaker. Napoli di carnovale premiered to great success at the Teatro Nuovo in 1876. It ran for 85 performances there and was subsequently performed in multiple Italian and foreign theatres over the next ten years. During this time De Giosa was also active as a teacher at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella and in organizations dedicated to the encouragement of young musicians and composers.[8][3]
De Giosa spent his last years in Bari under the care of his doctors and relatives. By June 1884 he was reported to be suffering from insanity and severe physical debilitation. He no longer recognized the friends who came to visit him and frequently invoked his old teacher, murmuring "Donizetti!... student of Donizetti... I die looking up to the sky!".[c] He died in July 1885 at the age of 66 and was buried in the city's Cimitero Chiesa Madre. The street Via Nicola de Giosa which ends at the Teatro Petruzzelli was named in his honour. He is also commemorated with a large statue which stands in the foyer of the Petruzzelli. It had survived the fire which virtually destroyed the original building in 1991.[9][10][11]
Works
Operas
- La casa di tre artisti (opera buffa in 3 acts); libretto by Andrea Passaro; premiered Teatro Nuovo, Naples, 1842[12]
- Elvina (opera semiseria in 3 acts); libretto by Almerindo Spadetta; premiered Teatro Nuovo, Naples, 1845
- Ascanio il gioielliere (opera semiseria in 3 acts); libretto by Giuseppe Sesto Giannini; premiered Teatro d'Angennes, Turin, 1847
- Le due guide (melodramma in 4 acts); libretto by Marco D'Arienzo, premiered Teatro degli Armeni, Livorno, 1848
- Don Checco (opera buffa in 2 acts); libretto by Almerindo Spadetta; premiered Teatro Nuovo, Naples, 1850
- Folco d'Arles (melodramma tragico in 3 acts); libretto by Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 1851
- Guido Colmar (opera seria in 3 acts); libretto by Domenico Bolognese; premiered Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 1852[d]
- Ettore Fieramosca (opera seria in 3 acts); libretto by Domenico Bolognese; premiered Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 1855
- Un geloso e la sua vedova (commedia lirica in 3 acts); libretto by Ernesto Del Preite, premiered Teatro Nuovo, Naples, 1857
- Isella la modista (dramma giocoso in 3 acts); libretto by Leopoldo Tarantini; premiered Teatro del Fondo, Naples, 1857
- Il bosco di Dafne (dramma cristiano in 3 acts); libretto by Michele Achille Bianchi; premiered Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 1864[e]
- Il pipistrello (operetta comica in 3 acts); libretto by Enrico Golisciani after Desforges; premiered Teatro della Società Filarmonica, Naples, 1875[f]
- Napoli di carnovale (opera buffa in 3 acts); libretto Marco D'Arienzo and Enrico Golisciani; premiered Teatro Nuovo, Naples, 1876
- Il conte di San Romano (dramma lirico in 4 acts); libretto by Enrico Golisciani; premiered Teatro Bellini, Naples, 1878
- Rabagas (opera comica in 4 acts); libretto by Enrico Golisciani after Victorien Sardou; premiered Teatro Argentina, Rome, 1882
Sacred music
Most of De Giosa's sacred music was composed during his time at the San Pietro a Majella conservatory including four masses, three of them messe di gloria, and a
Other vocal
De Giosa composed over 400 art songs and pieces of salon music. Many of these pieces were published in 26 collections of his work—10 in Milan and 16 in Naples. He also wrote several longer pieces of vocal music for specific occasions:[14]
- Una lagrima sulla tomba del Conte Gallenberg (A Tear on the Tomb of Count Gallenberg), prayer for soloist, chorus, and orchestra (1839)
- Inno funebre, funeral hymn (also for Count Gallenberg) for four soloists, chorus and orchestra (1839)
- Cantata for the dedication of the marble bust of Ferdinand II in the Acquaviva delle Fonti Cathedral (1853)[15]
- Cantata celebrating the wedding of Francis, Duke of Calabria and Princess Maria Sofia of Bavaria in Bari (1859)
- Cantata in honour of the patron saint of Acquaviva delle Fonti (1864)
Notes
- ^ Mercadante's chief rival for the position of director was Donizetti who had served as the conservatory's interim director following Zingarelli's death in 1837.[2]
- ^ De Giosa had hoped to conduct the premiere of Verdi's Aida at the Khedivial Opera House in December 1871 and took personal affront when Verdi insisted on sending his own conductor. Verdi wrote in reply to De Giosa in January 1871 "it seems to me that no one can take offense, if the author, when one of his productions is given for the first time, sends a person who has carefully studied the work under the direction of the author himself".[6]
- ^ Original Italian: "Donizetti!... scolaro di Donizetti... muoio additando il cielo!"[7]
- ^ Performed in a revised version under the title Silvia, Teatro San Carlo, 1864.[1]
- ^ Revised version of De Giosas's unperformed opera Elena composed in 1853.[1]
- ^ Originally composed in 1847 as La chauve-souris to a libretto in French by Desforges. It was intended for the Opéra-Comique in Paris but was not performed.[3]
References
- ^ Grove Music Online. Retrieved 27 June 2017 (subscription required for full access).
- Grove Music Online. Retrieved 27 June 2017 (subscription required for full access).
- ^ a b c d Antolini, Bianca Maria (1988). "De Giosa, Nicola". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Vol. 36. Treccani. Online version retrieved 27 June 2017 (in Italian).
- ^ Masutto, Giovanni (1884). I maestri di musica italiani del secolo XIX, 3rd edition, pp. 61–62. G. Cecchini (in Italian)
- ^ Mattioli, Alberto (6 June 2015). "Il Belpaese dei festival, note di viaggio per un viaggio di note". La Stampa. Retrieved 27 June 2017 (in Italian).
- ISBN 1448161908
- ^ a b Giovine, Alfredo (1968). Nicola De Giosa, pp. 17; 24; 29. Archivio delle tradizioni popolari baresi. See also a summary of Giovine's biography from the Centro Studi Baresi (in Italian).
- ISBN 8877422637(in Italian)
- ^ s.n. (15 June 1884). "Nouvelles Diverses". Le Ménestrel, Année 50, No. 29, p. 259 (in French)
- ^ Gervasio, Michele (1931). "Notiziario". Japigia, Vol. 2, p. 127 (in Italian)
- ^ Interesse, Italo (3 May 2016). "I guai di Don Checco divertirono il Re". Quotidiano di Bari. Retrieved 30 June 2017 (in Italian).
- ^ All entires in this list are sourced from Ambìveri (1998) and Lanza (2001).
- ^ Battaglia, Fernando (1997). "Martina Franca". Opera, Vol. 48, pp. 106–108.
- ^ Unless otherwise specified, all works in this section are sourced from Lanza (2001).
- ^ ICCU (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle biblioteche italiane). MSM0091934. Retrieved 2 July 2017 (in Italian)
External links
- Scores by De Giosa at the International Music Score Library Project
- "A Donizettian Life: Nicola De Giosa" and "Il Vedovo Solitario", papers on De Giosa's life and his relationship with Donizetti by Donizetti scholar Alexander Weatherson (in English)