Antonio Poggi
Encyclopedia
Antonio Poggi was an Italian opera
tic tenor
who had an active international career from 1827-1848. He is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of operas by Gaetano Donizetti
and Giuseppe Verdi
. He was married to soprano Erminia Frezzolini
from 1841-1846.
, Poggi studied singing
with Andrea Nozzari
and the cello
with Maestro Coticelli. He made his professional opera debut in 1827 at the Paris Opera
as Rodrigo in Gioachino Rossini's La donna del lago
; a performance which was not well received. However, on 27 December 1827 he had a major success at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna
as Peter I of Russia
in Giovanni Pacini
's Il falegname di Livronia. This performance launched a major career for Poggi in Italy's most important opera house
s.
In 1828 Poggi returned to Bologna where he appeared successfully as Emerico in Carlo Coccia
's Clotilde and as Lindoro in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri
. He sang in Bologna again 1832 the city's first hearings of Vincenzo Bellini
's La straniera
(as Arturo) and Saverio Mercadante
's I normanni a Parigi (as Odone). In 1829 he was committed to the Regio Teatro degli Avvalorati in Livorno where he was admired as Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola
. He appeared in Padua in 1832 in the world premiere of Giuseppe Persiani
's Saraceni in Catania. On 9 September 1833 he created the role of Roberto in the first performance of Gaetano Donizetti
's Torquato Tasso
at the Teatro Valle
in Rome.
In 1834 Poggi reached La Scala
where he made his début performance as Elvino in Bellini's La sonnambula
. He remained there through 1836, notably appearing in the premiere of Lauro Rossi
's La casa disabitata and in the roles of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
and as Lord Arturo Talbo in the Italian premiere of Bellini's I puritani
. He was then committed to the Teatro Apollo in Venice in 1836-1837, singing such roles as Don Pedro in Giuseppe Persiani
's Ines de Castro, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor
, and Bellini's Elvino. At that theatre he also performed the role of Ghino Degli Armieri in the first performance of Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei
on 18 February 1837.
From 1835-1840 Poggi appeared periodically at the Theater am Kärntnertor
where he was much admired in the operas of Donizetti. In 1842 he sang at Her Majesty's Theatre
in London. He then performed the role of Oronte in Giuseppe Verdi
's I Lombardi alla prima crociata
in both Venice and Florence in 1843, and both Rome and Milan in 1844. On 15 February 1845 he created the role of Carlo VII
in the world premiere of Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco
with his then wife, Erminia Frezzolini, in the title role. He also appeared at La Scala as Don Ottavio in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's Don Giovanni
and Orombello in Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda
among other roles. His last year of activity in Italy was in Bologna in 1848. Soon after, during a concert tour to Saint Petersburg, Russia, he caught a throat disease which damaged his singing voice and ended his career prematurely. He lived the rest of his life in retirement in Bologna where he died in 1875.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
who had an active international career from 1827-1848. He is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of operas by Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
and Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. He was married to soprano Erminia Frezzolini
Erminia Frezzolini
Erminia Frezzolini was an Italian operatic soprano. Along with Henriette Sontag, she was one of the leading operatic sopranos of her generation. She excelled in the coloratura soprano repertoire, drawing particular acclaim in the bel canto operas of Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini...
from 1841-1846.
Life and career
Born in Castel San Pietro TermeCastel San Pietro Terme
Castel San Pietro Terme is a small city and comune in the province of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, with about 20,600 inhabitants. It is located along the Roman Via Aemilia, at the foot of the Tosco-Emilian Appennines....
, Poggi studied singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
with Andrea Nozzari
Andrea Nozzari
Andrea Nozzari was an Italian tenor.Nozzari was born in Vertova and studied in Bergamo and Rome. He is notable for the principal roles written for him by Gioachino Rossini and mostly premiered in Domenico Barbaia's theatres in Naples...
and the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
with Maestro Coticelli. He made his professional opera debut in 1827 at the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
as Rodrigo in Gioachino Rossini's La donna del lago
La donna del lago
La donna del lago is an opera by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, based on The Lady of the Lake, a poem by Sir Walter Scott.This opera was the first to be based on Scott's romantic works...
; a performance which was not well received. However, on 27 December 1827 he had a major success at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Teatro Comunale di Bologna
The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy, and is one of the most important opera venues in Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season....
as Peter I of Russia
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
in Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas...
's Il falegname di Livronia. This performance launched a major career for Poggi in Italy's most important opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
s.
In 1828 Poggi returned to Bologna where he appeared successfully as Emerico in Carlo Coccia
Carlo Coccia
Carlo Coccia was an Italian opera composer. He was known for the genre of opera semiseria.- Life and career :...
's Clotilde and as Lindoro in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
. He sang in Bologna again 1832 the city's first hearings of Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's La straniera
La straniera
La straniera is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini, from a libretto by Felice Romani, based on L'étrangère by Charles-Victor Prévot, vicomte d'Arlincourt...
(as Arturo) and Saverio Mercadante
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as impressive a number of works as either; and his development of...
's I normanni a Parigi (as Odone). In 1829 he was committed to the Regio Teatro degli Avvalorati in Livorno where he was admired as Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
. He appeared in Padua in 1832 in the world premiere of Giuseppe Persiani
Giuseppe Persiani
Giuseppe Persiani was an Italian opera composer. He wrote his first opera - one of 11 - in 1826 but, after his marriage the soprano Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, who was to become a significant singer in her time, he devoted much of his efforts to supporting her career...
's Saraceni in Catania. On 9 September 1833 he created the role of Roberto in the first performance of Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso (opera)
Torquato Tasso is a melodramma semiseria, or 'semi-serious' opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti and based on the life of the great poet Torquato Tasso. The Italian libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, who used a number of sources for his text, including works by Giovanni Rosini, Goethe,...
at the Teatro Valle
Teatro Valle
The Teatro Valle is a theatre and former opera house in Rome, Italy.Commissioned by the Capranica family, the architect Tommaso Morelli designed the theatre which was built in 1726. It was inaugurated with the staging of the tragedy Matilde by Simon Falconio Pratoli...
in Rome.
In 1834 Poggi reached La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
where he made his début performance as Elvino in Bellini's La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
. He remained there through 1836, notably appearing in the premiere of Lauro Rossi
Lauro Rossi
Lauro Rossi , was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. There is no known connection with Luigi Rossi .Rossi studied in Naples and produced his first opera there...
's La casa disabitata and in the roles of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
and as Lord Arturo Talbo in the Italian premiere of Bellini's I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
. He was then committed to the Teatro Apollo in Venice in 1836-1837, singing such roles as Don Pedro in Giuseppe Persiani
Giuseppe Persiani
Giuseppe Persiani was an Italian opera composer. He wrote his first opera - one of 11 - in 1826 but, after his marriage the soprano Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, who was to become a significant singer in her time, he devoted much of his efforts to supporting her career...
's Ines de Castro, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, and Bellini's Elvino. At that theatre he also performed the role of Ghino Degli Armieri in the first performance of Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei
Pia de' Tolomei
Pia de' Tolomei is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Bartolomeo Sestini's novella, in its turn after Dante's narrative poem The Divine Comedy part 2: Purgatorio...
on 18 February 1837.
From 1835-1840 Poggi appeared periodically at the Theater am Kärntnertor
Theater am Kärntnertor
Theater am Kärntnertor or Kärntnertortheater was a prestigious theatre in Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...
where he was much admired in the operas of Donizetti. In 1842 he sang at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in London. He then performed the role of Oronte in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's I Lombardi alla prima crociata
I Lombardi alla prima crociata
I Lombardi alla prima crociata is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi. Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843...
in both Venice and Florence in 1843, and both Rome and Milan in 1844. On 15 February 1845 he created the role of Carlo VII
Charles VII of France
Charles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
in the world premiere of Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco
Giovanna d'Arco
Giovanna d'Arco is an operatic dramma lirico with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera....
with his then wife, Erminia Frezzolini, in the title role. He also appeared at La Scala as Don Ottavio in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
and Orombello in Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda
Beatrice di Tenda
Beatrice di Tenda is a tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini, from a libretto by Felice Romani, after the play of the same name by Carlo Tedaldi-Fores...
among other roles. His last year of activity in Italy was in Bologna in 1848. Soon after, during a concert tour to Saint Petersburg, Russia, he caught a throat disease which damaged his singing voice and ended his career prematurely. He lived the rest of his life in retirement in Bologna where he died in 1875.