Ettore Panizza (12 August 1875 - 27 December 1967) was an Argentinian conductor and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
, one of the leading conductors of the early 20th century.
A native of
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Panizza studied first with his father, who was a cellist at the Teatro Colón, and later in
MilanMilan in Italy, is the capital of the region of Lombardia and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while the urban area is the fifth largest in the E.U. with an estimated population of 4.3 million...
. He made his debut as assistant conductor at the Rome Opera in 1897.
He was closely associated with
La ScalaLa 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 Theatre of La Scala La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally...
in Milan, the
Royal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal...
in London, the
Metropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager. The music director is James Levine....
in New York, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
Ettore Panizza (12 August 1875 - 27 December 1967) was an Argentinian conductor and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
, one of the leading conductors of the early 20th century.
A native of
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Panizza studied first with his father, who was a cellist at the Teatro Colón, and later in
MilanMilan in Italy, is the capital of the region of Lombardia and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while the urban area is the fifth largest in the E.U. with an estimated population of 4.3 million...
. He made his debut as assistant conductor at the Rome Opera in 1897.
He was closely associated with
La ScalaLa 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 Theatre of La Scala La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally...
in Milan, the
Royal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal...
in London, the
Metropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager. The music director is James Levine....
in New York, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. He also made guest appearances in Vienna, Berlin, etc.
Although not usually credited, he was the first to conduct
PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's
TurandotTurandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text...
with the ending by
Franco AlfanoFranco Alfano was an Italian composer and pianist. Though today best known for completing Puccini's unfinished opera Turandot in 1926, he had considerable success with his own works during his lifetime....
. The world premiere at La Scala on 25 April 1926 was conducted by
Arturo ToscaniniArturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th Centuries, he was renowned for his brilliant intensity, his restless perfectionism, his phenomenal ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, who stopped at the point where Puccini had ceased writing before his death. Panizza conducted the second and later performances of the work as completed by Alfano.
Among the many creations he conducted are
Francesca da RiminiFrancesca da Rimini is an opera in four acts, composed by Riccardo Zandonai, with libretto by Tito Ricordi, , after a play by Gabriele D'Annunzio. It was premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on February 19, 1914, and is still staged occasionally....
by
Riccardo ZandonaiRiccardo Zandonai was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:Zandonai was born in Sacco di Rovereto, then part of Austria-Hungary....
,
SlySly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, based on the Prologue to William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew...
by
Ermanno Wolf-FerrariErmanno Wolf-Ferrari was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as Il segreto di Susanna...
, and
The Island GodThe Island God is a one-act opera by Gian Carlo Menotti with a libretto by the composer. It was first performed on February 20, 1942, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City....
by
Gian Carlo MenottiGian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
. He also conducted many local premieres in London, New York, and Milan such as
KhovanshchinaKhovanshchina is an opera in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The work was written between 1872 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The composer wrote the libretto based on historical sources...
and
La campana sommersaLa campana sommersa is an opera in 4 acts by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. Its libretto is by Claudio Guastalla, based on the play Die versunkene Glocke by German author Gerhart Hauptmann. The opera's premiere was on November 18, 1927 in Hamburg, Germany. Respighi's regular publisher,...
. He worked with singers such as
Alessandro BonciAlessandro Bonci was an Italian lyric tenor known for his association with the bel canto repertoire....
,
Enrico CarusoEnrico Caruso was an Italian tenor who sang to acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and North and South America...
,
Nellie MelbaDame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen Porter Mitchell, was an Australian opera soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century due to the purity of her lyrical voice and the brilliance of her technique. Melba was the first Australian to achieve...
,
Rosa PonselleRosa Ponselle , was an American operatic soprano. She sang mainly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and is generally considered by music critics to have been one of the greatest sopranos of the past 100 years....
,
Ezio PinzaEzio Pinza was an Italian basso opera singer. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. He also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan, and at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden...
, and
Beniamino GigliBeniamino Gigli, was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism of his...
.
Panizza also composed four operas;
Il fidanzato del mare (1897),
Madioevo Latino (1900),
Aurora (1908), his most successful work, and
Bizanzio (1939).
He published his autobiography
Medio Siglo de Vida Musical in 1952. Panizza died in Buenos Aires in 1967.