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Ferdinando Fontana (30 January 1850, Milan
Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
 – 10 May 1919. Lugano
Lugano

Lugano is a town in the south of Switzerland, in the Linguistic geography of Switzerland cantons of Switzerland of Ticino, which borders Italy....
) was an Italian
Italian people

The Italian people are a Southern European ethnic group located primarily in Italy and, by virtue of a wide-ranging Italian diaspora, throughout Western Europe, the Americas and Australia....
 journalist, dramatist, and poet. He is best known today for having written the libretti
Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, Musical theater, and ballet....
 of the first two operas by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italians composer whose operas, including La boh?me, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the List of important operas....
 – Le Villi
Le Villi

Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian language libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Alphonse Karr....
  and Edgar
Edgar (opera)

Edgar is an operatic dramma lirico in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, freely based on the Play in verse La Coupe et les l?vres by Alfred de Musset....
.
into a family of artists - both his father Carlo and his brother Roberto were painters - he entered a Barnabite
Barnabites

The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic religious order....
 school at the age of seven and then went on to study at the Collegio Zambelli.






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Ferdinando Fontana (30 January 1850, Milan
Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
 – 10 May 1919. Lugano
Lugano

Lugano is a town in the south of Switzerland, in the Linguistic geography of Switzerland cantons of Switzerland of Ticino, which borders Italy....
) was an Italian
Italian people

The Italian people are a Southern European ethnic group located primarily in Italy and, by virtue of a wide-ranging Italian diaspora, throughout Western Europe, the Americas and Australia....
 journalist, dramatist, and poet. He is best known today for having written the libretti
Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, Musical theater, and ballet....
 of the first two operas by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italians composer whose operas, including La boh?me, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the List of important operas....
 – Le Villi
Le Villi

Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian language libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Alphonse Karr....
  and Edgar
Edgar (opera)

Edgar is an operatic dramma lirico in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, freely based on the Play in verse La Coupe et les l?vres by Alfred de Musset....
.

Biography

Born into a family of artists - both his father Carlo and his brother Roberto were painters - he entered a Barnabite
Barnabites

The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic religious order....
 school at the age of seven and then went on to study at the Collegio Zambelli. He was forced to abandon his studies while still young to provide for himself and his two younger sisters following the death of their mother. During that period, he worked in a series of menial jobs before becoming a copy editor for the Corriere di Milano. This brought him into contact with the world of journalism and literature, which was to become his career.

An exponent of the second Scapigliatura
Scapigliatura

Scapigliatura is the name of the artistic movement which developed in Italy after the period known as Risorgimento, . The name Scapigliatura is the Italian equivalent of the French Boheme and Scapigliati the name given to this group of artists which included poets and writers, musicians, painters and sculptors....
 artistic movement, he was a very versatile writer. Apart from his plays and opera libretti, he wrote poems (in both Italian and Milanese dialect
Milanese

Milanese is the central variety of Western Lombard language spoken in the city of Milan and in its province.In Italian-speaking contexts, Milanese is often generically called a "dialect"....
), travel books, and articles in various Italian newspapers, including Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera is an Italy daily newspaper , published in Milan.It is the most famous Italian national newspaper, and among the oldest, founded on Sunday, March 5 1876 by Eugenio Torelli Viollier....
. From 1878 to 1879 he was the Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
 correspondent for the Gazzetta Piemontese (today La Stampa
La Stampa

La Stampa is one of the best-known and most widely sold Italy daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations....
).

During his time in Milan, Fontana wrote two plays in Milanese dialect, La Pina Madamin and La Statôa del sciôr Incioda. Both had considerable success and starred Edoardo Ferravilla, considered one of the greatest comic actors in Milanese theatre. He wrote numerous libretti, including two for Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti

Alberto Franchetti was an Italy opera composer. A nobleman of independent means, he studied first in Venice, then in Dresden under Felix Draeseke, and finally at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger....
 (Asrael
Asrael

Asrael is a leggenda or opera in four acts by composer Alberto Franchetti and librettist Ferdinando Fontana. The story of the opera, based on German fairy tale and folklore, depicts the conflict between the spirit of evil and the incarnation of Christian love ....
 and Zoroastro) and two for Puccini (Le Villi and Edgar). He also translated several operetta
Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre....
 libretti for performance in Italy, including Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár

Franz Leh?r , known in Hungarian as Leh?r Ferenc, was an Austrian composer of Hungarian people descent, mainly known for his operettas....
's Die lustige Witwe
The Merry Widow

The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austria-Hungary composer Franz Leh?r. The Librettos, Viktor L?on and Leo Stein , based the story — concerning a rich widow, Hanna Glawari, and her attempt to find a husband ? on an 1861 comedy play, L'attach? d'ambassade by Henri Meilhac....
 (The Merry Widow) and Der Graf von Luxemburg
Der Graf von Luxemburg

Der Graf von Luxemburg is an operetta in three acts by Franz Leh?r. The German language libretto was by A. M. Willner, Leo Stein and Robert Bodanzky....
 (The Count of Luxembourg), Oskar Nedbal
Oskar Nedbal

Oskar Nedbal was a Czechs violist, composer, and conducting of european classical music....
's Polenblut (Polish Blood), and Edmund Eysler
Edmund Eysler

Edmund Samuel Eysler , was an Austrian composer....
's Der Frauenfresser (The Woman-Eater).

A committed and passionate socialist
Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
, he took part in the Milanese demonstrations in 1898 which led to the Bava-Beccaris massacre
Bava-Beccaris massacre

The Bava Beccaris massacre, named after the Italian General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris, refers to the repression of widespread riots in Milan in May 1898....
. Because of the repressions which followed, he fled to Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 where he first lived in Montagnola, a small town near Lugano
Lugano

Lugano is a town in the south of Switzerland, in the Linguistic geography of Switzerland cantons of Switzerland of Ticino, which borders Italy....
. He remained in Switzerland until his death, living a modest life, and greatly reducing his literary activities. Ferdinando Fontana died on 10 May 1919 at the age of 69.

Texts set to music

Unless indicated otherwise, the texts were opera libretti.
  • El marchionn di gamb avert, from the poem Lament del Marchionn di gamb avert by Carlo Porta, set to music by Enrico Bernardi (Milan, 14 July 1875)
  • Il conte di Montecristo, completion of a libretto by Emilio Praga, music by Raffaele Dell'Aquila (Milan, 14 June 1876)
  • Maria e Taide, music by Nicolň Massa (August 1876)
  • Il violino del diavolo, music di Agostino Mercuri (Cagliari
    Cagliari

    Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means the castle. It has about 160,000 inhabitants, or about 500,000 including the suburbs : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu Sant'Elena....
    , 12 September 1878)
  • Aldo e Clarenza, music by Nicolň Massa (11 Aprile 1878)
  • La Simona, music by Benedetto Junck (Milan, 1978)
  • Odio, from Victorien Sardou
    Victorien Sardou

    File:Victorien SardouVF.jpgFile:Sardou Grave.JPGVictorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is perhaps best remembered today for the play La Tosca on which Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca is based....
    's play La Haine (Hatred), for Amilcare Ponchielli
    Amilcare Ponchielli

    Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas....
     but never composed (written between 1878 and 1879)
  • Maria Tudor (attributed to Emilio Praga) music by Antônio Carlos Gomes
    Antônio Carlos Gomes

    Ant?nio Carlos Gomes is one of the most distinguished nineteenth century classical composers, being the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe....
     (Milan, 27 March 1879)
  • Il bandito, music by Emilio Ferrari (Casale Monferrato
    Casale Monferrato

    Casale Monferrato is a town in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy, part of the province of Alessandria. It is situated about 60 km east of Turin on the right bank of the Po River, where the river runs at the foot of the Monferrato hills....
    , 5 December 1880)
  • La leggenda d'un rosajo, cantata
    Cantata

    A cantata is a vocal music music composition with an musical instrument accompaniment and often containing more than one movement ....
    , music by Enrico Bertini (1883)
  • Anna e Gualberto, music by Luigi Mapelli (Milan, May 1884)
  • Le Villi
    Le Villi

    Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian language libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Alphonse Karr....
    , music by Giacomo Puccini
    Giacomo Puccini

    Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italians composer whose operas, including La boh?me, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the List of important operas....
     (Milan, 31 May 1884)
  • Il Natale, stories set to music by Giulio Ricordi
    Giulio Ricordi

    Giulio Ricordi was an Italy editing and musician.Ricordi was born in Milan, where he also died.With the nickname Jules Burgmein, Ricordi contributed a very great deal to the prestige of the Casa Ricordi, publishing company of his family....
     under the pseudonum of Jules Burgmein (1884)
  • Il Valdese, music by Giuseppe Ippolito Franchi-Verney (Turin
    Turín

    Tur?n is a municipality in the Ahuachap?n Department Departments of El Salvador of El Salvador....
    , 3 December 1885)
  • Flora mirabilis, music by Spiro Samara (Milan, 16 May 1886)
  • Il bacio, music by Enrico Bertini, never performed (written 1886)
  • Il profeta del Korasan (or Mocanna), music by Guglielmo Zuelli, never performed (written 1886)
  • Notte d'aprile, music by Emilio Ferrari (Milan, 4 February 1887)
  • Colomba, music by Vittorio Radeglia (Milan, 15 June 1887)
  • Annibale, ballo, music by Romualdo Marenco
    Romualdo Marenco

    Romualdo Marenco was an Italian composer primarily noted for ballet music. Marenco started his musical career as a violinist in the Doria Theater in Genoa....
     (1888)
  • Asrael, music by Alberto Franchetti
    Alberto Franchetti

    Alberto Franchetti was an Italy opera composer. A nobleman of independent means, he studied first in Venice, then in Dresden under Felix Draeseke, and finally at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger....
     (Reggio Emilia
    Reggio Emilia

    Reggio Emilia is an affluent city of Northern Italy Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 167,013 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
    , 11 February 1888)
  • Edgar
    EDGAR

    EDGAR, the Electronic Data-Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, performs automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding of submissions by companies and others who are required by law to file forms with the U.S....
    , music by Giacomo Puccini (Milan, 21 April 1889)
  • Zoroastro, music by Alberto Franchetti, never performed (written 1890)
  • Il tempo, dance, music by Riccardo Bonicioli (3 January 1891)
  • Lionella, music by Spiro Samara (Milan, 4 April 1891)
  • Theora, music by Ettore Edoardo Trucco (14 February 1894)
  • Duettin d'amore, written with Gaetano Sbodio, music by Emilio Ferrari, (1895)
  • La forza d'amore, music by Arturo Buzzi-Peccia
    Arturo Buzzi-Peccia

    Arturo Buzzi-Peccia was an Italian singing instructor and song composer whose existence is very poorly documented.He was born in Italy and died in the USA....
     (Turin
    Turín

    Tur?n is a municipality in the Ahuachap?n Department Departments of El Salvador of El Salvador....
    , 6 March 1897)
  • Il signor di Pourceaugnac, based on Moliere
    Moličre

    Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known by his stage name Moli?re, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature....
    's play Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, music by Alberto Franchetti (Milan, 10 April 1897)
  • Mal d'amore, based on Paolo Ferrari's La medicina d'una ragazza malata, music by Angelo Mascheroni (Milan, 30 April 1898)
  • La lampada, music by Ubaldo Pacchierotti (16 December 1899)
  • La notte di Natale, music by Alberto Gentile (29 December 1900)
  • Il calvario, music by Edoardo Bellini (Milan, 25 June 1901)
  • La nereide, music by Ulisse Trovati (14 November 1911)
  • Sandha, music by Felice Lattuada
    Felice Lattuada

    Felice Lattuada was an Italy composer. In his early adulthood he worked as a school teacher and was a self taught amateur composer. That changed when he entered the Milan Conservatory in 1907....
     (Genoa
    Genoa

    Genoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000....
    , 21 February 1924)
  • Maria Petrovna, music by Joăo Gomes de Araújo (composed in 1903 but not performed until January 1929)
  • Elda (written in Switzerland)
  • La Simona, lyric poem based on the Seventh Tale of the Fourth Day in Boccaccio
    Giovanni Boccaccio

    Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italy author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanism and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular....
    's Decameron, music by Benedetto Iunck (date unknown)
  • Inno del Canton Ticino (Anthem
    Anthem

    The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem"....
     of Canton Ticino
    Ticino

    Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost cantons of Switzerland of Switzerland. The written language is Italian language in almost the entire cantons of Switzerland ....
    ) as well as songs and romanzas set to music by various composers, including Nicolň Massa and Francesco Paolo Tosti
    Francesco Paolo Tosti

    Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti was an Italian composer and music teacher....
    . Fontana supplied the poems for three songs by Tosti – "Senza di te!", "Č morto Pulcinella!", and "Nonna,... sorridi?...".


External links

* on Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works, as founder Michael Hart said "To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."....
 (in Italian)