Giuseppe Fioravanti
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Fioravanti was an Italian
opera
singer active during the first half of the 19th century. Although one of the most important and popular basso buffo
s of his generation, there is only a relatively small amount of information available about his life. He had a highly fruitful partnership with the Teatro Nuovo in Naples and is best known today for creating roles in the world premieres of numerous operas by Gaetano Donizetti
.
(1764-1837) and the older brother of opera composer Vincenzo Fioravanti (1799-1877). His exact year of birth is unknown but it is likely that he was born sometime in the 1790s. Not much is known about his musical training, although he probably received some education from his father.
Fioravanti's first known stage appearance was in 1817 at the Teatro del Corso in Bologna
as Masetto in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's Don Giovanni
. He repeated that role for his debut at the Teatro della Pergola
in Florence
a year later. In 1818 he was committed to the Teatro San Luca in Venice
where he sang Brunone in the world premiere of Gaetano Donizetti
's Enrico di Borgogna
; notably that composer's first opera to be staged. He sang in several performances at La Scala
in 1819-1820, notably portraying Capellio in the world premiere of Gioachino Rossini's Bianca e Falliero
(1819), Robert Bruce in the premiere of Giovanni Pacini
's Vallace, o L'eroe scozzese (1820), and a part in the premiere of Michele Carafa
's I due Figaro (1820). In 1821 he appeared at the Teatro Apollo in Rome as Aliprando in the first performance of Rossini's Matilde di Shabran
.
In 1822 Fioravanti joined the roster of principal singers at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples. That house remained his primary home for the remainder of his career. He appeared in several world premieres in operas by Donizetti at that house, including Don Sebastiano Alvarez in La zingara
(1822), Ortenzio in Il fortunato inganno (1823), Claudio di Liverpool in Emilia di Liverpool
(1824), Iwano in Otto mesi in due ore
(1827), and Max in Betly
(1836). In 1825 he sang in the first performance of Saverio Mercadante
's Il signore del villaggio, a revised version of his 1824 opera Il podestà di Burgos. In 1824 he sang in the premiere of his father's opera Ogni eccesso è vizioso and he made his last known appearance at the Teatro Nuovo in the premiere of his brother's opera, Il Pirata, in 1849.
Fioravanti also appeared at the Teatro di San Carlo
in Naples on a number of occasions during his career. At that house he portrayed Blinval in the premiere of Donizetti's I pazzi per progetto
(1830) and Meledor in the premiere of Mercadante 's Zaira (1831) among other roles. His repertoire also included a large number of parts in operas by Julius Benedict
, François-Adrien Boieldieu
, Antonio Cagnoni
, Pacini, Errico Petrella
, and Lauro Rossi
. There are no records of performances by Fioravanti after 1849, leading scholars to believe that he died somewhere around 1850. His two sons, Valentino Fioravanti (1827-79) and Luigi Fioravanti (1829-87), also had successful opera careers as basso buffos.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
opera
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...
singer active during the first half of the 19th century. Although one of the most important and popular basso buffo
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
s of his generation, there is only a relatively small amount of information available about his life. He had a highly fruitful partnership with the Teatro Nuovo in Naples and is best known today for creating roles in the world premieres of numerous 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...
.
Biography
Fioravanti was the son of opera composer Valentino FioravantiValentino Fioravanti
Valentino Fioravanti was a celebrated Italian composer of opera buffas.One of the best opera buffa composers between Domenico Cimarosa and Gioacchino Rossini. He was especially popular in Naples, and was the first in Italy to introduce spoken dialogue in the French manner in his works, sometimes...
(1764-1837) and the older brother of opera composer Vincenzo Fioravanti (1799-1877). His exact year of birth is unknown but it is likely that he was born sometime in the 1790s. Not much is known about his musical training, although he probably received some education from his father.
Fioravanti's first known stage appearance was in 1817 at the Teatro del Corso in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
as Masetto 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...
. He repeated that role for his debut at the Teatro della Pergola
Teatro della Pergola
The Teatro della Pergola is a historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name...
in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
a year later. In 1818 he was committed to the Teatro San Luca in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
where he sang Brunone in the world premiere 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 Enrico di Borgogna
Enrico di Borgogna
Enrico di Borgogna is an opera eroica or "heroic" opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Bartolomeo Merelli , wrote the Italian libretto based on Der Graf von Burgund by August von Kotzebue.Enrico di Borgogna was the third opera composed by Donizetti, but the first to...
; notably that composer's first opera to be staged. He sang in several performances at 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...
in 1819-1820, notably portraying Capellio in the world premiere of Gioachino Rossini's Bianca e Falliero
Bianca e Falliero
Bianca e Falliero, ossia Il consiglio dei tre is a two-act operatic melodramma by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani. The libretto was based on Antoine-Vincent Arnault's play Les Vénitiens, ou Blanche et Montcassin.-Performance history:The opera premiered on December 26,...
(1819), Robert Bruce in the premiere of 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 Vallace, o L'eroe scozzese (1820), and a part in the premiere of Michele Carafa
Michele Carafa
Michele Enrico Carafa di Colobrano was an Italian opera composer. He was born in Naples and studied in Paris with Luigi Cherubini. He was Professor of counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire from 1840 to 1858...
's I due Figaro (1820). In 1821 he appeared at the Teatro Apollo in Rome as Aliprando in the first performance of Rossini's Matilde di Shabran
Matilde di Shabran
Matilde di Shabran , ossia Bellezza, e cuor di ferro , is a melodramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti after François-Benoît Hoffman’s libretto for Méhul’s Euphrosine and J. M. Boutet de Monvel's play Mathilde...
.
In 1822 Fioravanti joined the roster of principal singers at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples. That house remained his primary home for the remainder of his career. He appeared in several world premieres in operas by Donizetti at that house, including Don Sebastiano Alvarez in La zingara
La Zingara
La zingara is an opera semiseria in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, set to a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, after La petite bohémienne by Louis-Charles Caigniez, which was itself derived from a work of August von Kotzebue.It was Donizetti's first opera written for Naples and the first...
(1822), Ortenzio in Il fortunato inganno (1823), Claudio di Liverpool in Emilia di Liverpool
Emilia di Liverpool
Emilia di Liverpool is a dramma semiseria, dramatic opera, in two acts with music by Gaetano Donizetti. Giuseppe Ceccherini wrote the Italian libretto after the anonymous libretto for Vittorio Trento's Emilia di Laverpaut, itself based on Stefano Scatizzi's play of the same name...
(1824), Iwano in Otto mesi in due ore
Otto mesi in due ore
Otto mesi in due ore ossia Gli esiliati in Siberia is an opera in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni....
(1827), and Max in Betly
Betly
Betly is a dramma giocoso in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. The composer wrote the Italian libretto after Eugène Scribe and Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville's libretto for Adolphe Adam's opéra comique Le châlet, in its turn based on Goethe's Singspiel Jery und...
(1836). In 1825 he sang in the first performance of 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 Il signore del villaggio, a revised version of his 1824 opera Il podestà di Burgos. In 1824 he sang in the premiere of his father's opera Ogni eccesso è vizioso and he made his last known appearance at the Teatro Nuovo in the premiere of his brother's opera, Il Pirata, in 1849.
Fioravanti also appeared at the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
in Naples on a number of occasions during his career. At that house he portrayed Blinval in the premiere of Donizetti's I pazzi per progetto
I pazzi per progetto
I Pazzi per progetto is a farce in one act by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni.The autographed score was preserved at the Conservatorio S. Pietro a Majella in Naples. The first performance took place at Teatro del Fondo, Naples on 7 February 1830...
(1830) and Meledor in the premiere of Mercadante 's Zaira (1831) among other roles. His repertoire also included a large number of parts in operas by Julius Benedict
Julius Benedict
Sir Julius Benedict was a German-born composer and conductor, resident in England for most of his career.-Life:...
, François-Adrien Boieldieu
François-Adrien Boïeldieu
François-Adrien Boieldieu was a French composer, mainly of operas, often called "the French Mozart".-Biography:...
, Antonio Cagnoni
Antonio Cagnoni
Antonio Cagnoni was an Italian composer. Primarily known for his operas, his work is characterized by his use of leitmotifs and moderately dissonant harmonies. In addition to writing music for the stage, he composed a modest amount of sacred music, most notably a Requiem in 1888...
, Pacini, Errico Petrella
Errico Petrella
Errico Petrella was an Italian opera composer.Petrella was born at Palermo. A conservative of the Neapolitan school, he was the most successful Italian composer, second only to Verdi, during the 1850s and 1860s. He also earned the latter's scorn for his compositional and dramatic crudities,...
, and 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...
. There are no records of performances by Fioravanti after 1849, leading scholars to believe that he died somewhere around 1850. His two sons, Valentino Fioravanti (1827-79) and Luigi Fioravanti (1829-87), also had successful opera careers as basso buffos.