ALFREDO CATALANI

'Alfredo Catalani' (June 19, 1854 – August 7, 1893), was an Italian operatic composer, best known for the works ''La Wally'' (1892, to a libretto by Luigi Illica, containing Catalani's most famous aria, "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from Act I) and ''Loreley'' (1890). Other operas were less successful, hampered by poor libretti.
Catalani was born in Lucca. He was opposed to the ''verismo'' style becoming popular during the 1880s. His works have largely fallen out of the repertoire, in favor of Massenet and Giacomo Puccini, whose music his work most resembles; the influence of Amilcare Ponchielli can also be detected. Nevertheless ''La Wally'' does enjoy very occasional revivals.
Catalani trained at the Conservatory of Milan under Antonio Bazzini (1818–1887), who became the Conservatory's director and who also guided Puccini. On his early death in 1893 (the result of tuberculosis), Catalani was interred in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan, where Ponchielli and conductor Arturo Toscanini also lie. Toscanini was a strong advocate of Catalani's music.
He died at Milan in 1893.

Contents

Operas

External links

Further reading

Operas

★ ''La falce'' (The Sickle), Milan 19 July 1875

★ ''Elda'', Turin, 31 January 1880, revised as ''Loreley'', Turin, 16 February 1890

★ ''Dejanice'', Milan, 17 March 1883

★ ''Edmea'', Milan, 27 February 1886

★ ''La Wally'', Milan, 20 January 1892

External links

★ Alfredo Catalani

★ Opera Italiana Detailed biography.

Further reading

★ (Alfred Catalani), 1992. ''The Politics of Opera in Turn-Of-The-Century Italy: As Seen Through the Letters of Alfredo Catalani'', Richard M. Berrong, translator. (Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music)