Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi (1752 – 27 November 1810) was an Italian

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. Born in

Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

, he studied with

Pasquale Cafaro Pasquale Cafaro (also known as Caffaro or Cafariello, 8 February 1715 or 1716 – 25 October 1787) was an Italian composer who was particularly known for his operas and the significant amount of sacred music he produced, including oratorios, ...

and

Niccolò Jommelli Niccolò Jommelli (; 10 September 1714 – 25 August 1774) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic reforms including redu ...

, and worked mainly in London, Paris and in all the major Italian operatic centers of Venice, Naples, Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence. He wrote at least 78 operas of all genres, mainly in the field of the

Italian opera Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous ...

, but in the

French opera French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part i ...

too. These included the drammi per musica (

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

) '' Castore e Polluce'' (Florence 1779), '' Arbace'' and '' Zemira'' (both Naples, 1781), '' Alonso e Cora'' (

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, 1786), ''

Calto Calto is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Rovigo in the Italian region Veneto, located about southwest of Venice and about west of Rovigo. Calto borders the following municipalities: Castelmassa, Ceneselli, Salara, Sermide e Felon ...

'' and ''

La morte di Cesare ''La morte di Cesare'' (''The Death of Caesar'') is an ''opera seria'' in three acts by Francesco Bianchi. The libretto was by Gaetano Sertor, after Shakespeare's play ''Julius Caesar''. ''La morte di Cesare'' was one of six texts that Sertor wro ...

'' (both Venice, 1788), and '' Seleuco, re di Siria'' (Venice, 1791), and the opera giocosa '' La villanella rapita'' ( Süttör, 1784). Bianchi committed suicide in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, London, in 1810, probably out of family troubles. He was buried alongside his daughter in the churchyard of the old Kensington Church, now

St Mary Abbots St Mary Abbots is a church located on Kensington High Street and the corner of Kensington Church Street in London W8. The present church structure was built in 1872 to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who combined neo-Gothic and early- ...

, Kensington. His widow published parts of his "theoretical work" in the Quarterly Music Review for 1820/1821.

Private life

Bianchi married Jane Jackson who was a well known singer. She had a continuing career after Bianchi's death, married William Lacy and they performed for seven years at the court of Oudh.

Works

Operas

*See: List of operas by Francesco Bianchi

Religious compositions

* ''Domine ad adiuvandum'', 2 August 1773, Cremona * ''Converte Domine'', 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral * ''Exalta Domine'', 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral * ''Deus noster refugium con Gloria patri'', 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral * ''Abraham et Isaac''; ''Tres pueri hebrai''; others

References

;Notes ;Sources
"Bianchi, Francesco"
by Marita P. McClymonds and Sven Hansell in '' Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online'', accessed 5 January 2010 * Caruselli, Salvatore (ed.), ''Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica'', Longanesi &C. Periodici S.p.A., Roma, vol. 4 * Highfill, Jr., Philip H., Burnim, Kalman A., and Langhans, Edward A., ''A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800: v. 2'', Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1973, *

Sadie, Stanley Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

(ed), ''

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1992, vol. 4

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bianchi, Francesco 1752 births 1810 deaths Suicides in Hammersmith Musicians from Cremona Italian Classical-period composers Italian opera composers Male opera composers Italian male classical composers 19th-century Italian male musicians 1810s suicides