Giovanni Ansani (11 February 1744 – 15 July 1826) was an Italian tenor and composer.
In 1770, he was singing at
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
. About 1780 he came to London, where he at once took the first place; but, being of a most quarrelsome temper, he threw up his engagement on account of squabbles with soprano castrato
Francesco Roncaglia. He returned the next year with his wife, Maccherini, who was not successful. He sang at Florence in 1784, at Rome the autumn of the same year, and elsewhere in Italy; and finally retired to Naples at the age of 50, where he devoted himself to teaching singing.
He was a spirited actor, and had a full, finely-toned, and commanding voice. According to
Charles Burney
Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...
, his voice was one of the sweetest yet most powerful tenors he ever heard; to which, according to
Carlo Gervasoni
Carlo Gervasoni (born 4 January 1982) is a former Italian footballer who played as a defender. His career ended in 2011 after a ban from football due to his involvement in the 2011 Italian football match-fixing scandal; the ban is set to end in ...
, he added a very rare truth of intonation, great power of expression, and the most perfect method, both of producing the voice and of vocalisation. His wife had as bad a temper as himself, and they were, therefore, a most inharmonious couple. It is said that, when singing together in Italy, if one were more applauded than the other, the unsuccessful one would hire persons to hiss the more fortunate rival.
Ansani was known also as a composer of duets and trios for soprano and bass, with a
basso continuo
Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...
.
Ernst Ludwig Gerber
Ernst Ludwig Gerber (29 September 1746 in Sondershausen, Germany – 30 June 1819 in Sondershausen) was a German composer, organist, cellist, and author of a famous dictionary of musicians.
His father, Heinrich Nikolaus Gerber (1702–1775), ...
reported that an opera of his composition, called ''La Vendetta di Minos'', was performed at Florence in 1791.
Operatic roles to 1780
*Massimo in ''Ezio'' by
Niccolò Jommelli (
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
, 1768)
*Fenicio in ''Demetrio'' by
Antonio Pampani
Antonio Gaetano Pampani (c. 1705–1775) was a Venetian composer. He was chapel master to the conservatory of the Chiesa dell'Ospedaletto.The Quarterly musical magazine and review: Volume 6 Richard Mackenzie Bacon 1824 "Antonio Gaetano Pam ...
(
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 ...
, 1768)
*Decebalo in ''Eurione'' by
Ferdinando Bertoni
Ferdinando Bertoni (15 August 1725 – 1 December 1813) was an Italian composer and organist.
Early years
He was born in Salò, and began his music studies in Brescia, not far from his birthplace. Around 1740 he went to Bologna, where he studied ...
(
Udine
Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...
, 1770)
*Demofoonte in ''Demofoonte'' by
Giuseppe Sarti
Giuseppe Sarti (also Sardi; baptised 1 December 1729 – 28 July 1802) was an Italian opera composer.
Biography
He was born at Faenza. His date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 1 December 1729. Some earlier sources say he was born o ...
(
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, 1771)
*Dioneo in ''Uranio e Erasitea'' by Giuseppe Colla (
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
, 1773)
*Rodoaldo in ''Ricimero'' by Luigi Borghi (Venice, 1773)
*Tito Vespasiano in ''
La clemenza di Tito
' (''The Clemency of Titus''), K. 621, is an '' opera seria'' in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. It was started after most of ' (''The Magic Flute''), the last of ...
'' by
Josef Mysliveček
Josef Mysliveček (9 March 1737 – 4 February 1781) was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant comp ...
(Venice, 1774)
*Danao in ''Ipermestra'' by
Johann Gottlieb Naumann
Johann Gottlieb Naumann (17 April 1741 – 23 October 1801) was a German composer, conductor, and Kapellmeister.
Life
Johann Gottlieb Naumann was born in Blasewitz and received his musical training from the teachers at his town school, where he ...
(Venice, 1774)
*Lucio Silla in ''Lucio Silla'' by
Pasquale Anfossi
Pasquale Anfossi (5 April 1727 – February 1797) was an Italian opera composer. Born in Taggia, Liguria, he studied with Niccolò Piccinni and Antonio Sacchini, and worked mainly in London, Venice and Rome.
He wrote more than 80 operas, both ...
(Venice, 1774)
*Alessandro in ''Alessandro nell'Indie'' by Carlo Monza (
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, 1775)
*Medonte in ''Medonte re di Epiro'' by Luigi Alessandri (Milan, 1775)
*Niso in ''Aurora'' by Gaetano Vagnani (
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, 1775)
*Ubaldo in ''Rinaldo'' by Antonio Tozzi (Venice, 1775)
*Creonte in ''Antigona' by Ferdinando Bertoni (
Alessandria, 1775)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by
Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini.
Life
Paisiello was born in T ...
(
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, 1776)
*Lucio Vero in ''Vologeso'' by Giovanni Masi (Rome, 1776)
*Osroa in ''
Adriano in Siria
''Adriano in Siria'' (''Hadrian in Syria'') is a libretto by Italian poet Metastasio first performed, with music by Antonio Caldara, in Vienna in 1732, and turned into an opera by at least 60 other composers during the next century. Metastasio ...
'' by Josef Mysliveček (
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, 1776)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by
Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini.
Life
Paisiello was born in T ...
(Florence, 1776)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by
Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini.
Life
Paisiello was born in T ...
(
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
, 1777)
*Rodoaldo in ''Ricimero'' by
Pietro Guglielmi
Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi (9 December 1728 – 19 November 1804) was an Italian opera composer of the classical period.
Biography
Guglielmi was born into the Guglielmi family of musicians in Massa. His father, Jacopo Guglielmi, was a compo ...
(
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, 1777)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by
Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini.
Life
Paisiello was born in T ...
(Naples, 1777)
*Catone in ''Catone in Utica'' by Bernardino Ottani (Naples, 1777)
*Ariobate in ''Bellerofonte'' by Ignazio Platania (Naples, 1778)
*Agricano in ''
La Calliroe'' by Josef Mysliveček (Naples, 1778)
*Clistene in ''
L'Olimpiade
''L'Olimpiade'' is an opera libretto in three acts by Metastasio originally written for an operatic setting by Antonio Caldara of 1733. Metastasio’s plot vaguely draws upon the narrative of "The Trial of the Suitors" provided from Book 6 of ...
'' by Josef Mysliveček (Naples, 1778)
*Alessandro in ''Il re pastore'' by Ignazio Platania (Naples, 1778)
*Agamennone in ''Ifigenia in Aulide'' by
Vicente Martín y Soler
Anastasio Martín Ignacio Vicente Tadeo Francisco Pellegrin Martín y Soler (2 May 175430 January or 10 February 1806) was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure now, in his own day he was compared favorably with his ...
(Naples, 1779)
*Agricano in ''
La Calliroe'' by Josef Mysliveček (
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
, 1779)
*Cajo Mario in ''Cajo Mario'' (Pisa, 1779)
*Sabino in ''L'Epponina'' by
Giuseppe Giordani
Giuseppe Tommaso Giovanni Giordani (December 19, 1751, Naples – January 4, 1798, Fermo) was an Italian composer, mainly of opera.
Giordani's parents were Domenico Giordani and Anna Maria Tosato. He studied music in Naples with Domenico Cima ...
(Florence, 1779)
*Timante in ''Demofoonte'' by Felice Alessandri (Padua, 1783)
*Cajo Mario in ''Cajo Mario'' by
Domenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa (; 17 December 1749 – 11 January 1801) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan school and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is ''Il matrimonio segreto'' (1792); most of his ...
(Rome, 1780)
*Emirena in ''Tito nelle Gallie'' Pasquale Anfossi (Rome, 1780)
*Lucio Vero in ''Vologeso'' by
Giacomo Rust (Rome, 1780)
*Antigono in ''Antigono'' by Josef Mysliveček (Rome, 1780)
[Source of roles: Sartori 1992–94, singer appendix.]
Notes
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansani, Giovanni
Italian operatic tenors
1744 births
1826 deaths
18th-century Italian male opera singers