Giovanni Emanuele Bidera (or Bideri) (4 October 1784 – 8 April 1858) was an Italian writer. He is primarily known as the

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

's operas ''

Gemma di Vergy ''Gemma di Vergy'' is an 1834 ''tragedia lirica'' (tragic opera) in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti from a libretto by Giovanni Emanuele Bidera. It is based on the tragedy ''Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux'' ''(Charles VII and His Chief Vassal ...

'' and ''

Marino Faliero Marino Faliero (1274 – 17 April 1355) was the 55th Doge of Venice, appointed on 11 September 1354. He was sometimes referred to simply as Marin Falier (Venetian rather than standard Italian) or Falieri. He was executed for attempting a coup d ...

'', but he also wrote many other librettos for lesser known composers as well as plays, essays, books about Naples, and a treatise on acting. Bidera was born in the small Sicilian town of

Palazzo Adriano Palazzo Adriano ( IPA: , aae, Pallaci, scn, U PalàzzuGasca Queirazza, Giuliano (ed.) (1990). ''Dizionario di toponomastica. Storia e significato dei nomi geografici italiani'', p. 468. UTET. ) is a town and ''comune'' of Arbëresh origin in t ...

and spent most of his career in Naples. In 1850 he retired to Palermo where he died at the age of 73.

Biography

Bidera was born in

, now a commune of Palermo. According to the ''

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' ( en, Biographical Dictionary of the Italians) is a biographical dictionary published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1925 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biograp ...

'', his family were of humble origins. However, according to an 1986 article on Bidera's life and work written by his great-great-grandson, Luciano Villevieille Bideri, the Bideri were a noble

Arbëreshë Arbën/Arbër, from which derived Arbënesh/Arbëresh originally meant all Albanians, until the 18th century. Today it is used for different groups of Albanian origin, including: * Arbër (given name), an Albanian masculine given name * Arbëresh ...

family who later fell on hard times. Bidera was one of the seven children of Baroness Anna Dara and Count Pietro Atanasio Bideri. In his childhood and adolescence, the family owned a large palazzo on the Piazza Beati Paoli in Palermo and another in Palazzo Adriano on the main piazza (now called Piazza Umberto I) as well as numerous houses and land in the town and its surroundings. Because of his father's support for

King Ferdinand IV Ferdinand I (12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825) was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand ...

, the family lost virtually all their holdings when the king was deposed in 1806. Giovanni Emanuele did not share his father's conservative views and support for the

Bourbon Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * A beer produced by Bras ...

rulers of Sicily and Naples which caused considerable friction between them. In 1799 and in the hope of modifying the young man's revolutionary sympathies, his father had sent him to the Eastern Rite seminary in Palermo. However, the seminary brought him into contact with other young men who shared his views and reinforced them. After yet another serious quarrel with his father, he ran away at the age of 18 intending study law at the university in Naples. Unable to make a living there and deeply in debt, he went back to Sicily and worked as an actor and set designer for a traveling theatre troupe. He also began writing plays. During his various peregrinations with the theatre troupe, which also included multiple sojourns in Naples, he met Giacoma Schultz, a Sicilan woman of Swiss origin. They married in 1812 and over the next 20 years had five children. Bidera and his young family settled in Naples in the late 1820s where he published a treatise on acting and found a congenial atmosphere in a musical circle called ''I Trascendentali''. Several of his plays had also been published in Naples and

Felice Romani Giuseppe Felice Romani (31 January 178828 January 1865) was an Italian poet and scholar of literature and mythology who wrote many librettos for the opera composers Donizetti and Bellini. Romani was considered the finest Italian librettist betw ...

encouraged him to try his hand at writing librettos. He provided a new libretto for the 1832 revival in Genoa of

Saverio Mercadante Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond ...

's opera ''Gabriella di Vergy'' and contributed the synopsis for

Salvadore Cammarano Salvadore Cammarano (also Salvatore) (born Naples, 19 March 1801 – died Naples 17 July 1852) was a prolific Italian librettist and playwright perhaps best known for writing the text of ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (1835) for Gaetano Donizetti. For ...

's libretto to Persiani's ''Ines de Castro''. Bidera and Cammarano were subsequently involved in a year-long battle with the Neapolitan censors before the opera finally premiered in 1835. For Donizetti, he provided the complete librettos for ''

'' which premiered in 1834 and ''

'' which premiered the following year. The success of the Donizetti operas led to Bidera being appointed as a house librettist at the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent t ...

where between 1835 and 1838 he wrote the librettos for operas by

Carlo Coccia Carlo Coccia (14 April 1782 – 13 April 1873) was an Italian opera composer. He was known for the genre of opera semiseria. Life and career Coccia was born in Naples, and studied in his native city with Pietro Casella, Fedele Fenaroli, a ...

Giuseppe Lillo Giuseppe Lillo (26 February 1814 - 4 February 1863) was an Italian composer. He is best known for his operas which followed in the same vein of Gioachino Rossini. He also produced works for solo piano, a small amount of sacred music, and some c ...

, and Giuseppe Balducci. After his work at the Teatro San Carlo, he produced the librettos for a number of other operas by now-forgotten composers, but which had performances in Naples, Milan, and Venice. During his time in Naples, he also published ''Il colera in Napoli'', a collection of vignettes from the 1836

cholera epidemic Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. The seventh cholera pandemic is officially a current pandemic and has been ongoing since 1961, according to a World Health Organiz ...

Suspected of involvement in the 1848 uprisings in Naples, Bidera was required by police order to leave the city. Leaving his family behind in Naples, he retired to Palermo in 1850. He opened an acting school there and devoted himself to research in philosophy and linguistics, writing occasional pieces for the Sicilian journals ''L'Armonia'' and ''Il Poligrafo''. In 1854 he published ''Teatro edito ed inedito'', a collection of ten plays, some of which had been previously published. It marked the first time that his surname was given as "Bideri" in his published writings. The book began with a four-line autobiographical poem: Bidera died in Palermo at the age of 73, leaving an unfinished science fiction novel entitled ''Storia ideale di 40 secoli'' (Ideal History of 40 Centuries). Shortly after his death, the composer and writer Marco Marcelliano Marcello wrote in the ''Gazzetta musicale di Milano'':

I will not see him again, that good old man, with a spent cigar stub between his teeth, poor but happy; friend of the young, as I had been in Naples. I spent so many hours of the day, or rather the night, listening to the thoughts on philosophy and poetry which flowed from his lips, burning like the rivers of lava that flowed from his homeland's
Mount Etna Mount Etna, or simply Etna ( it, Etna or ; scn, Muncibbeḍḍu or ; la, Aetna; grc, Αἴτνα and ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina a ...
, and which I have always treasured and still remember!

In the 1870s Bidera's grandson Ferdinando re-published some of Bidera's more obscure works. The first was a bizarre tract written in 1853 on musical and dramatic eurythmy and its relation to the laws of physics. It took the form of a series of letters written by Bidera to a "mademoiselle Sofia". The second, under the title ''Triade'', contained an essay on the philosophy of

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymou ...

, originally published in ''Il Poligrafo'' in 1856 and included others on

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

and

Timaeus of Locri Timaeus of Locri (; grc, Τίμαιος ὁ Λοκρός, Tímaios ho Lokrós; la, Timaeus Locrus) is a character in two of Plato's dialogues, ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias''. In both, he appears as a Ancient G ...

which had appeared in Bidera's ''Quaranta secoli, racconti su le Due Sicilie del Pelasgo Matn-Eer'', originally published in 1849.

Descendants

Bidera and his wife had five children. The eldest was Pietro Atanasio, born in 1813. Bidera continued the family tradition of naming the eldest son after the paternal grandfather despite the fact that he never reconciled with his father and never saw him again after he ran away in 1802. Pietro Atanasio was followed by Amalia (who died at the age of 12), Francesca, Luigi, and Francesco. Pietro Atanasio initially worked as a tax officer for the government of Ferdinand II, but was dismissed from that post around the time his father was exiled from Naples. After that he devoted himself to republishing his father's works and later founded and ran ''La Pubblicità Universale'', a commercial newspaper published in five languages with an associated advertising agency. His son Ferdinando Bideri (1851–1930) founded the famous publishing house, known today as . Francesco (1833–1894) worked in Naples as an artist, sculptor, cameo engraver, and furniture designer. He also played the

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

and served as a music teacher to

Margherita of Savoy Margherita of Savoy (''Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna''; 20 November 1851 – 4 January 1926) was Queen of Italy by marriage to Umberto I. Life Early life Margherita was born to Prince Ferdinand of Savoy, Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabe ...

who wanted to learn the instrument. He published several transcriptions of opera arias for mandolin and piano, including pieces from the two Donizetti operas for which his father had written the librettos.

Works

Opera librettos

*''I promessi sposi'' (melodramma semiserio in 2 acts) composed by Luigi Gervasi, premiered Rome,

Teatro Valle Teatro may refer to: * Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific p ...

, 19 January 1834 *''

'' (tragedia lirica in 2 acts) composed by

, premiered Milan,

Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, 26 December 1834 *''

'' (tragedia lirica in 3 acts) composed by Gaetano Donizetti, premiered Paris, Théâtre-Italien, 12 March 1835 *''Marfa'' (melodramma in 4 acts) composed by

, premiered Naples,

, 13 July 1835 * ''Marco Visconti'' (tragedia lirica in 2 acts) composed by

, premiered Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 7 September 1835 * ''Lara'' (tragedia lirica in 2 acts) composed by Henri de Ruolz-Montchal, premiered Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 22 November 1835 *''Odda di Bernaver'' (opera seria in 2 acts) composed by

, premiered Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 28 February 1837 *''La battaglia di Navarino'' (opera seria in 2 acts) composed by Giuseppe Staffa, premiered Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 25 January 1838 *''I pirati spagnuoli'' (melodramma in 2 acts) composed by

Errico Petrella Errico Petrella (10 December 18137 April 1877) was an Italian opera composer. Life and career Petrella was born at Palermo, capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. A conservative of the Neapolitan school, he was the most successful Italian compose ...

, premiered Naples, Teatro Nuovo, 13 May 1838 *''Bianca Turenga'' (melodramma in 3 acts) composed by Giuseppe Balducci, premiered Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 11 August 1838 *''Le miniere di Freinbergh'' (melodramma in 2 acts) composed by Errico Petrella, premiered Naples, Teatro Nuovo, 16 February 1839 *''Le due epoche ossia l'astuccio d'oro'' (melodramma semiserio in 2 acts) composed by Filippo Falangola, premiered Naples,

Teatro del Fondo The Teatro del Fondo is a theatre in Naples, now known as the Teatro Mercadante. It is located on Piazza del Municipio #1, with the front facing the west side of Castel Nuovo and near the Molo (Dock) Siglio. Together with the Teatro San Carlo, it w ...

, Spring 1839 *''Ricciarda'' (tragedia lirica in 2 acts) composed by Prospero Selli, premiered Naples, Teatro San Carlo, Summer 1839 *''I pirati'' (melodramma eroicomico in 2 acts) composed by

Adelaide Orsola Appignani Adelaide Orsola Appignani (1807 – 30 September 1884) was an Italian singer, conductor, music educator and composer. Life Adelaide Orsola Appignani (also known as Orsola Aspri) was born in Rome. After her widowed mother married the violinist ...

, premiered Rome,

Teatro Alibert The Teatro delle Dame, also known as the Teatro Alibert (its original name), was a theatre in Rome built in 1718 and located on what is now the corner of Via D'Alibert and Via Margutta. In the course of its history it underwent a series of reconstr ...

, 19 March 1843 *''Adolfo di Gerval ossia I montanari scozzesi'' (azione lirica romantica in 3 acts) composed by Aurelio Bruno, premiered Naples, Teatro del Fondo, 20 July 1843 *''Fenicia'' (tragedia lirica in 3 acts) composed by Francesco Chiaromonte, premiered Naples, Teatro del Fondo, 1844 *''Costanza d'Aragona'' (melodramma in 3 acts) composed by Salvatore Sarmiento, premiered Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 12 December 1844 *''Le nozze di Messina'' (tragedia lirica in 4 acts) composed by Francesco Chiaromonte, premiered Venice,

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice beca ...

, 18 March 1852 *''Elena Castriota, o La Saracena'' (tragedia lirica in 3 acts) composed by Andrea Butera, premiered Palermo, Teatro Carolino, 9 February 1854 *''Ericarda di Wargas'' (opera in 4 acts) composed by Mario Michielli, premiered Pisa, Regio Teatro Nuovo 16 April 1881

Plays

*''La divisione de' beni'' (drama in 5 acts), published in 1820 *''I dilettanti comici de' piccoli paesi'' (comedy in 5 acts), published in 1827 and based on his experiences as an actor *''Il castello del principe'' (comedy in 4 acts), published in 1827 *''La tragicomania'' (comedy in 4 acts), published in 1827 *''Corinna al Campidoglio'' (drama in 5 acts), published in 1827 and based on

Madame de Staël Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ...

's novel ''Corinne ou l'Italie'' *''I trovatori fanatici'' (comedy in 4 acts), published in 1827 *''Alessandro re de' Molossi a Pandosia'' (tragedy in 5 acts), published in 1854 *''I sibariti'' (tragedy in 5 acts), published in 1854 *''Il giorno di pesto'' (tragedy in 5 acts), published in 1854 *''Alarico primo re de' Visigoti'' (tragedy in 5 acts), published in 1854

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bidera, Giovanni Emanuele 1784 births 1858 deaths Italian opera librettists 19th-century Italian writers 19th-century male writers Writers from Palermo Italian people of Arbëreshë descent