Virgilio Ranzato (May 7, 1882 in

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 ...

– April 20, 1937 in

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

) was an Italian

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 ...

and violinist.Guido Ceriotti -Storia sociale e culturale d'Italia: Lo spettacolo 1987 - Page 276 "Molto numerosa è la produzione del più giovane Virgilio Ranzato (1883-1937), che, insieme al Paese dei campanelli, scrisse, ancora su testo di Lombardo, Cin-Ci-Là (1928), operetta di ambientazione esotica e soffusa d'ingenuo erotismo, ..."

Biography

Ranzato began his career firstly as

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

player on the Conservatory in

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

and

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 ...

. Later he studied

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

as well. Than he worked mostly as

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

player or conductor. From around 1910 he worked mostly as a

, and besides others he wrote an

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 ...

''Campane di guerra'' (1933, Milan), and several

operettas Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

. Ranzato served as concertmaster for the LaScala Orchestra under

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

. He made several recordings on the Pathe label.

Works

* :it:Il paese dei campanelli (Milan, 1923) libretto

Carlo Lombardo Carlo Lombardo dei Baroni Lombardo di San Chirico (Naples, 28 November 1869 – Milan, 19 December 1959) known also under the composer-pseudonyms Léon Bard, Leo Bard, Leblanc and M. Fernandez, was an Italian operetta impresario, comedian, libre ...

* :it:Cin Ci La (Milan, 1925) libretto

References

1883 births 1937 deaths Italian composers Italian male composers 20th-century Italian male musicians {{Italy-composer-stub