Valentino Fioravanti (11 September 1764 – 16 June 1837) was a celebrated 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 ...

of ''

opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...

s''. Fioravanti was born in

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 ...

. One of the best ''opera buffa'' composers between

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 ...

and

Gioacchino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...

, he was especially popular in Naples, and was the first in Italy to introduce spoken dialogue in the French manner in his works, sometimes using the Neapolitan dialect. His works included some 70 operas, the most famous being ''Le cantatrici villane'' from 1799. He died, aged 72, in

Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrusc ...

. His eldest son, Giuseppe Fioravanti, was a successful opera singer, and his younger son,

Vincenzo Fioravanti Vincenzo Fioravanti (5 April 1799 – 28 March 1877) was a prolific Italian opera composer active in Naples. He composed 39 operas, of which 34 were performed in his lifetime. Like his father, Valentino Fioravanti, he specialised in the ''opera b ...

(1799–1877), also became a celebrated opera buffa composer, writing 35 stage works. His grandsons, Valentino (1827–79) and Luigi (1829–87), had successful opera careers, both as

basso buffo A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E b ...

Works

The following appear in the extensive list of works by Fiorvanti which appear in Sadie. *''Camilla'' *''Il furbo contr'il furbo'' *''Il fabbro Parigino'' *''I virtuosi ambulanti'' *''I viaggiatori ridicoli'' *''

Le cantatrici villane ''Le cantatrici villane'' (''The Boorish Singers'') is a comic opera (''dramma giocoso'') in two acts composed by Valentino Fioravanti to a libretto by Giuseppe Palomba. It was first performed in Naples in 1799. A revised one act version premier ...

References

*Anderson, James (1993), ''The Complete Dictionary of Opera and Operetta'', Wings Books. *Tartak, Marvin (work list: John Black) (1998), "Fioravanti, Valentino", in

Stanley Sadie 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.), ''

The 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 ...

'', Vol. Two, p. 216. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc.

External links

*
X. Y. Z. , ovvero , Il Riconoscimento , commedia lirica in due atti
1846 publication, Italian, digitized by

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

on archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Fioravanti, Valentino 1764 births 1837 deaths Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian opera composers Male opera composers