Pietro Floridia (before 1932) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO000995

Pietro Floridia (5 May 1860 in

Modica Modica (; scn, Muòrica) is a city and ''comune'' of 54,456 inhabitants in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, southern Italy. The city is situated in the Hyblaean Mountains. Modica has neolithic origins and it represents the historical capital ...

– 16 August 1932 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) was an Italian composer of classical music. According to David Johnson (quoting the notes, by Luigi della Croce, to the Bongiovanni recording of Floridia's Symphony and other works),Johnson's Fanfare review, in Sources Floridia was born in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, and studied in Naples, where he created his first opera, ''Carlotta Clepier''. He later destroyed the score of this work and entered further studies. He wrote a symphony (his only one) in 1888, taught at the Palermo Conservatory of Music, and wrote operas ''Maruzza'' (produced in Venice in 1894) and ''La Colonia Libera'' with libretto by

Luigi Illica Luigi Illica (9 May 1857 – 16 December 1919) was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini (usually with Giuseppe Giacosa), Pietro Mascagni, Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano, Baron Alberto Franchetti and other important Italian co ...

(produced in Rome in 1899). Floridia moved to the United States in 1904. From this point he made a living by teaching at the Cincinnati College of Music for some years, and then moved to New York City. During this period Floridia wrote and produced several more operas - ''Paoletta'', written for the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition (1910), ''The Scarlet Letter'' at some time during the 1900s, and (written but unproduced) his last opera, ''Malia''. He also wrote incidental music, including to Oscar Wilde's '' A Florentine Tragedy''; his music to this got a hearing in New York in 1917. In 1914 while in New York City, he headed the Italian Symphony Orchestra. Floridia died in Harkness Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in 1932.Pietro Floridia website biography.

Notes

Sources

External links

* * * 1860 births 1932 deaths 19th-century classical composers 20th-century classical composers Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian emigrants to the United States Italian opera composers Male opera composers Italian Romantic composers 20th-century Italian composers People from Modica 20th-century Italian male musicians 19th-century Italian male musicians Musicians from the Province of Ragusa Gennett Records artists {{italy-composer-stub