Ferdinando Fontana
Encyclopedia
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
journalist, dramatist, and poet. He is best known today for having written the libretti
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in 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 liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
of the first two operas by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
– Le Villi
Le Villi
Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. Karr's story was in turn based in the Central European legend of the Willis, also used in the ballet Giselle...
and Edgar
Edgar (opera)
Edgar is an operatic dramma lirico in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, freely based on the play in verse La Coupe et les lèvres by Alfred de Musset...
.
Biography
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Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
into a family of artists - both his father Carlo and his brother Roberto were painters - he entered a Barnabite
Barnabites
The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic order.-Establishment of the Order :It was founded in 1530 by three Italian noblemen: St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Latin: Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli, abbr. B.) is a Roman Catholic...
school at the age of seven and then went on to study at the Collegio Zambelli. He was forced to abandon his studies while still young to provide for himself and his two younger sisters following the death of their mother. During that period, he worked in a series of menial jobs before becoming a copy editor for the Corriere di Milano. This brought him into contact with the world of journalism and literature, which was to become his career.
An exponent of the second Scapigliatura
Scapigliatura
Scapigliatura is the name of the artistic movement which developed in Italy after the period known as Risorgimento,...
artistic movement, Fontana was a very versatile writer. Apart from his plays and opera libretti, he wrote poems (in both Italian and Milanese dialect
Milanese
Milanese is the central variety of the Western Lombard language spoken in the city and province of Milan....
), travel books, and articles in various Italian newspapers, including Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
. From 1878 to 1879 he was the Berlin correspondent for the Gazzetta Piemontese (today La Stampa
La Stampa
La Stampa is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. The current owner is the Fiat Group.-History:...
).
During his time in Milan, Fontana wrote two plays in Milanese dialect, La Pina Madamin and La Statôa del sciôr Incioda. Both had considerable success and starred Edoardo Ferravilla, considered one of the greatest comic actors in Milanese theatre. He wrote numerous libretti, including two for Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:Alberto Franchetti was born in Turin, a Jewish nobleman of independent means. He studied first in Venice, then in Dresden under Felix Draeseke, and finally at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger. His first major success...
(Asrael
Asrael
Asrael is a leggenda or opera in four acts by composer Alberto Franchetti and librettist Ferdinando Fontana. The plot, based on German fairy tale and folklore, displays the conflict between the spirit of evil and the spirit of Christian love, represented by Asrael and Nefta respectively...
and Zoroastro) and two for Puccini (Le Villi and Edgar). He also translated several operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
libretti for performance in Italy, including Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
's Die lustige Witwe
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
(The Merry Widow) and Der Graf von Luxemburg
Der Graf von Luxemburg
Der Graf von Luxemburg is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár to German libretto by Alfred Willner, Robert Bodanzky, and Leo Stein. It premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, on 12 November 1909 and was an immediate success...
(The Count of Luxembourg), Oskar Nedbal
Oskar Nedbal
Oskar Nedbal was a Czech violist, composer, and conductor of classical music.-Life:Nedbal was born in Tábor, in southern Bohemia. He studied the violin at the Prague Conservatory under Antonín Bennewitz...
's Polenblut (Polish Blood), and Edmund Eysler
Edmund Eysler
Edmund Samuel Eysler , was an Austrian composer.-Biography:Edmund Eysler was born in Vienna to a merchant family...
's Der Frauenfresser (The Woman-Eater).
A committed and passionate socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, he took part in the Milanese demonstrations in 1898 which led to the Bava-Beccaris massacre
Bava-Beccaris massacre
The Bava Beccaris massacre, named after the Italian General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris, refers to the repression of widespread riots in Milan in May 1898....
. Because of the repressions which followed, he fled to Switzerland where he first lived in Montagnola, a small town near Lugano
Lugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...
. He remained in Switzerland until his death, living a modest life, and greatly reducing his literary activities.
Ferdinando Fontana died in Lugano in 1919, at the age of 69.
Texts set to music
Unless indicated otherwise, the texts were opera libretti.- El marchionn di gamb avert, from the poem Lament del Marchionn di gamb avert by Carlo Porta, set to music by Enrico Bernardi (Milan, 14 July 1875)
- Il conte di Montecristo, completion of a libretto by Emilio Praga, music by Raffaele Dell'Aquila (Milan, 14 June 1876)
- Maria e Taide, music by Nicolò Massa (August 1876)
- Il violino del diavolo, music by Agostino Mercuri (CagliariCagliariCagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
, 12 September 1878) - Aldo e Clarenza, music by Nicolò Massa (11 Aprile 1878)
- La Simona, music by Benedetto JunckBenedetto JunckBenedetto Junck was an Italian composer, the son of an Italian woman and an Alsatian father. Born in Turin, he was trained there for a career in business, and began work in that line in Paris before turning to music. He studied with Alberto Mazzucato and Antonio Bazzini...
(Milan, 1978) - Odio, from Victorien SardouVictorien SardouVictorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
's play La Haine (Hatred), for Amilcare PonchielliAmilcare PonchielliAmilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
but never composed (written between 1878 and 1879) - Maria Tudor (attributed to Emilio Praga) music by Antônio Carlos GomesAntônio Carlos GomesAntônio Carlos Gomes was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe.-Life:He was born in Campinas, Brazil, son of Maestro Manuel José Gomes and Fabiana Maria Jaguari Cardoso....
(Milan, 27 March 1879) - Il bandito, music by Emilio Ferrari (Casale MonferratoCasale MonferratoCasale Monferrato, population 36,058, is a town and comune in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy, part of the province of Alessandria. It is situated about 60 km east of Turin on the right bank of the Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montferrato hills. Beyond the river lies the...
, 5 December 1880) - La leggenda d'un rosajo, cantataCantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, music by Enrico Bertini (1883) - Anna e Gualberto, music by Luigi Mapelli (Milan, May 1884)
- Le VilliLe VilliLe Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. Karr's story was in turn based in the Central European legend of the Willis, also used in the ballet Giselle...
, music by Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
(Milan, 31 May 1884) - Il Natale, stories set to music by Giulio RicordiGiulio RicordiGiulio Ricordi was an Italian editor and musician.-Biography:Ricordi was born in Milan, where he also died....
under the pseudonum of Jules Burgmein (1884) - Il Valdese, music by Giuseppe Ippolito Franchi-Verney (TurinTurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, 3 December 1885) - Flora mirabilis, music by Spiro Samara (Milan, 16 May 1886)
- Il bacio, music by Enrico Bertini, never performed (written 1886)
- Il profeta del Korasan (or Mocanna), music by Guglielmo Zuelli, never performed (written 1886)
- Notte d'aprile, music by Emilio Ferrari (Milan, 4 February 1887)
- Colomba, music by Vittorio Radeglia (Milan, 15 June 1887)
- Annibale, ballo, music by Romualdo MarencoRomualdo MarencoRomualdo Marenco was an Italian composer primarily noted for ballet music. Marenco started his musical career as a violinist in the Doria Theater in Genoa. His first composition was the ballet Garibaldi's Landing in Marsala...
(1888) - Asrael, music by Alberto FranchettiAlberto FranchettiAlberto Franchetti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:Alberto Franchetti was born in Turin, a Jewish nobleman of independent means. He studied first in Venice, then in Dresden under Felix Draeseke, and finally at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger. His first major success...
(Reggio EmiliaReggio EmiliaReggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
, 11 February 1888) - EdgarEdgar (opera)Edgar is an operatic dramma lirico in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, freely based on the play in verse La Coupe et les lèvres by Alfred de Musset...
, music by Giacomo Puccini (Milan, 21 April 1889) - Zoroastro, music by Alberto Franchetti, never performed (written 1890)
- Il tempo, dance, music by Riccardo Bonicioli (3 January 1891)
- Lionella, music by Spiro Samara (Milan, 4 April 1891)
- Theora, music by Ettore Edoardo Trucco (14 February 1894)
- Duettin d'amore, written with Gaetano Sbodio, music by Emilio Ferrari, (1895)
- La forza d'amore, music by Arturo Buzzi-PecciaArturo Buzzi-PecciaArturo Buzzi-Peccia was an Italian singing instructor and song composer whose career is very poorly documented....
(TurinTurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, 6 March 1897) - Il signor di Pourceaugnac, based on MolièreMolièreJean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's play Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, music by Alberto Franchetti (Milan, 10 April 1897) - Mal d'amore, based on Paolo Ferrari's La medicina d'una ragazza malata, music by Angelo MascheroniAngelo MascheroniAngelo Mascheroni was an Italian composer, conductor, and music teacher, brother of the conductor Edoardo Mascheroni. He is most famous for his "Eternamente" for voice and violin, sung by Enrico Caruso; his two-act opera Il mal d'amore, with a libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, was written in 1898...
(Milan, 30 April 1898) - La lampada, music by Ubaldo Pacchierotti (16 December 1899)
- La notte di Natale, music by Alberto Gentile (29 December 1900)
- Il calvario, music by Edoardo Bellini (Milan, 25 June 1901)
- La nereide, music by Ulisse Trovati (14 November 1911)
- Sandha, music by Felice LattuadaFelice LattuadaFelice Lattuada was an Italian composer.Lattuada was born at Caselle di Morimondo, near Milan. In his early adulthood he worked as a school teacher and was a self-taught amateur composer. That changed when he entered the Milan Conservatory in 1907. He studied composition there under V. Ferroni for...
(GenoaGenoaGenoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, 21 February 1924) - Maria Petrovna, music by João Gomes de Araújo (composed in 1903 but not performed until January 1929)
- Elda (written in Switzerland)
- La Simona, lyric poem based on the Seventh Tale of the Fourth Day in BoccaccioGiovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
's Decameron, music by Benedetto JunckBenedetto JunckBenedetto Junck was an Italian composer, the son of an Italian woman and an Alsatian father. Born in Turin, he was trained there for a career in business, and began work in that line in Paris before turning to music. He studied with Alberto Mazzucato and Antonio Bazzini...
(date unknown) - Inno del Canton Ticino (AnthemAnthemThe term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
of Canton TicinoTicinoCanton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
) as well as songs and romanzaRomanza-Commercial performance:First in Europe, then charts around the world, the album amassed a multitude of platinum and multi-platinum awards, outselling even Bocelli's 1995 album, Bocelli, with worldwide sales in excess of 20 million copies to date....
s set to music by various composers, including Nicolò Massa and Francesco Paolo TostiFrancesco Paolo TostiSir Paolo Tosti was an Italian, later British, composer and music teacher.-Life:Francesco Paolo Tosti received most of his music education in his native Ortona, Italy, as well as the conservatory in Naples. Tosti began his music education at the Royal College of San Pietro a Majella at the age of...
. Fontana supplied the poems for three songs by Tosti – "Senza di te!", "È morto Pulcinella!", and "Nonna,... sorridi?...".
External links
(in Italian).-
- Poetry and Stories by Ferdinando Fontana on Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
(in Italian)
- Poetry and Stories by Ferdinando Fontana on Project Gutenberg