– 27 November 1940, Milan

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 ,...

) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 composer. His output of works include 10 operas, a ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

, an oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

, and numerous vocal and chamber works.

Pizzi graduated from the Milan Conservatory

Milan Conservatory

The Milan Conservatory is a college of music which was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year with premises in the cloisters of the Baroque church of Santa Maria della Passione. There were initially 18 boarders,...

 in 1884 where he was a pupil of Antonio Bazzini

Antonio Bazzini

Antonio Joseph Bazzini was an Italian violinist, composer and teacher. As a composer his most enduring work is his chamber music which has earned him a central place in the Italian instrumental renaissance of the 19th century...

 and Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare 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...

 and attended classes with Pietro Mascagni

Pietro Mascagni

Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...

. Shortly after completing his education, he moved to London where he remained for almost 13 years. In 1885 his 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:...

 Lina won the Bonetti Competition. In 1889 his first opera, Guglielmo Ratcliff, won first prize at the Baruzzi Competition. His fourth opera, Gabriella , was commissioned by Adelina Patti

Adelina Patti

Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...

 and she portrayed the title role when the work premiered in Boston in 1893 at the Metropolitan Theatre

Metropolitan Theatre

Metropolitan Theatre is an historic building at 252-272 Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts.The theater was built in 1923 by Blackall,Clapp & Whittemore and was added to the National Historic Register in 1980....

 with the composer in attendance.

Pizzi returned to Italy in 1897 to succeed Antonio Cagnoni

Antonio Cagnoni

Antonio Cagnoni was an Italian composer. Primarily known for his operas, his work is characterized by his use of leitmotifs and moderately dissonant harmonies. In addition to writing music for the stage, he composed a modest amount of sacred music, most notably a Requiem in 1888...

 as the maestro di cappella at the Santa Maria Maggiore

Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo

The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is a church in Bergamo, Northern Italy.-History:The church was founded in 1137 on the site of another church from the 8th century dedicated to St Mary, which had been in turn erected over a Roman temple of the Clemence. The high altar was consecrated in 1185 and...

 in Bergamo

Bergamo

Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...

. He also taught at the Bergamo Conservatory. He returned to London in 1900 where he became a popular composer of vocal pieces. He died in Milan at the age of 79.

Operas

• Lina (1885)
• Guglielmo Ratcliff (1889, Bologna)
• Editha (1890, Milan)
• Viviana (early 1890s, never performed)
• Gabriella (1893, Boston)
• The bric-a-brac-Will (1895, London)
• Ultimo canto (1896, Vienna)
• Rosalba (1899, Turin)
• La vendetta (1906, Cologne)
• Ivania (1926, Bergamo)

Source

• Operisti minori dell'800 italiano By Corrado Ambìveri