Francesco Cilea (July 23, 1866 – November 20, 1950) was an Italian composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. Today he is particularly known for his opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s L'arlesiana

L'arlesiana

L'arlesiana is an opera in three acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Leopoldo Marenco. It was originally written in four acts, and was first performed on 27 November 1897 at the Teatro Lirico di Milano in Milan...

and Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...

.

Biography

Born in Palmi

Palmi

Palmi is a comune of about 19.303 inhabitants in the province of Reggio Calabria in Calabria. It is the second largest municipality by population in the province and the seat of the district which includes 33 municipalities with a population of about 170,000 inhabitants.With the nearby beaches of...

 near Reggio Calabria

Reggio Calabria

Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...

, Cilea gave early indication of an aptitude for music when at the age of four he heard a performance of Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

's Norma

Norma (opera)

Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...

and was greatly affected by it. He was sent to study music at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Maiella in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, where he quickly demonstrated his diligence and precocious talent, earning a gold medal from the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (Department of Education).

In 1889, for his final examination at the end of his course of study, he submitted his opera Gina, with a libretto by Enrico Golisciani

Enrico Golisciani

Enrico Golisciani was an Italian author, born in Naples. He is best known for his opera librettos, but also published a slim volume of verses for music, entitled Pagine d'Album ; many more of his poems intended to be set to music were published in the Gazzetta Musicale di Milano.- Selected...

 which was adapted from the old French play Catherine, ou La Croix d'or by Baron Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville

Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville

Baron Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville , pen-name Mélésville, was a French dramatist.-Life:...

 (1787—1865). This melodramma idilico was performed in the college theatre, and it attracted the attention of the publishers Sonzogno, who arranged for a second production, in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, in 1892.

Sonzogno also then commissioned from Cilea La Tilda, a verismo

Verismo

Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....

 opera in three short acts along the lines of Cavalleria rusticana

Cavalleria rusticana

Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...

. With a libretto by Angelo Zanardini, La Tilda had a successful first performance in April 1892 at the Teatro Pagliano in Florence, and after performances in a number of Italian theatres, it arrived at the Vienna Exhibition on 24 September 1892, alongside other works from the firm of Sonzogno. The composer never showed much sympathy for this work, the subject of which he reluctantly agreed to set to music in order to please Sonzogno and to avoid throwing away a rare professional opportunity. The loss of the orchestral score has prevented the modern revival of this work, whose fresh and catchy melodies can nevertheless be discovered in the transcription for voice and piano.

In 1897 (27 November), the Teatro Lirico in 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 ,...

 saw the première of Cilea's third opera L'Arlesiana

L'arlesiana

L'arlesiana is an opera in three acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Leopoldo Marenco. It was originally written in four acts, and was first performed on 27 November 1897 at the Teatro Lirico di Milano in Milan...

, based on the play by Alphonse Daudet

Alphonse Daudet

Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...

, with a libretto by Leopoldo Marenco

Leopoldo Marenco

Leopoldo Marenco was an Italian dramatic poet, now known as a librettist.-Life:His father was Carlo Marenco. Like his father he held a government post under the Treasury Department, one which took him to Sardinia....

. Among the cast was the young Enrico Caruso, who performed with great success the Lamento di Federico: È la solita storia del pastore

È la solita storia del pastore

The "Lamento di Federico", "È la solita storia del pastore", is a famous aria taken from act II of the opera L'arlesiana by Francesco Cilea. It is sung by Federico, who is deeply in love with a girl from Arles, the Arlesiana of the title, but his family has arranged his marriage with Vivetta...

, the romance which was to keep alive the memory of the opera even to the present day. In reality L'Arlesiana was a failure which Cilea, being convinced of the work's value, tried repeatedly to remedy, making drastic and detailed alterations throughout the remainder of his life. In the score which we hear today, it is hard to find a single bar which is completely unchanged from the original. The revised opera was however still not successful, apart from a brief period in the 1930s when it benefited from political support which the composer established through personal contact with Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

.

Again at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, in 1902 (6 November)and again with Enrico Caruso, the composer won an enthusiastic reception for Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...

, a 4-act opera with a libretto by Arturo Colautti

Arturo Colautti

Arturo Colautti was an Italian journalist, polemicist and librettist. He was a strong supporter of Italian irredentism for his native Dalmatia...

, set in 18th century Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and based upon a play by Eugène Scribe

Eugène Scribe

Augustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...

. Adriana Lecouvreur is the opera of Cilea which is best known to international audiences today, and it reveals the spontaneity of a melodic style drawn from the Neapolitan school combined with harmonic and tonal shading influenced by French composers such as Massenet.

As a performer there a number of examples of Cilea's art. At the piano Cilea accompanied (none too elegantly) Caruso in a recording of a part of the duet Non piu nobile and made another recording with the baritone De Luca at the same time (November 1902). In 1904 for the Gramophone (and Typewriter Company) he accompanied the tenor Fernando De Lucia in L'anima ho stanca from Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...

 and in the song Luntananza, an effort which critic Michael Henstock (in his biography of De Lucia) declares is hardly inspired by De Lucia's fine performances. Even given the crude recording techniques of the day Cilea's piano playing (put charitably) seems square and lifeless. (see Henstock).

Cilea's last opera, premièred at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

 in Milan on 15 April 1907 under the baton of Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...

, was the 3-act tragedy Gloria, again with a libretto by Colautti, based on a play by Victorien Sardou

Victorien Sardou

Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...

. The opera was withdrawn after only two performances; and the failure of this work, even though the composer attempted a later revision, was enough to drive him to abandon the operatic stage for good. There are however indications of some later unfulfilled operatic projects, which survive as parts or sketches of libretti, such as Il ritorno dell'amore by Renato Simoni

Renato Simoni

Renato Simoni was an Italian journalist, playwright, writer and theatrical critic noted for his collaboration work with Giuseppe Adami for Giacomo Puccini's Turandot....

, Malena by Ettore Moschino, and La rosa di Pompei, also by Moschino (dated "Naples, 20 May 1924"). Some sources also refer to an opera of 1909, completed but never performed, called Il matrimonio selvaggio, but no copy of this survives and Cilea himself made no mention of it in his volumes of memoirs ("Ricordi").

Nevertheless he continued to compose chamber music, and some orchestral music. In 1913 he produced a symphonic poem

Symphonic poem

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...

 in honour of Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

 with verses by Sem Benelli

Sem Benelli

Sem Benelli was an Italian playwright and librettist who provided the texts for several noted Italian operas, including Italo Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre re and L'incantesimo, and Umberto Giordano's La cena delle beffe. He was a native of Prato....

, which was first performed at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |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....

. After this he devoted himself principally to education and became director of the Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

, and then at his alma mater

Alma mater

Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...

, the Conservatorio San Pietro a Maiella in Naples, where he ended his teaching career in 1936.

In his last years Cilea's eyesight failed but his mind was active enough to encourage and work with singers of the day. Among his last musical activities was his championship of the soprano Magda Olivero

Magda Olivero

Magda Olivero is a soprano of the verismo-school of singing. She was born in Saluzzo, Italy. Olivero made her operatic debut in 1932 on Turin radio in Cattozzo’s oratorio I misteri dolorosi. She performed widely and increasingly successfully until 1941, when she married and retired from performing...

 (1910-), whose performances in the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur he especially admired. Cilea died on 20 November 1950 in Varazze

Varazze

Varazze is a comune in the Province of Savona in the Italian region Liguria, located about 30 km west of Genoa and about 11 km northeast of Savona in the Riviera di Ponente...

, a town near Savona

Savona

Savona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea....

 in Liguria

Liguria

Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...

 which offered him honorary citizenship and where he spent the last years of his life. The Conservatorio di Musica and the Teatro Communale of Reggio Calabria

Reggio Calabria

Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...

 were renamed in his memory, and his native town of Palmi built a mausoleum

Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

 in his memory, decorated with scenes from the myth of Orpheus

Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...

.

Works

Operas

• Gina (February 1889 Teatro Conservatorio S. Pietro alla Majella, Naples).
• La Tilda (7 April 1892 Teatro Pagliano, Florence).
• L'arlesiana
  L'arlesiana
  L'arlesiana is an opera in three acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Leopoldo Marenco. It was originally written in four acts, and was first performed on 27 November 1897 at the Teatro Lirico di Milano in Milan...
  
  (27 November 1897 Teatro Lirico, Milan),
  • first revision (22 October 1898 Milan),
  • second revision (1910),
  • third revision (1937).
• Adriana Lecouvreur
  Adriana Lecouvreur
  Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...
  
  (6 November 1902 Teatro Lirico, Milan).
• Gloria (15 April 1907 Teatro alla Scala, Milan),
  • revision (1932).

Other works

• Foglio d'album, Op. 41
• Gocce di rugiada
• L'arcolaio
• Melodia (F major)
• Symphonic Poem in honour of Giuseppe Verdi
• Romanza (A major)
• Sonata for cello and piano in D major, Op. 38 (1888)
• Waltz in D flat major