Franco Leoni
Encyclopedia
Franco Leoni was an Italian opera composer. After training in Milan
, he made most of his career in England, composing for Covent Garden
and West End
theatres. He is best known for the opera L'Oracolo, written for Covent Garden but taken up successfully by the Metropolitan Opera
in New York. In addition to his operas, Leoni wrote several cantata
s and oratorio
s and many ballads and other songs. He also worked as a conductor in London, both in the concert hall and in the theatre.
and studied music at the Milan Conservatory
under Amilcare Ponchielli
and Cesare Dominiceti. His opera Raggio di Luna (Moonbeam) to a libretto by Camillo Zanoni was first performed at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan in June 1890. Two years later, Leoni emigrated to England, which remained his home until 1917. At first he worked for the music publisher Chappell & Co.
, for whom he wrote "charming songs for our most famous vocalists." In 1896, he wrote what he called "a dramatic musical poem", "Sardanapalus", inspired by Byron
's 1821 play of the same name. The work, for soloists, chorus and orchestra, was premiered at the Queen's Hall
and was well reviewed, although reviewers commented on the influence of earlier composers on the score.
In 1897, Leoni's operatic version of Rip van Winkle was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre
. The libretto, based on the story by Washington Irving
, was by William Akerman. The score was through-composed
, with no spoken dialogue, and received qualified praise from critics. One wrote: "Colour of a sort there is in the music, and some dramatic point, but of downright individuality and humour there is little" (The Times
). Another commented, "Mr Leoni's instrumentation is clever, but there is a little too much of it" (Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper
). A third stated, "his music flows on with the alternate suavity, passion and grace characteristic of modern Italian composers" (The Morning Post). A recurrent theme in criticisms of Leoni's music was that it was not strikingly individual: "Mr Leoni's score is throughout melodious, dramatically appropriate, well and picturesquely orchestrated … the composer's chief fault at present is his excellent memory [for] the works of Dvořák, Mascagni, Wagner, Bizet." The opera ran briefly and was taken off after a month. In 1898, Leoni presented another choral work, the cantata
, The Gate of Life, which was premiered by the Royal Choral Society
in March of that year and was then taken up by other choirs. Also in 1898, he took on the role of musical director for a West End
show, conducting the theatre orchestra for the run of "The Topsy-Turvy Hotel" by Victor Roger and Lionel Monckton
. He also took on the conductorship of the newly formed Queen's Hall Choral Society.
In 1901, Leoni wrote the music for an operatic version of Hans Andersen
's children's story, Ib and Little Christina
, to a libretto by Basil Hood
. Styled "A Picture in Three Panels", it opened at the Savoy Theatre
on 14 November 1901 together with Hood's The Willow Pattern
. The Times described it as "an opera of ultra-modern type" and compared it unflatteringly to the work of Arthur Sullivan
, who had died earlier in that year. The Manchester Guardian
later said that "the music, though clever and attractive in many ways, was too realistic and too Southern to reflect the Northern symbolism of Andersen's story, and that its peculiar vein of passion was out of place." The opera ran for 16 performances and closed before the end of November. It was revived in London at Daly's Theatre
from 11 to 13 January 1904, then transferred to the Lyric Theatre
from 19 January to 5 March 1904 for a limited season of 23 matinée performances. The opera is not quite a full length piece and is played in three short scenes.
In the same year, Leoni composed incidental music for James Bernard Fagan's play "The Prayer of the Sword." Later in 1904, Leoni published a song-cycle entitled "Fairy Dreams", which was premiered by four well-known soloists, Suzanne Adams
, Muriel Foster
, Ben Davies
and Kennerley Rumford (the husband of Clara Butt
).
with a kidnapping and two murders within its one hour of music. A later critic said of the work, "Hokum, but any opera that begins with three crashes, a very loud cock-crow, a chorus shouting in fake-Chinese and then launches into a vehement unaccompanied solo … has clearly got something going for it. The one-act piece, which depicts melodramatic events in and around a San Francisco opium den, had a libretto by Camillo Zanoni, based on the play, The Cat and the Cherub, by Chester Bailey Fernald. The London performances, conducted by André Messager
with Antonio Scotti
as the villain, Chim-Fen, were well received: The Observer
wrote of the score, "It is never for an instant dull. … Melody he has at easy command … completely a master of his orchestra. ... His music belongs to no school save that of modernity – with a modern Italian flavour." Nevertheless, L'Oracolo made no more than a modest impact in London and dropped out of Covent Garden's repertory.
In 1908, Leoni turned again to the concert hall. Henry Wood conducted the premiere of The Bells, Leoni's "vocal scena" for baritone
and orchestra, set to Edgar Allan Poe
's poem of the same name. Once more, the reviews praised the skill of the scoring, but found no strong individual personality in the music. Leoni's next opera was Tzigana, to a libretto by E. Moschini, which premiered in Genoa
in February 1910 and also played in Milan and in Hungary. In 1911, Leoni's cantata, Golgotha, depicting the Gospel story of Christ's passion and crucifixion, was premiered in London, with soloists including Gervase Elwes and Clara Butt
. The notices were good, ranging from polite to strongly enthusiastic. The critic of The Observer
praised the work in unequivocal terms, and members of the audience wrote in endorsing his praise.
The last large-scale work that Leoni composed before leaving his English domicile was Francesca da Rimini, a one-act piece based on a play by Francis Marion Crawford
, given in a French version by Marcel Schwob at the Opéra Comique
, Paris, in 1914. It was presented in a double bill with the French première of Falla
's La vida breve. According to The Musical Times
, the Falla work made the greater impact, but Leoni's also achieved a moderate success. In 1917 Leoni left England, and returned to Italy. Thereafter he appears to have shared his time between his native country, France and England. His later operas were Le baruffe chiozzotte, to a libretto based on a play by Carlo Goldoni
(1920), La terra del sogno and Falene, to libretti by C. Linati (1920).
Leoni died in London at the age of eighty-two.
and Frances Alda
performing his songs. Later singers, including Julie Andrews
and Bryn Terfel
, have continued to perform his hunting song (in which the fox escapes), "Tally Ho!"
Of Leoni's operas, only L'Oracolo has retained a foothold in the repertory of major opera houses. Scotti's fondness for the work led the Metropolitan Opera
to stage it from time to time, and he chose it for his farewell appearance in 1933. Thereafter it was rarely performed, but it came to public attention again when the conductor Richard Bonynge
made a complete recording of the piece in 1975–76 starring his wife, Joan Sutherland
, and the veteran Tito Gobbi
as the villain. That LP recording was reissued on CD in 1997. Occasional stage revivals have included those at the Curtis Institute (1949), the Philadelphia Opera (1952) and the Frankfurt Opera, 2009, with another run scheduled for 2011.
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 ,...
, he made most of his career in England, composing for Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
and West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
theatres. He is best known for the opera L'Oracolo, written for Covent Garden but taken up successfully by the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York. In addition to his operas, Leoni wrote several cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s and 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...
s and many ballads and other songs. He also worked as a conductor in London, both in the concert hall and in the theatre.
Early years
Leoni was born in MilanMilan
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 ,...
and studied music at 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,...
under 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 Cesare Dominiceti. His opera Raggio di Luna (Moonbeam) to a libretto by Camillo Zanoni was first performed at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan in June 1890. Two years later, Leoni emigrated to England, which remained his home until 1917. At first he worked for the music publisher Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co.
Chappell & Co. was an English company that published music and manufactured pianos.-History:It was founded in 1810 by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer. Cramer was also a well-known London composer, teacher and pianist...
, for whom he wrote "charming songs for our most famous vocalists." In 1896, he wrote what he called "a dramatic musical poem", "Sardanapalus", inspired by Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
's 1821 play of the same name. The work, for soloists, chorus and orchestra, was premiered at the Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
and was well reviewed, although reviewers commented on the influence of earlier composers on the score.
In 1897, Leoni's operatic version of Rip van Winkle was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
. The libretto, based on the story by Washington Irving
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
, was by William Akerman. The score was through-composed
Through-composed
Through-composed music is relatively continuous, non-sectional, and/or non-repetitive. A song is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each stanza of the lyrics. This is in contrast to strophic form, in which each stanza is set to the same music...
, with no spoken dialogue, and received qualified praise from critics. One wrote: "Colour of a sort there is in the music, and some dramatic point, but of downright individuality and humour there is little" (The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
). Another commented, "Mr Leoni's instrumentation is clever, but there is a little too much of it" (Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper
Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper
-Founding:The paper was launched by Edward Lloyd in 1842 as Lloyd's Illustrated London Newspaper, following the success of his Lloyd's Penny Weekly Miscellany. The new paper was intended as a rival for the Illustrated London News...
). A third stated, "his music flows on with the alternate suavity, passion and grace characteristic of modern Italian composers" (The Morning Post). A recurrent theme in criticisms of Leoni's music was that it was not strikingly individual: "Mr Leoni's score is throughout melodious, dramatically appropriate, well and picturesquely orchestrated … the composer's chief fault at present is his excellent memory [for] the works of Dvořák, Mascagni, Wagner, Bizet." The opera ran briefly and was taken off after a month. In 1898, Leoni presented another choral work, the cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, The Gate of Life, which was premiered by the Royal Choral Society
Royal Choral Society
The Royal Choral Society is an amateur choir, based in London. Formed soon after the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871, the choir gave its first performance as the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society on 8 May 1872 – the choir's first conductor Charles Gounod included the Hallelujah Chorus from...
in March of that year and was then taken up by other choirs. Also in 1898, he took on the role of musical director for a West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
show, conducting the theatre orchestra for the run of "The Topsy-Turvy Hotel" by Victor Roger and Lionel Monckton
Lionel Monckton
Lionel John Alexander Monckton was an English writer and composer of musical theatre. He was Britain's most popular musical theatre composer of the early years of the 20th century.-Early life:...
. He also took on the conductorship of the newly formed Queen's Hall Choral Society.
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
's children's story, Ib and Little Christina
Ib and Little Christina
Ib and Little Christina refers to two theatrical adaptations by Basil Hood of the 1855 fairy tale by Hans Andersen of the same name.The first was a play styled "A Picture in 3 Parts", with incidental music by Arthur Bruhns and was first produced at the Prince of Wales Theatre, opening on 15 May...
, to a libretto by Basil Hood
Basil Hood
Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...
. Styled "A Picture in Three Panels", it opened at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
on 14 November 1901 together with Hood's The Willow Pattern
The Willow Pattern
The Willow Pattern is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Basil Hood and music by Cecil Cook. It was first performed at the Savoy Theatre on 14 November 1901, running for a total of 110 performances. It toured thereafter....
. The Times described it as "an opera of ultra-modern type" and compared it unflatteringly to the work of Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
, who had died earlier in that year. The Manchester Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
later said that "the music, though clever and attractive in many ways, was too realistic and too Southern to reflect the Northern symbolism of Andersen's story, and that its peculiar vein of passion was out of place." The opera ran for 16 performances and closed before the end of November. It was revived in London at Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...
from 11 to 13 January 1904, then transferred to the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
from 19 January to 5 March 1904 for a limited season of 23 matinée performances. The opera is not quite a full length piece and is played in three short scenes.
In the same year, Leoni composed incidental music for James Bernard Fagan's play "The Prayer of the Sword." Later in 1904, Leoni published a song-cycle entitled "Fairy Dreams", which was premiered by four well-known soloists, Suzanne Adams
Suzanne Adams
Suzanne Adams was an American lyric coloratura soprano. Known for her agile and pure voice, Adams first became well known in France before establishing herself as one of the Metropolitan Opera's leading sopranos at the beginning of the twentieth century.-Biography:Adams was born in Cambridge,...
, Muriel Foster
Muriel Foster
Muriel Foster was an English contralto, excelling in oratorio. Grove's Dictionary describes her voice as "one of the most beautiful voices of her time"....
, Ben Davies
Ben Davies
Benjamin or Ben Davies may refer to:*Benjamin Davies , British actor *Ben Davies , Australian rules footballer*Ben Davies , English footballer...
and Kennerley Rumford (the husband of Clara Butt
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
).
Covent Garden and later years
L'Oracolo, premiered at Covent Garden in 1905, is a piece of operatic Grand GuignolGrand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
with a kidnapping and two murders within its one hour of music. A later critic said of the work, "Hokum, but any opera that begins with three crashes, a very loud cock-crow, a chorus shouting in fake-Chinese and then launches into a vehement unaccompanied solo … has clearly got something going for it. The one-act piece, which depicts melodramatic events in and around a San Francisco opium den, had a libretto by Camillo Zanoni, based on the play, The Cat and the Cherub, by Chester Bailey Fernald. The London performances, conducted by André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
with Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti was an Italian baritone. He was a principal artist of the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 33 seasons, but also sang with great success at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Milan's La Scala.-Life:Antonio Scotti was born in Naples, Italy...
as the villain, Chim-Fen, were well received: The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
wrote of the score, "It is never for an instant dull. … Melody he has at easy command … completely a master of his orchestra. ... His music belongs to no school save that of modernity – with a modern Italian flavour." Nevertheless, L'Oracolo made no more than a modest impact in London and dropped out of Covent Garden's repertory.
In 1908, Leoni turned again to the concert hall. Henry Wood conducted the premiere of The Bells, Leoni's "vocal scena" for baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
and orchestra, set to Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's poem of the same name. Once more, the reviews praised the skill of the scoring, but found no strong individual personality in the music. Leoni's next opera was Tzigana, to a libretto by E. Moschini, which premiered 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....
in February 1910 and also played in Milan and in Hungary. In 1911, Leoni's cantata, Golgotha, depicting the Gospel story of Christ's passion and crucifixion, was premiered in London, with soloists including Gervase Elwes and Clara Butt
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
. The notices were good, ranging from polite to strongly enthusiastic. The critic of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
praised the work in unequivocal terms, and members of the audience wrote in endorsing his praise.
The last large-scale work that Leoni composed before leaving his English domicile was Francesca da Rimini, a one-act piece based on a play by Francis Marion Crawford
Francis Marion Crawford
Francis Marion Crawford was an American writer noted for his many novels, especially those set in Italy, and for his classic weird and fantastic stories.-Life:...
, given in a French version by Marcel Schwob at the Opéra Comique
Opera Comique
The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...
, Paris, in 1914. It was presented in a double bill with the French première of Falla
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
's La vida breve. According to The Musical Times
The Musical Times
The Musical Times is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It is currently the oldest such journal that is still publishing in the UK, having been published continuously since 1844. It was published as The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular until...
, the Falla work made the greater impact, but Leoni's also achieved a moderate success. In 1917 Leoni left England, and returned to Italy. Thereafter he appears to have shared his time between his native country, France and England. His later operas were Le baruffe chiozzotte, to a libretto based on a play by Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty...
(1920), La terra del sogno and Falene, to libretti by C. Linati (1920).
Leoni died in London at the age of eighty-two.
Legacy
Little of Leoni's work outlived him. Gramophone recordings survive of his contemporaries Clara ButtClara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
and Frances Alda
Frances Alda
Frances Alda was a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised operatic soprano. She achieved fame during the first three decades of the 20th century due to her outstanding singing voice, fine technique and colourful personality—and frequent onstage partnerships at the New York Metropolitan Opera with the...
performing his songs. Later singers, including Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
and Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner....
, have continued to perform his hunting song (in which the fox escapes), "Tally Ho!"
Of Leoni's operas, only L'Oracolo has retained a foothold in the repertory of major opera houses. Scotti's fondness for the work led the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
to stage it from time to time, and he chose it for his farewell appearance in 1933. Thereafter it was rarely performed, but it came to public attention again when the conductor Richard Bonynge
Richard Bonynge
Richard Alan Bonynge, AO, CBE is an Australian conductor and pianist.Bonynge was born in Sydney and educated at Sydney Boys High School before studying piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for...
made a complete recording of the piece in 1975–76 starring his wife, Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
, and the veteran Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome...
as the villain. That LP recording was reissued on CD in 1997. Occasional stage revivals have included those at the Curtis Institute (1949), the Philadelphia Opera (1952) and the Frankfurt Opera, 2009, with another run scheduled for 2011.