Giovacchino Forzano
Encyclopedia
Giovacchino Forzano was an Italian
playwright, librettist, stage director, and film director. A resourceful writer, he produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for Giacomo Puccini
's Suor Angelica
and Gianni Schicchi
.
, in the province of Florence
.
He studied medicine before embarking on a brief career as an operatic baritone
. He then began studying law and, after finishing his diploma, became a freelance journalist, contributing regularly to several of Italy’s major newspapers. In 1914 he met and befriended Giacomo Puccini
who asked him to write the librettos for his Il trittico
, a collection of three one-act operas. Forzano agreed to write the librettos for two of the works, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, but declined Il tabarro
saying that he preferred to create his own plots (Giuseppe Adami
wrote the libretto for Il tabarro). Il trittico premiered at the Metropolitan Opera
on 14 December 1918 to high acclaim. With the success of Il trittico, Forzano was soon approached by other composers to provide librettos, including Alberto Franchetti
, Ruggero Leoncavallo
, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
,
Umberto Giordano
, and Pietro Mascagni
.
In 1920 Forzano became a stage director at La Scala
, serving in the capacity through 1930. During the 1920s he became one of the most successful dramatists of his day. He later became a producer and director of propaganda films for the National Fascist Party
under Benito Mussolini
. In 1957 he published a volume of memoirs, Come li ho conosciuti, which reveal interesting perspectives on the composers with whom he collaborated. He also participated in several filmed documentaries that recall his work on Gianni Schicchi with Puccini.
He died at Rome in 1970.
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...
playwright, librettist, stage director, and film director. A resourceful writer, he produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for 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...
's Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
and Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
.
Biography
Forzano was born in Borgo San LorenzoBorgo San Lorenzo
Borgo San Lorenzo is a comune in the Province of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 20 km northeast of Florence...
, in the province of Florence
Province of Florence
The Province of Florence is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. It has an area of 3,514 sq. km and a population of 933,860 in 44 comuni....
.
He studied medicine before embarking on a brief career as an operatic 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...
. He then began studying law and, after finishing his diploma, became a freelance journalist, contributing regularly to several of Italy’s major newspapers. In 1914 he met and befriended 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...
who asked him to write the librettos for his Il trittico
Il trittico
Il trittico is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini...
, a collection of three one-act operas. Forzano agreed to write the librettos for two of the works, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, but declined Il tabarro
Il tabarro
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
saying that he preferred to create his own plots (Giuseppe Adami
Giuseppe Adami
Giuseppe Adami was an Italian librettist, known for his collaboration with Puccini on La rondine , Il tabarro and Turandot ....
wrote the libretto for Il tabarro). Il trittico premiered at 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...
on 14 December 1918 to high acclaim. With the success of Il trittico, Forzano was soon approached by other composers to provide librettos, including 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...
, Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as Il segreto di Susanna...
,
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
, and 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...
.
In 1920 Forzano became a stage director 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...
, serving in the capacity through 1930. During the 1920s he became one of the most successful dramatists of his day. He later became a producer and director of propaganda films for the National Fascist Party
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
under Benito 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....
. In 1957 he published a volume of memoirs, Come li ho conosciuti, which reveal interesting perspectives on the composers with whom he collaborated. He also participated in several filmed documentaries that recall his work on Gianni Schicchi with Puccini.
He died at Rome in 1970.
Work as a dramatist
Forzano's plays were light-weight, but extremely popular and he was one of the most frequently performed playwrights of the period. The subjects of his plays were many and varied: some were historical with settings as different as early Renaissance Florence or France during the Revolution; others were contemporary, comedies of manners often dealing with issues around societal preconceptions with regard to the role of women or the nature of relationships. As a result of his success in the world of popular theatre, his high-profile directing of a well-received open-air performance of D'Annunzio's La figila di Iorio at the Vittoriale in 1927 and his involvement with the Carro di Tespi, a travelling theatre initiative supported by the Fascist regime, Forzano came to the attention of Benito Mussolini who, in 1929 suggested an artistic collaboration. This eventually resulted in the composition of three plays, the joint authorship of which was never explicitly acknowledged in Italy, but which nonetheless was common knowledge. Although Forzano derived a certain amount of kudos from the association with the Dictator, it does not seem that he received any direct financial benefit, unlike many other cultural figures of the time who received subsidies of various kinds from the fascist authorities. Unfortunately, however, Forzano became associated indissolubly with Mussolini and the regime, both as a result of these plays, the last of which Cesare was first performed in 1939, and on account of the films which Forzano produced and directed during the 1930s, beginning with Camicia nera in 1933, all of which were staunchly supportive of the regime. Following the Fall of Fascism Forzano was never able to free himself from this association and, consequently, never able to capture his former position, either as a dramatist or cultural figure.Opera librettos
- Notte di leggenda (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...
, 1915) - LodolettaLodolettaLodoletta is a dramma lirico or lyric opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni . The libretto is by Giovacchino Forzano, and is based on the novel Two Little Wooden Shoes by Marie Louise de la Ramée, ....
(Pietro MascagniPietro MascagniPietro 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...
, 1917) - Gianni SchicchiGianni SchicchiGianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
(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...
, 1918) - Suor AngelicaSuor AngelicaSuor Angelica is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
(Giacomo Puccini, 1918) - Edipo re (Ruggero LeoncavalloRuggero LeoncavalloRuggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
, 1919) - Il piccolo MaratIl piccolo MaratIl piccolo Marat is a dramma lirico or opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, 1921, from a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano.-Performance history:...
(Pietro Mascagni, 1921) - Glauco (Alberto Franchetti, 1922)
- I Compagnacci (Primo Riccitelli, 1924)
- Gli amanti sposi (Ermanno Wolf-FerrariErmanno Wolf-FerrariErmanno Wolf-Ferrari was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as Il segreto di Susanna...
, 1925) - SlySly (opera)Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, based on the Prologue to William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato (English: Sly, or The Legend...
(Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, 1927) - Il reIl reIl re is a novella or opera in one act and three scenes by composer Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. The opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on 12 January 1929.-Performance history:...
(Umberto GiordanoUmberto GiordanoUmberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
, 1929)