Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio
Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio (c. 1699, Milan – c. 1758, Milan) was an Italian composer, conductor, violinist, and singing teacher who is chiefly known for his operas. His work displays a natural expression and uses figurations similar to that of Antonio Vivaldi.[1]
Life and career
He was born in Milan. The earliest record of Brivio was in a court document indicating his postition as a violinist at the Royal Palace of Milan in 1720. He soon after to become the music director at the Royal Palace's theatre where he remained until October 13, 1732.[2] He later returned to the theater in c.1738 and remained active there through 1742.[3] At the Teatro Ducale his first known opera, Ipermestra, premiered on 6 December 1727.[2] While in Milan he also ran an influential school of singing.[4] Two of his notable pupils were sopranos Giulia Frasi and Caterina Visconti.[5]
Brivio went on to write 5 more operas: L'Olimpiade (premiere 5 March 1737, Teatro Regio di Torino), Artaserse (premiere 2 June 1738, Teatro degli Obizzi di Padova), Merope (premiere 26 December 1738, Teatro Ducale di Milano), and La Germania trionfante in Arminio (premiere 2 May 1739, Teatro Ducale di Milano). His music was also used in three Pasticcio mounted at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, London during the 1740s, Gianguir (premiere 2 November 1742), Mandane (premiere 12 December 1742), and L'incostanza delusa (premiere 9 February 1745). The final stage work to use his music was another pasticcio, L'Olimpiade, which premiered at the Teatro Marsigli-Rossi di Bologna on 10 May 1755.[2]
Besides opera, Brivio produced a small amount of instrumental music. One of his two known violin concertos was included in a well known publication of Italian music by French parliamentarian Pierre Philibert de Blancheton, alongside composers Angelo Maria Scaccia and Carlo Zuccari.[1]
Brivio died in Milan around 1758.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Simon McVeigh and Jehoash Hirshberg (2004). The Italian Solo Concerto, 1700-1760: Rhetorical Strategies and Style History. Boydell & Brewer. p. 262.
- ^ a b c "Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio". amadeusonline. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
- ^ Annamaria Cascetta, Giovanna Zanlonghi (2008). Il teatro a Milano nel Settecento - Volume 1. Vita e pensiero. p. 528.
- ^ Sir George Grove, John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, ed. (1895). Dictionary of Music and Musicians: (A.D. 1450-1889). Theodore Presser. p. 329.
- ^ Johann Adam Hiller (2004). Treatise on Vocal Performance and Ornamentation. Cambridge University Press. p. 184.