Francesco Bianchi (composer)

Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi (1752 – 27 November 1810) was an Italian opera composer. Born at Cremona, Lombardy, he studied with Pasquale Cafaro and Niccolò Jommelli, and worked mainly in London, Paris and in all the major Italian operatic scenes, Venice, Naples, Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence.

He wrote at least 78 operas of all genres, mainly in the field of the Italian opera, but in the French opera too. These included the drammi per musica (opera seria) Castore e Polluce (Florence 1779), Arbace and Zemira (both Naples, 1781), Alonso e Cora (Venice, 1786), Calto and La morte di Cesare (both Venice, 1788), and Seleuco, re di Siria (Venice, 1791), and the opera giocosa La villanella rapita (Süttör, 1784).

Bianchi committed suicide in Hammersmith, London, in 1810, probably out of family troubles.^[1]

Works

Operas

• See List of operas by Francesco Bianchi

Religious compositions

• Domine ad adiuvandum, 2 August 1773, Cremona
• Converte Domine, 10 May 1979, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
• Exalta Domine, 10 May 1979, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
• Deus noster refugium con Gloria patri, 10 May 1979, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral

References

• "Bianchi, Francesco" by Marita P. McClymonds and Sven Hansell in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 5 January 2010 (subscription required)

Further reading

• (Italian) Caruselli, Salvatore (ed.), Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica, Longanesi &C. Periodici S.p.A., Roma, vol. 4
• Highfill, Jr., Philip H., Burnim, Kalman A., and Langhans, Edward A., A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800: v. 2, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1973, ISBN 0-8093-0518-6
• Sadie, Stanley (ed), New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Oxford University Press, 1992, vol. 4