1. Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer and librettist.
18 Facts About Ruggero Leoncavallo
1. 2.
The son of Vincenzo Ruggero Leoncavallo, a police magistrate and judge, Ruggero Leoncavallo was born in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, on 23 April 1857.
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Ruggero Leoncavallo arrived in Egypt shortly after the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II had deposed Khedive Ismail and replaced him as Khedive of Egypt with Ismail's son Tewfik Pasha.
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In Paris, Ruggero Leoncavallo met the singer Berthe Rambaud who became his "preferred student"; they became partners in Paris in 1888 and married in Milan in 1895.
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Increasingly inspired by the French romantics, particularly Alfred de Musset, Ruggero Leoncavallo began work on a symphonic poem based on Musset's poetry entitled La nuit de mai.
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Back in Italy, Ruggero Leoncavallo spent some years teaching and attempting ineffectively to obtain the production of more than one opera, notably Chatterton.
7.
Ruggero Leoncavallo himself conducts the performance or at very least supervises the production.
8.
Two tenor arias from Ruggero Leoncavallo's version are still occasionally performed, especially in Italy.
9.
Ruggero Leoncavallo had a brief success with Zingari, which premiered in Italian in London in 1912, with a long run at the Hippodrome Theatre.
10.
Ruggero Leoncavallo died in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, on 9 August 1919.
11.
Ruggero Leoncavallo's funeral was held two days later, with hundreds in attendance, including fellow composer Pietro Mascagni and longtime rival Giacomo Puccini.
12.
Ruggero Leoncavallo was buried in the Cimitero delle Porte Sante in Florence.
13.
Ruggero Leoncavallo became an honorary citizen of Brissago and owned a lavish summer residence, Villa Myriam, in the town; in 1904 the composer had mentioned in a speech that he would not mind having a resting place in the town's Madonna di Porte cemetery, but it was never a written request in his will.
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Regardless the campaign to move Leoncavallo's remains moved ahead and was granted official approval by Piera Leoncavallo-Grand, the last remaining descendant of the composer; Ruggero Leoncavallo's body was exhumed on 22 September 1989 for transfer to Switzerland.
15.
The Museo Ruggero Leoncavallo was established in 2002 in Brissago to commemorate the composer.
16.
Ruggero Leoncavallo composed songs, most famously "Mattinata", which he wrote for the Gramophone Company with Caruso's unique voice in mind.
17.
On 8 April 1904, Ruggero Leoncavallo accompanied Caruso at the piano as they recorded the song.
18.
Ruggero Leoncavallo wrote the libretti for most of his own operas; after the death in 1918 of Arrigo Boito some ranked Ruggero Leoncavallo as the greatest librettist in Italy.