AMILCARE

PONCHIELLI (1834-1886)  , Italian musical composer, was born near Cremona on the 1st of September 1834 . He studied at the Milan Conservatoire . His first dramatic work, written in collaboration with two other composers, was Il Sindaco Babbeo (1851) . After completing his studies at Milan he returned to Cremona, where his opera I Promessi sposi was produced in 1856 . This was followed by La Savojarda (1861, produced in a revised version as Lina in 1877), Roderigo, re dei Goti (1864), and La Stella del monte (1867) . , A revised version of I Promessi sposi, which was produced. at Milan in 1872, was his first. genuine success . After this came a ballet, Le Due Gemelle (1873), and an opera, I Lituani (1874, produced in a revised version as Alduna in 1884) . Ponchielli reached the zenith of his fame with La Gioconda (1876), written to a libretto founded by Arrigo Boito upon Victor Hugo's tragedy, Angelo, Tyran de Padoue . La Gioconda was followed by II Figliuol prodigo (1880) and Marion Delorme (1885) . Among his less important works are Il Parlatore eterno, a musical farce (1873), and a ballet, Clarina (1893) . In 1881 Ponchielli was made maestro di cappella of Piacenza Cathedral . His music shows the influence of Verdi, but at its best it has a distinct value of its own, and an inexhaustible flow of typically Italian melody .

His fondness for fanciful figures in his accompaniments has been slavishly imitated by

Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and many of their contemporaries . Ponchielli died at Milan on the 17th of January 1886 .