Riccardo Zandonai

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Riccardo Zandonai (May 28, 1883 – June 5, 1944) was an Italian composer and conductor. He was born in Borgo Sacco near Rovereto, then part of Austria-Hungary. As a young musician, he entered the Pesaro Conservatory in 1899 and finished in 1902, completing a nine-year program in three years. One of his teachers was Pietro Mascagni, who spoke highly of him. Early in his career he wrote the Inno degli studenti trentini, an anthem for irredentist youth in his province. For his graduation he composed an opera, Il ritorno di Odisseo (The Return of Ulysses), based on a Pascoli poem, for soloists, chorus and orchestra. That same year he set another Pascoli poem, Il sogno di Rosetta, to music.

In 1908, at a party in Milan, he was heard by Arrigo Boito, who introduced him to Giulio Ricordi, a leading figure in Italian music publishing. His opera Il grillo del focolare premiered in 1908 in Turin and has been performed occasionally since. Zandonai’s lasting fame, however, comes from the opera Francesca da Rimini, a free adaptation of a D’Annunzio tragedy that expands a line from Dante. It has remained part of the repertoire and has been recorded several times.

Soon after, he married soprano Tarquinia Tarquini, for whom he had written the title role Conchita in the opera Conchita. When World War I began, Zandonai remained patriotic and in 1916 wrote a song, Alla Patria (For the Motherland). His home and belongings in Sacco were confiscated during the war (they were returned afterward).

After Puccini’s death, Zandonai was among several composers considered to complete the last act of Turanda Turandot. Although Toscanini approved the idea, Puccini’s son Tonio vetoed it, and Franco Alfano finished Turandot instead.

In 1935 Zandonai became director of the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, where he revived works by Rossini, such as Il viaggio a Reims and the overture to Maometto secondo. In 1941 he re-orchestrated La gazza ladra, reducing it to three acts. He died in Trebbiantico, Pesaro, in 1944 after gallstone surgery. His last words were spoken in dialect, praising Italy after Rome’s liberation.

(Zandonai’s life and work are also discussed in biographies such as Riccardo Zandonai: A Biography.)