Amleto
Music by Franco Faccio · libretto by Arrigo Boito · premiered 1865 · at Opera Carlo Felice Genova
Amleto (English: Hamlet) is an Italian opera in four acts by Franco Faccio set to a libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It premiered on 30 May 1865 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and was revised for a La Scala production given on 12 February 1871. The collaboration and friendship between librettist and composer was to last throughout Faccio's lifetime. In addition (as musicologist William Ashbrook states): "Amleto marks an effort of two prominent members of the Scapigliatura (a late Romantic reform movement in northern Italy in the 1860s and 70s) to renew the tradition of Italian opera." After the La Scala revival in 1871, the opera disappeared for almost 130 years. However, in recent years, copies of the score and libretto have reappeared and conductor Anthony Barrese created a critical edition which was presented in a fully staged version by Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and by Baltimore Concert Opera in concert form in Baltimore, Maryland, in October 2014.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Amleto", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Francesco (Franco) Antonio Faccio (8 March 1840 – 21 July 1891) was an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Verona, he studied music at the Milan Conservatory from 1855 where he was a pupil of Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti and, as scholar William Ashbrook notes, "where he struck up a lifelong friendship with Arrigo Boito, two years his junior" and with whom he was to collaborate in many ways. Initially, he became known as the composer of two operas and, in his years (1871–1889) as music director of the Teatro alla Scala opera house, Faccio became known as a conductor of Verdi's music at La Scala, in different parts of Italy, and abroad.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Franco Faccio", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.