Bonavia, Ferruccio

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Bonavia, Ferruccio

Bonavia, Ferruccio, Italian-English writer on music and composer; b. Trieste, Feb. 20, 1877; d. London, Feb. 5, 1950. He studied violin in Trieste and Milan, and in 1898 he went to England, where he earned his living as a violinist. He mastered the English language and became music critic of the Manchester Guardian and of the London Daily Telegraph. He publ, a monograph on Verdi (London, 1930; 2nd ed., 1947), miniature biographies of Mozart (1938) and Rossini (1941), and a fanciful book of imaginary conversations, Musicians in Elysium (1949). He composed a Violin Concerto, a String Octet, a String Quartet, and some songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire