De Giosa, Nicola
De Giosa, Nicola
De Giosa, Nicola , Italian conductor and composer; b. Bari, May 3, 1819; d. there, July 7, 1885. He was a student at the Naples Cons. (1834–41), where his teachers included Zingarelli, Donizetti, and Pietro Raimondi. He began to compose opéras forthwith, most of them first performed in Naples. His most celebrated work was the Opéra buffa Don Checco, which was premiered at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples to extraordi-nary acclaim on July 11, 1850. While he continued to compose mainly comic opéras, he never succeeded in duplicating this success. In 1860 he began to devote most of his time to conducting opéra, and subsequently was engaged in Naples, Venice, Cairo, and in Buenos Aires before returning to Naples in 1876. He resumed composing for the stage and obtained a modest success with his Opéra buffa Napoli di carnevale, which was first performed at the Teatro Nuovo on Dec. 28, 1876. In all, he wrote over 20 opéras. He also composed some orch. pieces and church music, but it is as a composer of songs in a salon style that he remains best known.
—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire