Denza, Luigi

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Denza, Luigi

Denza, Luigi , Italian composer; b. Castellammare di Stabia, Feb. 24, 1846; d. London, Jan. 26, 1922. He studied with Serrao and Mercadante at the Naples Cons. Besides the Opéra Wallenstein (Naples, May 13, 1876), which was not especially successful, he wrote about 600 songs (some in Neapolitan dialect), many of which won great popularity. In 1879 he settled in London, where he was appointed prof, of singing at the Royal Academy of Music (1898); was made a Chevalier of the order of the Crown of Italy. His most famous song is Funiculi-Funicula, which was used (under the mis-taken impression that it was a folk song) by Richard Strauss in Aus Italien.—

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire