Fioravanti, Valentino

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Fioravanti, Valentino

Fioravanti, Valentino, Italian composer, father of Vincenzo Fioravanti; b. Rome, Sept. 11, 1764; d. Capua, June 16, 1837. He was a pupil of Toscanelli and Jannacconi in Rome, and then of Sala in Naples (1779–81). His first notable success as a composer for the theater came with his opera buffa Gl’inganni fortunati (Naples, 1788). His most enduring score was the opera buffa Le Cantatrici villane (Naples, 1799), which was rev. as Le Virtuose redicole (Venice, Dec. 28, 1801) and performed throughout Europe. The success of Camilla (Lisbon, 1801) garnered for him the directorship of the Teatro San Carlo there (1801–06). In 1816 he was named maestro di cappella at St. Peter’s in Rome, and subsequently wrote much sacred music. In all, he composed 77 operas (1784–1824). While he was at his best in opera buffa, he also wrote serious operas, the most significant being Adelaide e Comingio (Naples, 1817). G. Roberti ed. his autobiographical sketch in Gazzetta musicale di Milano, I (1895).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire