Massarani, Renzo

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Massarani, Renzo

Massarani, Renzo, Italian-born Brazilian composer; b. Mantua, March 26, 1898; d. Rio de Janeiro, March 28, 1975. He studied with Respighi at Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia (diploma, 1921), then was active as music director of Vittorio Podrecca’s puppet theater II Teatro dei Piccoli and as a music critic. He left Fascist Italy and settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1935, becoming a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1945; was active as a music critic. Through the banning of his works during the Mussolini dictatorship, the havoc of World War II, and his own destruction of many scores, much of his output is not extant. His surviving music reveals a composer of considerable talent.

Works

dramatic: opera:Noi due (c. 1921); La Donna nel pozzo (1930); Eliduc (1938; unfinished). operina:Bianco e nero (Rome, 1921); Le nozze di Takiu (Rome, 1927); Gilbetto e Gherminella (Rome, 1929); I dolori della principessa Susina (Rome, 1929). ballet:Guerin detto il meschino (1928); Boe (Bergamo, 1937). orch.: Sinfonietta (1924); Introduzione, tema e 7 variazioni for Small Orch. (1934); II molinaro for Violin and Orch. (1935); Squilli e danze per il 18BL (1937). other: Chamber music; piano pieces; songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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Massarani, Renzo

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