Ottorino Respighi

Who Is Ottorino Respighi?

Ottorino Respighi is a famous Italian composer and musicologist. He was very good at writing music and was one of the best composers in Italy in the early 20th century. He wrote many different types of music, including operas, ballets, and orchestral suites.

He is also very well known for his three orchestral tone poems, which are called Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals. These three pieces of music are his most famous works and are played all around the world.

Early Life and Background

Ottorino Respighi was born on July 9, 1879.

Career and Claim to Fame

You can find out more about Ottorino Respighi on his official website.

Birthday, Age and Zodiac

Ottorino Respighi was born on July 9, 1879, which makes him 147 years old. His zodiac sign is Cancer. People who are Cancers are often very emotional and caring, they make great friends and are very loyal.

Fun Facts and Legacy

Ottorino Respighi is a very famous composer and musicologist from Italy. He wrote many different types of music and is best known for his three orchestral tone poems. Ottorino Respighi was born on July 9, 1879, and is 147 years old, which is very old. He is a Cancer, which is a very caring zodiac sign.

We can find out more about him on his website and learn about his amazing life and music. Ottorino Respighi is still living on in our hearts through his beautiful music.

Ottorino Respighi - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Ottorino Respighi

Ottorino Respighi ( resp-EE-ghee, rəsp-;; 9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928).

This profile of Ottorino Respighi covers Early Life and Family Background, Life in Bologna, 1890–1913, Life in Rome, 1913–1918, Rise to fame, 1918–1925 and International recognition, 1925–1936.

Respighi was born in Bologna to a musical and artistic family. He was encouraged by his father to pursue music at a young age, and took formal tuition in the violin and piano. In 1891, he enrolled at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, where he studied the violin, viola, and composition, was principal violinist at the Russian Imperial Theatre, and studied briefly with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He relocated to Rome in 1913 to become professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia. During this period he married his pupil, singer Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo. In 1923, Respighi quit his professorship to dedicate time to tour and compose, but continued to teach until 1935. He performed and conducted in various capacities across the United States and South America from 1925 until his death.

In late 1935, while composing his opera Lucrezia, Respighi became ill and was diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis. He died four months later, aged 56. His wife Elsa outlived him for almost 60 years, championing her late husband's works and legacy until her death in 1996. Conductor and composer Salvatore Di Vittorio completed several of Respighi's incomplete and previously unpublished works, including the finished Violin Concerto in A major (1903) which premiered in 2010.

Early Life and Family Background of Ottorino Respighi

Respighi was born on 9 July 1879 at 8 Via Guido Reni, an apartment building to the side of Palazzo Fantuzzi in Bologna. The third and youngest child of Giuseppe and Ersilia (née Putti) Respighi, he had a middle class upbringing with his sister Amelia; his brother Alberto died at age nine. Giuseppe, a postal worker, was an accomplished pianist who studied the instrument with Stefano Golinelli and taught music at the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. Ersilia came from a family of distinguished sculptors. Respighi's paternal grandfather was a violinist and organist at the cathedral in modern day Fidenza. Amelia described Respighi as closed in nature but sincere, sensitive, and generous.

Giuseppe encouraged his son, but to his initial disappointment, Respighi showed little interest in music until he was almost eight. After being taught basic piano and violin from his father Respighi began formal tuition in the latter, but quit abruptly after his teacher hit his hand with a ruler for playing a passage incorrectly. He resumed lessons with a more patient teacher. Respighi's piano skills were a hit-and-miss affair initially, but his father once arrived home to find Respighi confidently reciting the Symphonic Studies by Robert Schumann; he had learned to play the piece in secret. Respighi remained a self-taught pianist and in later life avoided scales in his compositions due to his inability to play them correctly. Nonetheless he quickly took to other instruments; for example, he taught himself the harp in the course of several days.

In 1891, the family relocated to 2 Via de' Castagnoli where Respighi could have his own studio. In his seclusion he collected books and began a lifelong interest in geography, science, and languages. Respighi became fluent, and read literature in eleven languages in his adult life. His wife recalled the composer's meeting with Albert Einstein in Berlin, who was impressed with Respighi's understanding of his scientific theories.

Life in Bologna, 1890–1913 of Ottorino Respighi

In October 1890, Respighi began two years of schooling at the Ginnasio Guinizelli. He enrolled at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna in the following year, studying the violin and viola with Federico Sarti and organ, counterpoint, and fugue with Cesare Dall'Olio. Among Respighi's earliest completed and dated compositions at this time were the Piccola ouverture and Preludio for small orchestra. Four years into his course, Respighi began classes in composition and music history, firstly with Liceo director Giuseppe Martucci and then Luigi Torchi. Martucci, a proponent of Bologna's musical life and composer of non-operatic Italian music, became an influential figure for the young Respighi. In June 1899, he received his diploma in the playing of the violin, performing Le Streghe by Niccolò Paganini in his exam. Not long after Respighi joined the orchestra at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and played the violin for several seasons.

In the winter of 1900, Respighi accepted the role of principal violist in the orchestra of the Russian Imperial Theatre in Saint Petersburg during its opera season. During this time he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a composer Respighi greatly admired, who gave him valuable and influential lessons in orchestration and composition across five months. Further lessons were arranged when Respighi returned to Russia in the winter of 1902 for another series of performances. Respighi finalised his studies at the Liceo Musicale with an advanced course in composition, for which he completed his Preludio, corale e fuga, written under Rimsky-Korsakov's guidance. Performed as part of his final exam in June 1901, the piece was a resounding success. Upon awarding the diploma, Martucci said: "Respighi is not a pupil, Respighi is a master."

In 1902, Respighi travelled to Berlin where he received brief tuition from composer Max Bruch. Despite sources incorrectly stating that he studied with Bruch in 1908, Respighi's wife stated that Respighi in fact did not study with Bruch at all. In 1905, Respighi completed his first opera, the comedy Re Enzo. Between 1903 and 1910, as his local reputation was on the rise, Respighi's principal activities were performing at the Teatro Comunale and as first violinist in composer Bruno Mugellini's touring chamber quintet. He collaborated with various singers, in particular Chiarina Fino-Savio, who performed several of Respighi's songs written for solo voice and piano and set to words by poets Ada Negri and Carlo Zangarini. This included perhaps his most well known, "Nebbie".

In 1906, Respighi completed his first of many transcriptions of pieces by 17th and 18th century composers. His version of "Lamento d'Arianna" by Claudio Monteverdi for voice and orchestra became his first international success when it was performed during his visit to Berlin in 1908. This second stay in Germany lasted for almost a year, after Hungarian soprano Etelka Gerster hired Respighi as an accompanist at her singing school which greatly influenced his subsequent vocal compositions. Respighi met Arthur Nikisch, then conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, who arranged to conduct his Monteverdi transcription in concert with famed singer Julia Culp as soloist. Biographer Michael Webb considered this a milestone in the rediscovery of Monteverdi's output, and the critical success of the performance encouraged Respighi to produce further transcriptions of older works. This included two sonatas for viola d'amore and harpsichord from original music by fellow Bolognese composer Attilio Ariosti.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottorino_Respighi), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.