Ottorino Respighi

• Born: July 9, 1879
• Birthplace: Bologna, Italy
• Died: April 18, 1936
• Place of death: Rome, Italy

Italian classical composer

The most successful Italian composer of his day, Respighi was noted for his orchestral writing and use of tone color. His compositions ranged from short songs and chamber pieces to lengthy operas, ballets, and orchestral works.

The Life

Born in 1869 to a piano teacher, Ottorino Respighi (aht-toh-REE-nee rehs-PEE-gee) was destined for a musical life. He studied violin and piano as a boy, and from 1891 to 1901 he was a student at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. At the Liceo Musicale, his studies included violin and viola with Federico Sarti and composition with Luigi Torchi. Other famous teachers of Respighi were Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Max Bruch. He met Rimsky-Korsakov in the winters of 1900-1901 and 1902-1903, when he worked as an orchestral violist at the St. Petersburg Imperial Opera. Between 1903 and 1908, Respighi earned his living as an orchestral musician in Bologna, where he began to gain local recognition as a composer. In January of 1913, Respighi accepted a professorship at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He held the post for ten years, after which he was appointed director. Respighi soon resigned from this position because it left him little time to compose. However, Respighi continued to teach advanced composition at the school until 1935.

Toward the end of his life Respighi traveled widely, appearing as guest conductor and piano soloist and often accompanying singers in the performance of his works. His favorite female vocalist was his wife Elsa, whom he married on January 11, 1919. Weakened by a heart condition, Respighi died in 1936.

The Music

Respighi’s musical output includes almost every genre from short vocal works to ballets, chamber music, operas, symphonic poems, and other orchestral works. Although steeped in classical forms and the stylistic tendencies of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Strauss, Respighi’s music does reflect modern orchestration and colors, most likely a result of his study with Rimsky-Korsakov. His most famous compositions are the symphonic poems written after his move to Rome, which was a great center of orchestral writing at the time.

Fontane di Roma. Composed between 1914 and 1916, Fontane di Roma (the fountains of Rome) is a symphonic poem in four sections. Each section of the composition recalls a specific fountain: Vale Giulia at dawn, Tritone at morning, Trevi at noon, and Villa Medici at sunset. Respighi’s music includes rich orchestral writing reminiscent of Maurice Ravel and Strauss, and it presents a pictorial soundscape of each Roman fountain. The work premiered in Rome on March 11, 1917, under the direction of Antonio Guarnieri and had its American debut in New York in 1919. Although it was not an immediate success in Rome, Arturo Toscanini’s performance of the work in Milan led to its international acclaim.

Concerto gregoriano. Written in 1921, the Concerto gregoriano is a clear example of Respighi’s use of musical elements from the past. Allusions to plainchant and modal writing are heard throughout the work, and the second movement features the Easter sequence Victimae paschali. Its first performance in Rome met with little enthusiasm, but violinist Alexander Schmuller’s performance of the work in Amsterdam and several other European cities elicited critical acclaim and audience approval. During World War I, the concerto was destroyed in the bombing of Vienna, where it had been deposited in the warehouses of Universal Edition. The firm has since reprinted the work.

I pini di Roma. Planned as a sequel to Fontane di Roma, I pini di Roma (the pines of Rome) is an orchestral showpiece with similar use of color and rich orchestral writing. Although written in the twentieth century, both works exhibit elements of Romantic orchestration and harmony. Respighi began composition of I pini di Roma in 1923, and the work premiered in Rome in 1924. It, too, comprises four sections: “Villa Borghese,” “A Catacomb,” “Janiculum,” and “Appian Way.” La fiamma. Respighi’s frequently performed large-scale opera, La fiamma (the flame), is set in Ravenna when it was an outpost of the Byzantine Empire. The heroine, Silvana, is unhappy in her marriage and falls in love with her stepson Donello. When she learns that her marriage was brought about by her mother’s witchcraft, she believes that she, too, might have magical powers. Silvana bewitches Donello, and when the pair is found together, her husband Basilio drops dead. Silvana is then tried for witchcraft and murder. Based on Hans Wiers-Jenssen’s play Anne Pedersdotter (1917), the opera premiered in Rome on January 23, 1934. Respighi’s compositional style shows elements of past musical traditions. The opera is often referred to by the Romantic term melodrama, and the orchestral writing is generally subordinate to the Verdian-style vocal writing. However, Respighi does return to his usual compositional practices with the use of archaic and exotic elements that evoke the Byzantine setting.

La campana sommersa.La campana sommersa (the sunken bell) is an opera in four acts after Gerhart Hauptmann’s play Die versunkene Glocke (1900), and it was performed for the first time in Hamburg on November 18, 1927. In Hauptmann’s fantasy-drama, the mortal Enrico attempts to desert his human life after he falls in love with the elf Rautendelein. However, after his wife’s suicide, Enrico is consumed by guilt and rejects Rautendelein. Enrico finds that he cannot live without her, and she returns to comfort him as he dies. Respighi’s use of tone color is particularly significant in this work as he depicts the fantasy world of fairies, Enrico’s magic workshop on the mountain, and the toll of the sunken bell. The orchestral writing in these fantastic settings rivals that of his programmatic compositions.

Musical Legacy

Although Respighi was the most successful Italian composer of his generation, which was due in part to his relationship with Toscanini and other famous conductors, he was by no means the most original or progressive composer of his time. He often composed in the styles of his predecessors, and after the success of Fontane di Roma, he turned to Gregorian chant and arrangements of earlier music. In December of 1932, he signed a manifesto that attacked the prevailing modernist trends in music. Nevertheless, Respighi was an amazing orchestrator and tone poet who broke free of Italian tradition when he composed in genres other than opera. His symphonic poems became part of the standard symphonic repertoire and illustrated Respighi’s gift for creating visual images of the beauty of Rome through sound.

Bibliography

Barrow, Lee G. Ottorino Respighi, 1879-1936: An Annotated Bibliography. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2004. This reference work provides a list and description of all books, articles, and other published references to Respighi. The majority of items are in Italian, but the work does contain a few English-language books and a number of English-language concert reviews. Includes a discography and an index of compositions.

Hess, Nathan Andrew. Eclecticism in the Piano Works of Ottorino Respighi. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 2005. Hess discusses Respighi’s significant solo piano works, his two periods of piano composition, his attraction to the music of the past, and the influence of other composers on his works. Includes musical examples.

Pierluigi, Alverà, and Arturo Rietti. Portraits of Greatness: Respighi. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. New York: Treves, 1986. This short biography contains historical information and illustrations.

Respighi, Elsa. Fifty Years of a Life in Music, 1905-1955. Translated by Giovanni Fontecchio and Roger Johnson. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993. Respighi’s wife provides a biography of her life with Respighi and discusses his travels, his compositions, and his relationships with other musicians. Includes illustrations.

Sachs, Harvey. Music in Fascist Italy. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988. In his discussion of the musical climate in Fascist Italy, Sachs makes numerous references to Respighi and helps the reader understand the environment in which he composed.

Principal Works

ballets (music): La boutique fantasque, 1918 (choreographed by Léonide Massine); Sèvres de la vieille France, 1920 (choreographed by Illeana Leonidova); La pentola magica, 1920 (choreographed by Leonidova); La pirrica, 1920 (choreographed by Leonidova); Fantasia indiana, 1920 (choreographed by Leonidova); Canzoni arabe, 1920 (choreographed by Leonidova); L’autunno, 1920 (choreographed by Leonidova); Fiori di mandorlo, 1920 (choreographed by Leonidova); Belkis, regina di Saba, 1932 (choreographed by Massine).

chamber works:Sei pezzi, 1905; Cinque pezzi, 1906; Violin Sonata in B Minor, 1917.

operas (music): Re Enzo, 1905 (libretto by Alberto Donini); Semirâma, 1910 (libretto by Alessandro Cerè); La bella dormente nel bosco, 1922 (libretto by Gian Bistolfi); Belfagor, 1923 (libretto by Claudio Guastalla); La campana sommersa, 1927 (libretto by Guastalla); Maria egiziaca, 1932 (libretto by Guastalla); La fiamma, 1934 (libretto by Guastalla); Lucrezia, 1937 (libretto by Guastalla); Marie Victoire, 2004 (libretto by Edmond Guiraud).

orchestral works:Burlesca, 1906; Antiche danze et arie per liuto, Suite No. 1, 1917; Fontane di Roma, Suite No. 1, 1917; Adagio don variazioni, 1921; Concerto gregoriano, 1921; Antiche danze et arie per liuto, Suite No. 2, 1923; Fontane di Roma, Suite No. 2, 1924; I pini de Roma, 1924; Poema autunnale, 1925; Vetrate di chiesa, 1926; Fontane di Roma, Suite No. 3, 1928; Gli uccelli, 1928 (The Birds); Antiche danze et arie per liuto, Suite No. 3, 1931; Concerto a cinque, 1933.

piano works: Piano Concerto in A Minor, 1901; Fantasia slava in G Major, 1903; Concerto in modo misolidio, 1925; Toccata, 1928.