Francesco Bianchi (composer)

Francesco Bianchi

Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi (1752 – 27 November 1810) was an Italian opera composer. Born at Cremona, Lombardy, he studied with Pasquale Cafaro and Niccolò Jommelli, and worked mainly in London, Paris and in all the major Italian operatic centres of Venice, Naples, Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence.

He wrote at least 78 operas of all genres, mainly in the field of the Italian opera, but in the French opera too. These included the drammi per musica (opera seria) Castore e Polluce (Florence 1779), Arbace and Zemira (both Naples, 1781), Alonso e Cora (Venice, 1786), Calto and La morte di Cesare (both Venice, 1788), and Seleuco, re di Siria (Venice, 1791), and the opera giocosa La villanella rapita (Süttör, 1784).

Bianchi committed suicide in Hammersmith, London, in 1810, probably out of family troubles.^[1] He was buried alongside his daughter in the churchyard of the old Kensington Church, now St Mary Abbots, Kensington.^[2]

Works

Operas

• See: List of operas by Francesco Bianchi

Religious compositions

• Domine ad adiuvandum, 2 August 1773, Cremona
• Converte Domine, 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
• Exalta Domine, 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
• Deus noster refugium con Gloria patri, 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
• Abraham et Isaac; Tres pueri hebrai; others

References

Notes

1. Caruselli, Grande enciclopedia, vol. 1, article: "Bianchi, Francesco", p. 157. According to Highfill, Burnim, Langhans's Biographical Dictionary, the loss of his five-year-old sole daughter, occurred on 28 June 1807, was heavy on the musician's heart (article: "Bianchi, Francesco, composer, musician", p. 107)
2. http://issuu.com/stmaryabbots/docs/kpn_autumn_2012

Sources

• "Bianchi, Francesco" by Marita P. McClymonds and Sven Hansell in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 5 January 2010 (subscription required)
• (Italian) Caruselli, Salvatore (ed.), Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica, Longanesi &C. Periodici S.p.A., Roma, vol. 4
• Highfill, Jr., Philip H., Burnim, Kalman A., and Langhans, Edward A., A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800: v. 2, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1973, ISBN 0-8093-0518-6
• Sadie, Stanley (ed), New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Oxford University Press, 1992, vol. 4