Giovanni David

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Giovanni David as Ilo in Rossini's opera Zelmira . Engraving by Leopold Beyer, Kärntnertortheater Vienna 1822

Giovanni David , also Giovanni Davide ( October 15, 1790 in Naples - 1868 in Saint Petersburg ) was an Italian opera singer ( tenor ), best known for his roles in operas by Gioachino Rossini .

Life

Giovanni was the son of the also famous tenor Giacomo David and the soprano Paola Borelli. His father was also his first teacher, and Giovanni made his debut alongside Giacomo in Siena in 1808 in Johann Simon Mayr's Adelaide de Guesclino.

After various engagements in Padua, Brescia, Naples and Turin, he worked at La Scala in Milan in 1814 , where Rossini wrote a role for him for the first time: Don Narciso in Il turco in Italia (premiered on August 14, 1814).

From 1816 Giovanni David worked in Naples, in the royal theaters directed by Domenico Barbaja , where he was part of an ensemble that brought together some of the greatest singers of all time: the prima donna Isabella Colbran , important tenors of a more baritone type, such as Andrea Nozzari and Manuel García , and at times also the famous alto Rosmunda Pisaroni . By 1822 Rossini composed several important and highly virtuoso roles for David, first in 1816 the role of Rodrigo in Otello , as well as Peleo in the “azione coro-drammatica” Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo ; later Ricciardo followed in Ricciardo e Zoraide (1818), Oreste in Ermione (1819), Uberto (Giacomo IV of Scotland) in La donna del lago (1819) and Ilo in Zelmira (1822). Giovanni David usually sang all of these roles at various other theaters, notably at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, and he also excelled in other roles by Rossini that were originally written for other singers, such as Argirio in Tancredi (first in Turin in 1814/1815 ), Leicester in Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra (first in Naples in 1816), Giannetto in La gazza ladra (1819, Naples), Osiride in Mosè in Egitto (first in Vienna in 1825), and Neocle in L'assedio di Corinto (1828 in Genoa).

At the San Carlo David also sang in numerous other operas by composers such as Mayr, Manfroce , the young Mercadante and others. a., and in Carafas Gabriella di Vergy (1816).

David went to Vienna with Rossini in 1822, where he worked at the Kärntnertortheater a . a. appeared in Matilde di Shabran alongside Ester Mombelli and Fanny Eckerlin and also contributed to the composer's success here.

Giovanni David as Agobar in Pacini's Gl 'Arabi nelle Gallie, 1830. Portrait of Francesco Hayez, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera

Back in Italy, Giovanni David performed again at the San Carlo in Naples and at La Scala in Milan between 1826 and 1828. At these houses he created the role of Appio Diomede in L'ultimo giorno di Pompei (premiere on November 19, 1825) for Giovanni Pacini , alongside Adelaide Tosi , Luigi Lablache and Michele Benedetti. The role of Agobar in Pacini's Gli arabi nelle Gallie (premiered March 8, 1827, Milan) was one of his great successes, he sang it in Naples that same year, in Rome in 1828, and from 1830 in Ancona, Trieste, Bergamo, Genoa and last in Modena in 1835, and was even painted as an agobar by Francesco Hayez (portrait in the Pinacoteca di Brera , Milan; see next door).

David also sang the first Fernando in the revised version of Bellini's Bianca e Fernando (Genoa 1828), and also appeared as Gualtiero in Bellini's Il pirata (1829, Rome) and as Elvino in La sonnambula (1834, Cremona); In 1829 he created the Leicester in Il castello di Kenilworth (Naples) for Donizetti ; After the premiere, the composer wrote to his old teacher Mayr “… David couldn't do more” (“David non ne poteva più”) - whether he meant a momentary state of exhaustion or collapse, or a fundamental and general critical state of David's voice, is apparently not entirely clear.

In 1830 David sang at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence and at the Teatro delle Muse in Ancona in Pacini's Gli Arabi nelle Gallie and in Rossini's Otello with overwhelming success. A Montgolfière was raised in his honor and a bust was erected in the atrium of the theater dedicated to his admirers, praising his bravura and his ability to move hearts. In the end, 24 choir members, who were still in theater costumes, led him in a torchlight procession to his hostel, where David greeted the audience from his window.

In 1831 the singer went on tour to Paris and London, where he received not only positive reviews. For the season 1832–1833 he was back in Italy, where he performed in Naples, Genoa and Florence, a. a. in Donizetti's Anna Bolena .

After appearances in Rome David was attacked by GG Belli in four sonnets between 1830 and 1834 in a malicious manner and apparently out of personal dislike; Belli was apparently referring to traces of wear and tear or overexertion in David's voice (M. Rinaldi).

Until 1840 David continued to sing on Italian opera stages, especially in his old successful roles in Rossini or in Pacini's Gli arabi nelle Gallie, but also in operas such as Bellini's La sonnambula. Apparently he had less success in Donizetti's operas such as Parisina or Belisario , presumably because the composer himself and the now romantic tastes of the time tended more and more to a different, stronger, more dramatic, “more masculine” and simpler way of singing ( canto spianato ) for David's voice and his personal preferences for filigree and virtuoso ornamentation were not made.

Giovanni David retired from the stage in 1840 after a “Fiasco” in Mercadante's Il giuramento , and initially opened a singing school in Naples, with which, according to Fétis, he should have had little success. He then tried his luck in Vienna, where he also had no success as a singing teacher (according to Donizetti). So in 1844 he went to Saint Petersburg with his daughter Giuseppina, who was also a singer, and there became the manager of the Italian opera company. The once celebrated singer died there in 1864 or 1868.

Voice and meaning

Giovanni David

Giovanni David was a high tenorino or tenore di grazia with an extremely agile and voluminous voice. Thanks to the vocal practice customary at the time of taking the treble easily and with the help of the falsetto register , he achieved high grades such as the f '' and in improvised passages in performances possibly even the g '' and a '' (almost like a countertenor , but with a different weighting of the pitch, and a different, tenoral timbre).

His ability and confidence to sing the fastest and most difficult coloratura passages and to improvise some acrobatic fioritures were famous; but he was also able to sing lover's roles in a lyrically soft, enthusiastic style, and "move hearts". From the late 1820s, when the popularity of Rossini's music was slowly past its zenith and Italian opera was moving more and more in the romantic direction, thanks to the influence of Bellini and especially Donizetti, who preferred a more dramatic and "masculine" style However, David is also increasingly criticized for his "excessive virtuosism". Compared to his contemporary Andrea Nozzari, David's acting skills are said to have been more limited. Towards the end of his career in the 1830s, symptoms of fatigue also made themselves felt in his voice, which he is said to have lost in the end.

However, Giovanni David went down in music history as one of the greatest virtuosos who ever lived and stood on the opera stage in the field of tenor. The roles written for him, especially by Rossini, could not be cast at all just a few decades after their creation and until the end of the 20th century, since until the 1970s and 1980s there were no tenors with such an unusual natural structure in combination with such a technically perfect agility and coloratura ability.

roll

The following is only a relatively small selection of roles that were written explicitly for Giovanni David and exclusively by more important composers. The singer has also appeared in countless other operas.

  • Don Narciso in Il turco in Italia by Rossini (14 August 1814, Milan)
  • Raoul in Gabriella di Vergy by Carafa (July 3, 1816, Naples)
  • Rodrigo in Otello by Rossini (December 4, 1816, Naples)
  • Mercurio in Il sogno di Partenope by Mayr (January 12, 1817, Naples)
  • Mennone in Mennone e Zemira by Mayr (March 22, 1817, Naples)
  • Tolomeo in Berenice in Siria by Carafa (July 29, 1818, Naples)
  • Ricciardo in Ricciardo e Zoraide by Rossini (December 3, 1818, Naples)
  • Oreste in Ermione by Rossini (March 27, 1819, Naples)
  • Mercurio in Ulisse nell'isola di Circe by Perrino (23 June 1819, Naples)
  • Ilo in L'apoteosi d'Ercole by Mercadante (August 19, 1819, Naples)
  • Uberto / Giacomo V in La donna del lago by Rossini (October 24, 1819, Naples)
  • Ilo in Zelmira by Rossini (February 16, 1822, Naples)
  • The title role in Eufemio di Messina by Carafa (December 26, 1822, Rome)
  • Costanzo in Costanzo ed Almeriska by Mercadante (November 22, 1823, Naples)
  • Timante in Gl'italici e gl'indiani by Carafa (October 4, 1825, Naples)
  • Appio Diomede in L'ultimo giorno di Pompei by Pacini (November 19, 1825, Naples)
  • Linceo in Ipermestra by Mercadante (December 29, 1825, Naples)
  • Agobar in Gli arabi nelle Gallie by Pacini (March 8, 1827, Milan)
  • Fernando in Bianca e Fernando (2nd version) by Bellini (April 7, 1828, Genoa)
  • Leicester in Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth by Donizetti (July 6, 1829, Naples)
  • Manfredi in Irene, o l'assedio di Messina by Pacini (November 30, 1833, Naples)

literature

  • Giorgio Appolonia: Il dolce suono mi colpì di sua voce. Centro Studi Valle Imagna, 2010
  • Giorgio Appolonia: Le voci di Rossini. EDA Edizioni, Turin 1992, pp. 252-268
  • Maria Borgato:  David, Giovanni. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 33:  D'Asaro – De Foresta. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1987.
  • Rodolfo Celletti: History of Belcanto. Bärenreiter, Kassel / Basel 1989 (Original: Storia del belcanto. Discanto Edizioni, Fiesole 1983).
  • Elizabeth Forbes: Davide [David], Giovanni. In: Stanley Sadie: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Oxford University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2 .
  • Richard Osborne: Rossini. London: Dent, 1986. ISBN 0-460-03179-1 .
  • John Warrack, Ewan West: The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992, ISBN 0-19-869164-5 .

Web links

Commons : Giovanni David  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Further productions can also be found on Corago.
  2. ↑ The opera ran here under the title Corradino, ossia Bellezza e cuor di ferro.
  3. ↑ Borgato here refers to G. Zavadini: Donizetti. Bergamo 1948, p. 268. Zavadini and Borgato interpret Donizetti's statement in relation to the state of David's voice, but it is also conceivable that it was a more general breakdown in view of David's long, very tight schedule and his very strenuous games .
  4. ↑ According Caruselli 1864, according Borgato. 1868
  5. ↑ Celletti describes David as an "inexhaustible improviser".
  6. ↑ “… la capacità di commuovere”.
  7. ↑ Stendhal already wrote that Rossini's Neapolitan operas were "virtually impossible to perform" for other singers because of the extremely virtuoso, difficult singing parts (especially tenors).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Maria Borgato:  David, Giovanni. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 33:  D'Asaro – De Foresta. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1987.
  2. ^ Rossini: Il turco in Italia, Milan, summer / autumn 1814 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Rodolfo Celletti: History of Belcanto. Bärenreiter, Kassel / Basel 1989 (Original: Storia del belcanto. Discanto Edizioni, Fiesole 1983).
  4. ^ Rossini: Tancredi, Turin, Carnival 1814/15 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  5. ^ Rossini: Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra, Naples, 1816 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  6. ↑ Rossini: La gazza ladra, Naples, summer 1819 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  7. ^ Rossini: Mosè in Egitto, Vienna, 1825 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  8. ^ Rossini: L'assedio di Corinto, Genoa, spring 1828 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  9. ^ Rossini: Corradino, ossia Bellezza e cuor di ferro, Vienna, 1822 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  10. ↑ Pacini: L'ultimo giorno di Pompei, Naples, November 1825 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  11. ↑ Pacini: Gli arabi nelle Gallie, Milan, spring 1827 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  12. ↑ Performances with Giovanni David in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  13. ↑ Bellini: Il pirata, Rome, Carnival 1829 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  14. ↑ Bellini: La sonnambula, Cremona 1834 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on November 1, 2017.
  15. ↑ a b Salvatore Caruselli (ed.): Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica. Longanesi & C. Periodici SpA, Rome.
personal data
SURNAME David, Giovanni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Davide, Giovanni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1790
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH 1868
Place of death St. Petersburg