Giulio Gatti-Casazza

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giulio Gatti-Casazza (born February 3, 1869 in Udine , † September 2, 1940 in Ferrara , Italy) was an Italian opera manager who tried to advance the development of American opera at the beginning of the 20th century.

Gatti originally studied in Genoa at the Accademia Navale and the Royal Naval College (Regia Scuola Superiore Navale). He received his degree as a marine engineer in 1891 and returned to Ferrara, where he began his year-long military service.

In 1893 Gatti succeeded his father as chairman of the opera board at the Teatro Communale in Ferrara . There he worked until the 1897/1898 season as chairman of the main committee responsible for the opera house.

In 1898 Gatti was offered the post of General Director at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan . There he worked for the first time with Arturo Toscanini , who was then employed as General Music Director at La Scala. After receiving an offer from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1907 , he and Arturo Toscanini moved from La Scala to the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1908 to work there as general manager. He ran the opera house as the first employed opera manager who was also an opera specialist. His 27-year tenure was the longest in the history of the Metropolitan Opera. With a repertoire of 40 to 50 works per season, he presented many world premieres and American premieres. For example, in 1910 he premiered the operas La fanciulla del West and Königskinder . Also to promote American opera made earns Gatti-Casazza: Sun became the first American opera at the Met The pipe of desire of Frederick Converse played and announced a composition competition for American composers. Horatio Parker's winning opera Mona premiered in 1911. In total, Gatti premiered around a dozen American works.

In 1910 Gatti-Casazza married the New Zealand singer Frances Alda, but divorced her again in 1929. Shortly thereafter, in 1930, he had his second marriage to Rosina Galli, an Italian ballerina who directed the opera ballet of the Metropolitan Opera. In 1935 Gatti left the New York Metropolitan Opera and returned to Italy with his wife, where he lived until his death.

swell

  • Giulio Gatti-Casazza: Memories Of The Opera. New York 1973.
  • Johanna Fiedler: Molto Agitato. The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera. New York 2001.
  • Karl H. Hiller: 100 years of MET. Opera in the New World. Munich 1983.
  • Irving Kolodin: The Story of the Metropolitan Opera. 1883-1950. A candid history. New York 1953.
  • Mallach, Alan: The Autumn of Italian Opera. From Verismo to Modernism 1890-1915. Boston 2007.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gatti-Casazza, Giulio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera manager
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Udine
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1940
Place of death Ferrara , Italy