Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio

Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio (* around 1700 probably in Milan , † around 1758 probably also in Milan) was an Italian composer, violinist, singing teacher and conductor. He is known for operas, but has also composed instrumental music.

Life

Information about Brivio's beginnings is made difficult by the existence of another musician of the same name (Giuseppe Brivio) in Milan around the same time, but who was a trumpeter. There was also a violinist Gaetano Brivio in the orchestra of the Teatro Ducale (proven in 1748, and still in Padua in 1765). Maybe they all belonged to a family of musicians. There was also a musician named Carlo Francesco Brivio who was active in Milan in the 1690s and composed at least one opera (see below).

The earliest news shows him as a violinist in Milan in 1720. Like many other musicians, he belongs to the circle of Giovanni Battista Sammartini in Milan. There he became director (impresario) of the opera theater Teatro Regio Ducale (first with another, from 1725 alone), which he remained until 1731 or 1732 (then he was replaced by GA Rozio).

Operas by him are:

Ipermestra (first performance on December 6, 1727 at the Teatro Ducale in Milan, libretto Antonio Salvi ). But other composers also worked here.
L'olimpiade (first performance on March 5, 1737 at the Teatro Regio in Turin on the occasion of the wedding of King Charles Emanuel III of Savoy to Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine ). Libretto Pietro Metastasio .
Artaserse (first performance on June 2, 1738 at the Teatro degli Obizzi in Padua on the occasion of the transit of Maria Amalia , Queen of Naples and Sicily, libretto by Metastasio)
Merope (first performance on December 26, 1738 at the Teatro Ducale in Milan, libretto Apostolo Zeno )
Didone abbandonata (first performance Padua January 1739, libretto Metastasio)
Alessandro nell'Indie (Libretto Metastasio), (first performed January 1742)
La Germania trionfante in Arminio (first performance on May 2, 1739 at the Teatro Ducale in Milan). An opera about the victory of Arminius over the Romans.

There is also the opera Demofoonte (libretto Pietro Metastasio), which was performed for the Turin Carnival in 1738. The score in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien, however, names Carlo Francesco Brivio as the composer.

He owned a house in Milan, where he hosted Leonardo Leo in 1740 and the French dancer and choreographer Francesco Sauveterre in 1748.

He appears to have been in London from 1742, because three pasticci were performed by him in the King's Theater in the Haymarket in London in the 1740s :

Gianguir (premiere November 2, 1742, libretto Apostolo Zeno )
Mandane (premiere on December 12, 1742)
L'inconstanza delusia (premiere on February 9, 1745). This opera was performed in the Teatro Ducale for the carnival in 1739.

He also contributed to the pasticcio L'olimpiade , his final stage work, which premiered on May 10, 1755 at the Teatro Marsigli-Rossi in Bologna .

His instrumental works were printed in Paris in 1739, 1751 and 1757 (publisher J.-B. Venier, together with compositions by other musicians such as Sammartini). Two of his violin concertos can be found in a collection by Pierre Philibert de Blancheton (with works by Angelo Maria Scaccia and Carlo Zuccari ). There is also a sonata for oboe.

The sopranos Giulia Frasi and Caterina Visconti were among his students as singing teachers in Milan . Caterina Visconti, known as La Viscontina , was a famous singer and prima donna at the Teatro Ducale in Milan, where she sang from 1738 to 1751.

literature

Sergio Martinotti: Brivio, Giuseppe Ferdinando. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 14: Branchi-Buffetti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1972.

Web links

List of stage works by Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio based on the MGG at Operone
Search for operas by Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio (search term in the Autore field : “Brivio Giuseppe Ferdinando”) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
Sheet music and audio files by Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

^ Johann Adam Hiller , Treatise on Vocal Performance and Ornamentation, Cambridge University Press, 2004 (Ed. Suzanne J. Beicken), p. 184 (Appendix)

personal data
SURNAME	Brivio, Giuseppe Ferdinando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian composer
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1700
PLACE OF BIRTH	Milan
DATE OF DEATH	around 1758
Place of death	Milan

[1] Johann Adam Hiller , Treatise on Vocal Performance and Ornamentation, Cambridge University Press, 2004 (Ed. Suzanne J. Beicken), p. 184 (Appendix)