Italo Campanini

Italo Campanini (June 30, 1845-November 14, 1896) was a leading Italian operatic tenor, whose career was mainly in London in the 1870s and in New York in the 1880s and 1890s. He was the brother of conductor Cleofonte Campanini.

Early days

Born in Parma, Campanini studied in the Parma Conservatory before making his operatic debut as Manrico in Il trovatore, in 1869, in Odessa. Further study with Francesco Lamperti in Milan followed, and in 1871 he returned to the stage in Bologna, scoring his first major success in the Italian premiere of Lohengrin.

London beginnings

Early in his 1872 Drury Lane season J. H. Mapleson, the London opera impresario, recruited Campanini from Rome, where he was in competition with the agents of Frederick Gye, the Covent Garden theatre impresario. On May 4th 1872 the tenor made his London debut as Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia, with Therese Tietjens in the title role, Zelia Trebelli as Orsini and Agnesi as Duke Alfonso, under the baton of Michael Costa. He was an immediate success, being hailed by some as the successor to Mario or Antonio Giuglini. That, said Herman Klein (who attended), was a night of triumphs. It was here that he first sang with Christine Nilsson, to whom he became a celebrated stage partner. An agent from London attempted to lure him away at a rate of a thousand pounds a month. He remained with Mapleson (at one-fifth of that sum) but became difficult to manage. However, he was to remain a stalwart and mainstay of Mapleson's company for the next ten years. In autumn 1872 he toured in Dublin with the company (including also Maria Marimon, Ilma de Murska, Sofia Scalchi, Signor Foli, etc), at principal cities in England and Scotland, and in the following spring 1873 tour through provincial towns.

First American tour

Campanini made his first American appearances at the Academy of Music, New York, in 1873. Here, in addition to Christine Nilsson and Giuseppe del Puente (baritone) (regular Mapleson company singers), he was with Annie Louise Cary (with whom he often afterwards sang) in performances of Les Huguenots. On 26 November 1873 he was Rhadames in Max Strakosch's production of Aida, with Mlle Torriani (Aida), Cary (Amneris) and Victor Maurel (Amonasro), according to Gustav Kobbé (who saw it) a performance of unsurpassed brilliancy. He was still in New York on 23 March 1874 when he, Nilsson, Cary and del Puente were in the Italian-language production of Lohengrin at the Academy.

London

During his London career Campanini became especially well-known in the roles of Manrico (Il trovatore), Fernando (I Puritani), and Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor). At his return for the 1874 season in London, in June he joined a Drury Lane cast in Michael Balfe's posthumous opera Il Talismano (Italian production) with Tietjens and Nilsson, and with the young Giovanni de Reschi in a baritone role (who later became the tenor Jean de Reszke). Les Huguenots and La favorita were among other productions of the season. In the 1875 season came the first London Lohengrin (with Emma Albani and Ernesto Nicolini at Covent Garden), soon followed by Mapleson's production at Her Majesty's Theatre in which Campanini, Tietjens, Nilsson and Antonio Galassi (baritone) led the cast under Michael Costa.

The 1878 season was distinguished by the first London production of Bizet's opera Carmen, on June 22. Mapleson had seen it the previous winter at the Brussels Monnaie and decided to transfer it to Her Majesty's. He obtained the American soprano Minnie Hauk for Carmen, who had become famous in the role in Paris; Alwina Valleria was Micaela and del Puente Escamillo to Campanini's Don José, under Michael Costa. Despite the misgivings of the artists in rehearsal, it was an extremely effective cast among which Campanini himself was conspicuous for his singing and acting with superb dramatic power, and it was greeted with a triumphant reception. Klein and Manuel Garcia were in the audience.

English summers, American winters

In the winter of 1878-79 Mapleson undertook a major opera tour of the United States, in which Campanini was his principal tenor. The company also included Etelka Gerster, Minnie Hauk, Trebelli, Valleria, Galassi, del Puente, Sig. Foli and others, and Luigi Arditi was the conductor. They visited Washington, Boston, Chicago, St Louis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati and New York. Campanini sang opposite Gerster in Il talismano and La traviata, and with Marie Roze in La favorita, and a very wide range of operas was presented including Faust, Il flauto magico, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ruy Blas, Robert le Diable and Der Freischütz, in addition to much of the repertoire already mentioned. The series culminated with a benefit concert in New York for flood victims at Szegedin in Hungary (Gerster's birthplace).

Some surprises were, however, held in store for New York in the following year. The London 1879 season had added Minnie Hauk, and Clara Louise Kellogg to the female company (still led by Nilsson, Trebelli and Gerster), and Campanini was supported by the tenors Giuseppe Fancelli, Frapolli and Brignoli. Fancelli was infuriated by Campanini assuming the title 'Primo Tenore Assoluto'. The October 1879 tour season, in which Maria Marimon was among the party, visited New York, and went on to Philadelphia, Chicago, St Louis, Detroit, Cleveland and elsewhere. Campanini conquered New York. On 23 October at the Academy they gave the American premiere of Carmen, with Minnie Hauk, Clarice Sinico (Micaela), Ernesto del Puente, and Campanini in his now famous role of Don José. On December 3 he appeared as Elvino in La sonnambula, with Marimon, del Puente and Mme Lablache, and on December 12 was Corentino in Meyerbeer's Dinorah, again with Marimon.Later in the season, when Mdlle Marimon was unable to complete a performance of Dinorah at Philadelphia, Campanini (in the audience) and Annie Louise Cary stepped in to sing the last acts of Il trovatore instead, and Campanini's Di quella pira brought the house down and saved the box-office.

The London Her Majesty's season of 1880, with Nilsson and Gerster, saw presentations of Faust, La sonnambula, Carmen and Aida under Michael Costa, and also a Lohengrin conducted for Mapleson by Hans Richter. But the major new event of the season, in July, was Boito's Mefistofele, with Nilsson, Trebelli and Nannetti, and with Campanini as Faust. Costa conducted it 'in his old, resolute and vigilant manner', and the production 'lent a special distinction to the season.' This then went on tour to New York (under Arditi, as usual), where Campanini led the cast for the American premiere at the Academy with Annie Louise Cary, Alwina Valleria and Franco Novara. The same venue saw Mapleson's production of a revised form of Les vêpres siciliennes headed by Campanini and Cary with del Puente and Galassi, and also Campanini in La favorita. Mapleson had also recruited Luigi Ravelli to relieve the burden on Campanini, now his only principal tenor. During the tour, which this time also took in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, Mapleson inaugurated 'Sunday evening concerts', the first half of which was usually a performance of Rossini's Stabat Mater given by Valleria, Cary, Campanini, Galassi and Novara.

The London season of 1881 resumed the run of Mefistofele, and the October tour in New York saw Camapanini as Lohengrin (with Minnie Hauk, Anna de Belocci, Galessi and Novara) and Carmen (Hauk, Valleria and del Puente, the original line-up.) In February 1882 the company was at the second great Cincinnati Opera Festival, where Campanini was Don José (opposite Hauk, del Puente and Louise Dotti), and Les Huguenots, Faust, Fidelio, Magic Flute, William Tell and Lohengrin were also presented. Meanwhile they also rehearsed, and then presented, Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, in which Campanini played Vasco da Gama opposite Hauk and Galassi; and in spring 1882 Ernani, Don Giovanni and Les Huguenots were also brought back to the New York Academy of Music.

Collapse of Mapleson's company

On return to England, the 1882 season was disrupted by negotiations over the Royal Italian Opera Company, Covent Garden, Ltd, formed to seek the lease of the new Metropolitan Opera House, New York, then being built. Campanini was among the large team taken to New York that October by Mapleson, with Commander Herbert Gye as his treasurer, on its behalf. If the plan worked, the Academy (to which Mapleson was still tied by contract) would be closed and a monopoly achieved, in which he would have a share. Despite immense difficulties a successful tour was achieved, but in the process all Mapleson's resources were carved up between Mr Abbey, who actually obtained the lease, and the Royal Opera Company, which repudiated all its agreements with Mapleson, leaving him a very heavy liability. The best singers of his company, including Nilsson, Marcella Sembrich, Scalchi, Trebelli and Campanini, and all his orchestral and choral resources, were recruited by Mr Abbey.

Campanini took the occasion to spend a season in Italy, where his younger brother Cleofonte Campanini was beginning a career as an operatic conductor. In 1883 at Parma Italo sang in a series of performances conducted by his brother, so helping to establish him. When he returned to America in the autumn it was to the completion of the Metropolitan Opera House, and there he sang in the performance of Faust on the opening night, 22 October 1883, with Christine Nilsson as Marguerite, Sofia Scalchi, Mme Lablache, Franco Novara and Ernesto del Puente. On December 5 1883 he sang the other Faust in Mefistofele with Christine Nilsson, Zelia Trebelli and Mdlle Mirabella.

American career

After 1883 Campanini lived primarily in New York City, serving as the Metropolitan's lead tenor. He developed increasingly as a manager of opera (as in later times did the tenors Giovanni Zenatello and Edward Johnson). On April 16 1888 a company under his management presented the American premiere of Verdi's Otello at the New York Academy of Music, with Francesco Marconi, Luisa Tetrazzini, Antonio Galassi and Sofia Scalchi: later in the run, Campanini himself took over from Marconi the role of Otello. Campanini's brother Cleofonte was brought in to conduct, and married the singer Eva Tetrazzini, Luisa's sister. Campanini remained a member of the Metropolitan company from 1891-1894. In 1895 he appeared as Ford in the first American performance of Verdi's Falstaff, with Victor Maurel (Falstaff), Emma Eames (Mistress Ford), Zelie de Lussan (Anne), Sofia Scalchi (Mistress Quickly), and Rossitano (Fenton).

Campanini was among the most popular tenors in the United States before Enrico Caruso. He apparently made a recording on a Bettini cylinder. He died in Villa Vigatto, near Parma, in 1896.

Notes

Literature

• D. Ewen, Encyclopedia of the Opera: New Enlarged Edition (Hill and Wang, New York 1963).
• J. McPherson, "Italo Campanini: One of a Kind," The Opera Quarterly, 19 no 2 (Spring 2003), 251-271.

External links

New York Times Biographical Report