Franco Vittadini

Conductor/composer Franco Vittadini found his most powerful tone of voice in opera and sacred music. He started his musical research in 1903 in the Milan Conservatory, but an regrettable disagreement with movie director Giuseppe Gallignani led Vittadini to keep the institution prematurely. Fortunately, this didn’t set him back again. For a brief period he was maestro di cappella and organist in Varese, thereafter spending the others of his existence in Pavia where he was the movie director from the Istituto Musicale from 1924 until his loss of life. Like a stage composer, Vittadini discovered his greatest achievement with Anima allegra (1918 – 1919), performed overseas as well as with Italy. Stylistically extremely traditional, this opera uses sophisticated orchestration and tranquility aswell as brilliant pictorial and atmospheric results, from Spanish local color to Puccini-esque tenderness. His ballet Vecchia Milano (1928) was also extremely successful, memorable because of its well-crafted and central ballet within a ballet picture. Vittadini regarded as his opera Caracciolo (1938) to become his finest function, but its grandiose, tragic design did not arrive off as organic as the mild, charmingly sentimental design of his opera Fiammetta e l’avaro (1942 – 1951). Vittadini received interest outside the theatre for his spiritual works. His several motets and people are mostly basic in style, uncovering his respect for Perosi, however they also consist of some unique harmonic subtleties that arranged Vittadini’s works aside from those of his part model. The coming in contact with oratorio L’agonia del Redentore (1933) displays Vittadini’s chapel style at its greatest. In all, nevertheless, his musical vocabulary remained decidedly traditional in both stage and chapel music, which could very well be why his functions didn’t garner enough focus on lead to really lasting fame.