Cyclopedia of Music and Musicains (A-D)

NY Charles Scribner M DCCC LXXXIII, 1888

BOTTESINI, GIOVANNI, born at Crema, Lombardy, DEC. 24, 1823, still living, 1888. Dramatic composer and virtuoso on the double-bass; pupil of the Conservatorio, Milan. He studied the double-bass under Rossi, and counterpoint and hrmony under Francesco Basili and Vaccaj. After a concert tour in Italy from 1840 to 1846, he became conductor of the orchestra in the theatre at Havana. Since then he has made variuos journeys to America, visiting the United States and Mexico and the northern portions of South America. In 1855 he became the chef d'orchestra at the Italiens, Paris. In 1857-58 he travelled through Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and England on a concert tour, in 1861 was maestro di cappella of the Bellini at Palermo, in 1863 at Barcelona, then founded in Florence the Società di QWuartetto for the cultivation of German classical music, and subsequently divided his time between Florence and London, whither he went last in 1871 as director of an opera troupe at the Lyceum, but returned again to Italy. Works- Operas: Cristoforo Colombo, given at Havana, 1847; L'Assedio di Firenze, Paris, Théâtre Italien, 1856; Il Diavolo della notte, opera buffa, Milan, Teatro di Santa Radegonda, 1859; Marion Delorme, Palermo, 1862; Vinciguerra, operetta, Paris, Théâtre du Palais Royal, 1870; Ali Baba, comic opera, London, 1871; Ero e Leandro, Turin, 1879; La Regina del Nepal, ib., 1880; Symphonies; Overtures; Quartets; Many compositions for double-bass; Songs.--Fétis; Mendel; Riemann.