Ottorino Respighi (born July 9, 1879, and died April 18, 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and music scholar. He was one of the most important Italian composers in the early 1900s. Respighi wrote many types of music, including operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and arrangements of Italian music from the 16th to 18th centuries. His most famous works are three orchestral tone poems: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928). These pieces made him well-known worldwide.

Respighi was born in Bologna, Italy, to a family with a strong background in music and art. His father encouraged him to study music from a young age, and he received training in violin and piano. In 1891, he joined the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, where he studied violin, viola, and composition. He later became a principal violinist at the Russian Imperial Theatre and briefly studied with composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1913, Respighi moved to Rome to teach composition at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia. During this time, he married Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo, a singer who was also his student. In 1923, Respighi left his teaching position to focus on touring and composing, though he continued teaching until 1935. He performed and conducted in the United States and South America from 1925 until his death.

In late 1935, while working on his opera Lucrezia, Respighi became seriously ill and was diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis. He died four months later at the age of 56. His wife, Elsa, lived for nearly 60 years after his death and worked to promote his music and legacy until her passing in 1996. Composer and conductor Salvatore Di Vittorio completed several of Respighi’s unfinished or previously unpublished works, including the Violin Concerto in A major (1903), which was first performed in 2010.

Biography

Respighi was born on July 9, 1879, at 8 Via Guido Reni, an apartment building near Palazzo Fantuzzi in Bologna. He was the third and youngest child of Giuseppe and Ersilia (born Putti) Respighi. His sister was Amelia, and his brother, Alberto, died at age nine. Giuseppe worked as a postal employee and was a skilled pianist who studied with Stefano Golinelli and taught music at the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. Ersilia came from a family of famous sculptors. Respighi’s paternal grandfather played the violin and organ at the cathedral in Fidenza. Amelia described Respighi as quiet but sincere, sensitive, and generous.

Giuseppe supported his son’s interests, but Respighi showed little interest in music until he was nearly eight years old. His father taught him piano and violin basics, and later, Respighi began formal violin lessons. However, he stopped lessons after his teacher hit his hand with a ruler for playing a passage incorrectly. He later returned to lessons with a more patient teacher. At first, Respighi’s piano skills were inconsistent, but he once surprised his father by reciting Robert Schumann’s Symphonic Studies from memory. He remained self-taught on the piano and avoided scales in his compositions because he could not play them correctly. He quickly learned other instruments, such as the harp, which he taught himself in a few days.

In 1891, the family moved to 2 Via de’ Castagnoli, where Respighi had his own studio. He collected books and developed a lifelong interest in geography, science, and languages. He became fluent in eleven languages and read literature in them as an adult. His wife later recalled that Respighi met Albert Einstein in Berlin, and Einstein was impressed by Respighi’s understanding of scientific theories.

In October 1890, Respighi began two years of schooling at the Ginnasio Guinizelli. The next year, he enrolled at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, studying violin and viola with Federico Sarti and organ, counterpoint, and fugue with Cesare Dall’Olio. His earliest completed compositions included the Piccola ouverture and Preludio for small orchestra. Four years into his studies, he took classes in composition and music history with Giuseppe Martucci and later Luigi Torchi. Martucci, a respected composer and advocate for Italian music, became an important influence on Respighi. In June 1899, Respighi earned his diploma in violin, performing Le Streghe by Niccolò Paganini. Soon after, he joined the orchestra at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and played the violin for several seasons.

In the winter of 1900, Respighi accepted a position as principal violist in the orchestra of the Russian Imperial Theatre in Saint Petersburg. There, he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a composer Respighi admired. Rimsky-Korsakov taught Respighi about orchestration and composition for five months. Respighi returned to Russia in 1902 for more performances and completed his advanced composition studies at the Liceo Musicale. He wrote Preludio, corale e fuga under Rimsky-Korsakov’s guidance. This piece was performed as part of his final exam in June 1901 and was a great success. Martucci, after awarding the diploma, said, “Respighi is not a pupil, Respighi is a master.”

In 1902, Respighi traveled to Berlin, where he briefly studied with composer Max Bruch. Some sources incorrectly claimed he studied with Bruch in 1908, but Respighi’s wife said he never studied with Bruch. In 1905, Respighi completed his first opera, the comedy Re Enzo. Between 1903 and 1910, he performed at the Teatro Comunale and as first violinist in Bruno Mugellini’s touring chamber quintet. He collaborated with singers, including Chiarina Fino-Savio, who performed Respighi’s songs set to poetry by Ada Negri and Carlo Zangarini. His most famous song, “Nebbie,” was among these works.

In 1906, Respighi completed his first of many transcriptions of pieces by 17th- and 18th-century composers. His version of Lamento d’Arianna by Claudio Monteverdi for voice and orchestra became his first international success when performed in Berlin in 1908. During this second stay in Germany, Respighi worked as an accompanist at a singing school, which influenced his later vocal compositions. He met Arthur Nikisch, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, who arranged for Nikisch to conduct Respighi’s Monteverdi transcription with singer Julia Culp. This performance helped revive interest in Monteverdi’s music. Respighi later transcribed two sonatas for viola d’amore and harpsichord from works by Attilio Ariosti.

Respighi’s time in Germany influenced his second opera, Semirâma, which had its first professional performance at the Teatro Comunale in November 1910. The opera was a success, and critic Giannotto Bastianelli later wrote that it marked a shift in Respighi’s style from verismo to Decadentism, praising his use of complex musical structures. However, working on the opera exhausted Respighi. He wrote each score by hand to save money and fell asleep at a post-performance banquet. His irregular sleep patterns may have been caused by narcolepsy.

In 1910, Respighi joined a short-lived group called the Lega dei Cinque, which included composer Ildebrando Pizzetti and others. That same year, he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. The next year, he replaced Luigi Torchi as a composition teacher at the Liceo Musicale, a role he held until moving to Rome.

In January 1913, Respighi left Bologna to become a professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. His students included composers Vittorio R

Legacy

Elsa lived nearly 60 years after her husband’s death and always supported his work and memory. Several months after Respighi passed away, she wrote to Guastalla: "I live because I can still do something for him. And I will do it, that is certain, until the day I die." However, Italian governments after Mussolini avoided supporting nationalistic composers like Respighi, Malipiero, Pizzetti, and Pietro Mascagni. Some Italian newspapers also criticized honors given to Elsa. Despite this, in 1961 she gave a collection of unpublished and incomplete musical writings to the Liceo Musicale. In 1969, she helped create the Fondo Ottorino Respighi foundation at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, which included donating many letters and photographs. She also gave a collection of early manuscripts, personal items, and Respighi’s death mask to the International Museum and Library of Bologna. Elsa led efforts to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Respighi’s birth in 1979. Some people, described by Elsa as "musical progressives with left-wing political sympathies," opposed the event and tried to harm Respighi’s reputation. The celebration included performances and recordings of many of Respighi’s previously ignored works. Elsa died in 1996, one week before her 102nd birthday.

In 1993, Swiss conductor Adriano Baumann started the Respighi Society in London to help people learn more about Respighi’s life and work through accurate and fair information. The society later ended. On March 4, 2000, a plaque was placed at Respighi’s birthplace on Via Guido Reni in Bologna. His niece Luisa Putti and grandnieces Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli attended the event. Gloria had donated the piano Respighi used to compose Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome to the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna in 1956.

In 2006, Elsa and Gloria approached Italian conductor and composer Salvatore Di Vittorio. He, along with Respighi archivist Potito Pedarra, asked Di Vittorio to finish several of Respighi’s incomplete and unpublished compositions. This included the Violin Concerto in A major from 1903, which was first performed in 2010 with Di Vittorio conducting his Chamber Orchestra of New York. The orchestra continues to premiere new editions of Respighi’s music by Di Vittorio and record them on Naxos Records. In 2008, Di Vittorio premiered his Overture Respighiana, an orchestral piece created as a tribute to Respighi.

Works

• Re Enzo (1905)
• Semirâma (1909)
• Marie Victoire (completed in 1913 but not performed until 2004)
• La bella dormente nel bosco (1922)
• Belfagor (1923)
• La campana sommersa (1927)
• Maria egiziaca (1932)
• La fiamma (1934)
• Lucrezia (1937), opera in 1 act (finished after the composer's death by his wife, Elsa, and his student, Ennio Porrino)

• La Boutique fantasque (1918), uses music from the 19th-century Italian composer Rossini. Premiered in London on June 5, 1919.
• Sèvres de la vieille France (1920), a collection of French music from the 17th and 18th centuries
• La Pentola magica (1920), inspired by Russian folk themes
• Scherzo Veneziano (Le astuzie di Columbina) (1920)
• Belkis, Regina di Saba (1932)

• Fountains of Rome by the New York Philharmonic Preludio, corale e fuga (1901)
• Aria per archi (1901)
• Leggenda for Violin and Orchestra P 36 (1902)
• Piano Concerto in A minor (1902)
• Suite per archi (1902)
• Humoreske for Violin and Orchestra P 45 (1903)
• Violin Concerto in A major (1903), finished by Salvatore Di Vittorio in 2009
• Fantasia Slava (1903)
• Suite in E major (Sinfonia) (1903)
• Serenata per piccola orchestra (1904)
• Suite in Sol Maggiore (1905), for organ and strings
• Ouverture Burlesca (1906)
• Concerto all'antica for Violin and Orchestra (1908)
• Ouverture Carnevalesca (1913)
• Tre Liriche (1913), for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (Notte, Nebbie, Pioggia)
• Sinfonia Drammatica (1914)
• Fountains of Rome (1916)
• Part 1 of Suite No. 1 of Ancient Airs and Dances Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 1 (1917), based on Renaissance lute pieces by Simone Molinaro, Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei), and other unnamed composers
• Ballata delle Gnomidi (1919), based on a poem by Claudio Clausetti
• Adagio con variazioni (1921), for Cello and Orchestra
• Concerto gregoriano for Violin and Orchestra (1921)
• Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 2 (1923), based on pieces for lute, archlute, and viol by Fabritio Caroso, Jean-Baptiste Besard, Bernardo Gianoncelli, and an unnamed composer. It also includes a song believed to be by Marin Mersenne
• Pines of Rome (1924)
• Concerto in modo misolidio (Concerto in the Mixolydian mode) (1925)
• Poema autunnale (Autumn Poem), for Violin and Orchestra (1925)
• Rossiniana (1925), adaptations from Rossini's Quelques riens (from Péchés de vieillesse)
• Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows) (1926), four movements of which three are based on Tre Preludi sopra melodie gregoriane for piano (1919)
• Trittico Botticelliano (1927), three movements inspired by Botticelli paintings in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence: Primavera, Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of Venus. The middle movement uses the well-known tune "Veni, veni, Emmanuel"
• Impressioni brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions) (1928)

• The Birds (1928), based on Baroque pieces imitating birds. It includes Introduzione (Bernardo Pasquini), La Colomba (Jacques de Callot), La Gallina (Jean-Philippe Rameau), L'Usignolo (anonymous English composer of the seventeenth century), and Il Cucu (Pasquini)
• Toccata for Piano and Orchestra (1928)
• Roman Festivals (1928)
• Metamorphoseon (1930)
• Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3 (1932), arranged for strings only and somewhat melancholy in overall mood. It is based on lute songs by Besard, a piece for baroque guitar by Ludovico Roncalli, lute pieces by Santino Garsi da Parma, and other unnamed composers
• Concerto a cinque (Concerto for Five) (1933), for oboe, trumpet, violin, double bass, piano, and strings

• Nebbie (1906), voice and piano
• Stornellatrice (1906), voice and piano
• Cinque canti all'antica (1906), voice and piano
• Il Lamento di Arianna (1908), for