Cleofonte Campanini

Cleofonte Campanini (1 September 1860 – 19 December 1919) was an Italian conductor and violinist. As a teenager he had a brief but successful career as a concert violinist in Italy and in theaters in Berlin and London. He abandoned the violin in favor of pursuing a career as a conductor, making his conducting debut in 1880 at the age of 20. He established himself as an opera conductor in Parma in the early 1880s, conducting several works which starred his brother, the tenor Italo Campanini.

In 1883 Campanini was appointed assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera for that company's inaugural season. He went on to establish himself as a leading opera conductor at theaters internationally, notably working on the conducting staffs of the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (1888–1903) and La Scala (1903–1905), and appearing as a guest conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Liceu, and the Teatro Colón among other opera houses. From 1906 until March 1909 he was artistic director of the Manhattan Opera Company. In November 1909 he was appointed the music director of the Chicago Grand Opera Company and then its successor, the Chicago Opera Association. He is remembered for conducting the world premieres of several operas which have become part of the standard opera repertory, including the premieres of Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur at the Teatro Lirico in 1902 and Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly at La Scala in 1904. He was married to the soprano Eva Tetrazzini.

Early life and education Born in Parma, Italy, on 1 September 1860, His father was a blacksmith. He never graduated from the conservatory, abandoning his studies to pursue a career as a performer, although he continued to study violin privately with Ferrarini. Soon after his debut in Italy, Campanini toured to Berlin and London as a concert violinist, and had particular success in several concerts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. During that time he conducted a total of 32 different operas from the Italian and French language repertoires. a newly created opera company in residence at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. Around the same time, tenor and arts administrator Andreas Dippel was poached from his position as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera to become the CGOC's first general manager. After a year of planning, the company gave its inaugural performance at the Auditorium Theatre on November 3, 1910 with Campanini conducting Giuseppe Verdi's Aida with Polish soprano Jeanne Korolewicz-Wayda in the title role, Amedeo Bassi as Radames, Eleonora de Cisneros as Amneris, Berardo Berardi as the King of Egypt, Mario Sammarco as Amonasro, and Nazzareno De Angelis as Ramfis.

The CGOC also performed a regular season in Philadelphia as well as in Chicago, and was sometimes billed as the Philadelphia-Chicago Grand Opera Company. Under that name, Campanini conducted the world premiere of Victor Herbert's Natoma at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia in 1911 with Mary Garden in the title part. That same year the company also appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, presenting the United States premiere of Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna on March 14, 1911 with Carolina White in the title role.

In 1913 Campanini replaced Dippel as the general manager of the CGOC.