Giuseppe De Begnis

Giuseppe de Begnis (1793-10 August 1849) was an Italian operatic bass singer.

In the autumn of 1816 he married the soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis in Bologna and they were together until 1825. His countenance was seriously affected by smallpox, but he was skilled at applying make-up and on stage he gave no evidence of facial disfigurement.

By 1815 he had established himself in a promising career which continued until the late 1820s in Italy, France and London and then in Ireland from 1829 where he also ran an opera company. He continued to sing and manage opera companies in Scotland and from New York from 1838, where he lived until his death in 1849. He was greeted by generous applause and this proved to him that he was moving in the right direction. From there he went to Forli and Rimini, ending the first year of his professional career again in Modena. For the new carnival season he was in Siena for the inauguration of the newly built Teatro degli Accademici Rozzi. There he sang the most demanding role of Uberto in Ferdinando Paër's Agnese – an opera semi-seria that includes one of the earliest and most dramatic mad scenes. This was a challenge that did not intimidate the young de Begnis because he had studied and refined his acting; in fact, the audience responded with enthusiasm and he was praised "both as an actor and singer".

Paris, 1819 to 1822 In January 1819, Giuseppe and Giuseppina moved to Paris where they sang for the re-opening of the Théâtre Italien in the Parisian premiere of Ferdinando Paër's dramma semi-serio I Fuoriusciti di Firenze on 20 March. The opera received a good review in Le Moniteur Universel, and the Journal de Paris praised Giuseppe for his Uberto and Giuseppina for her Isabella. In due course, by popular demand, Paër expanded Giuseppe's role by adding a scena and an aria expressly for him in Act 1.

In the meantime Rossini had been informed that the de Begnises had been secured for La gazza ladra. The prospects were encouraging and on 5 May the couple sang in Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi's La pastorella nobile. Positive reviews greeted them during the summer of the same year when they sang in Domenico Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto and Rossini's Il Turco in Italia. On 3 April 1821 the couple was busy singing in Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone: Giuseppe sang Marforio and Giuseppina sang Clarice. At the end of 1821 Giuseppe was in Bologna for the Carnival season and there he sang in Rossini's La gazza ladra at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

London and Edinburgh, 1822 to 1832 In April 1822 the de Begnises arrived in London, where their debut took place that summer in the well-tested Il Turco in Italia. As would be expected, the public and critics were enchanted with Giuseppina, but Giuseppe was equally praised. The Times critic, Thomas M. Alsager, described his voice as "barytone, not powerful, but extremely pure and flexible". Giuseppe de Begnis, portrait of December 1828 when appointed "Director and Instructor of the Pupils of the Royal Academy of Music" That same first London season, he sang in the London premiere of Rossini's Matilde di Shabran.

De Begnis began teaching acting at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1828.

De Begnis as opera company artistic director, 1823 to 1832 Meanwhile, in 1823, he had become the artistic director of Italian opera seasons in Bath, a post he held until 1824. Then he held the same post in Edinburgh from 1827 to 1828. La cenerentola had a special place in his heart and in March 1831, when this opera returned at The King's Theatre in London, a great surprise awaited the public with Lablache singing Dandini and de Begnis as Don Magnifico: "The duet between them, "Un segreto d'importanza" was a rich unctuous piece of comic acting". This situation occurred again in 1833, when Vincenzo Galli sang Dandini opposite to de Begnis's Don Magnifico. In both instances the critics would have preferred a switch of the roles, although they credited de Begnis with doing an excellent job.

Dublin 1829 to 1837 Appearing in Dublin in 1829, de Begnis sang Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia to great acclaim. Later, returning to Dublin between 1834 and 1837, his continued presence there led to his becoming the impresario who produced the first professionally managed Italian opera company in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, he was long remembered for being the first Giorgio in I Puritani on 4 February 1837:

America, 1838 until his death In 1838 Giuseppe de Begnis travelled to the United States where he was to remain for the rest of his life. His reputation had preceded him and his New York debut took place on 18 September at the National Theatre where he shone as Figaro in a grand scene from Il Barbiere di Siviglia; the following night he sang his time-tested Il fanatico per la musica. Don Febeo and Figaro remained his most applauded roles in the United States. On 3 November 1838, he gave a concert in Boston at the Boylston Hall.

The positive reception which de Begnis received is confirmed by the contemporary American critic Richard Grant White: Among the artists of reputation who were known in the second quarter of this century, Giuseppe de Begnis was indisputably the great buffo of his time. He was a singer of the old Italian school, had been thoroughly trained in music from his childhood up, and would have been an accomplished artist even without his vocal gifts and his comic opera. With him, buffo-singing did not mean buffoonery, and he thought great scorn of those who descended to low tricks to promote laughter... By a mere look he sometimes produced an irresistibly comical effect; and although his voice was rich and smooth, its inflections conveyed ludicrous ideas with a delicacy and quickness which pierced his audiences with laughter. To his mother's great delight he was an outstandingly musical child, unlike his sisters, who inherited their father's indifference to music, while his brother was interested only in cats. His principal operas were II Barbiere and Il fanatico per la musica.

Based in New York and living and working there, de Begnis' experience was typical of Italian and other companies of the period which travelled to present performances in various parts of the East Coast, including Boston and other cities. For a while he successfully managed Palmo's Opera House and given his entrepreneurial skills, in 1842 he made a concerted effort to organize an opera season in New York but encountered a large number of obstacles. In the meantime he had compiled and published The Carcanet, an anthology of vocal music. He made a living as a vocal teacher and in due course he started a profitable pedagogical venture with Madame Mecovino-Malone, an English mezzo soprano that had settled in New York. As late as 1844 he was Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Palmo's Opera House in April and in July; the latter was an eleventh hour notice to replace an indisposed baritone and save the night for Cinti-Domoreau who sang the Rosina.

De Begnis died in New York on 10 August 1849 after contracting cholera. Apparently he chose not to return to Europe by crossing the Atlantic again through fear of sea sickness. According to a British magazine, de Begnis left a large fortune for unnamed heirs, and therefore the estate was passed on to the public administrator of New York, in default of a will. However, in November 1849, Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis placed a claim on the husband's estate which was granted after her death to her daughter Clotilde Fraschini in September 1854.