Vincenzo Battista

Vincenzo Maria Battista (5 October 1823–14 November 1873) was an Italian composer and conductor. At first his operas were received with enthusiasm by his compatriots. Today none of his works are in the repertoire of any opera companies, despite the fact that in his lifetime they were performed in the most important theatres in Italy.

Life Vincenzo (he preferred Vincenzio) with the soprano Fanny Goldberg, the tenor Gaetano Fraschini and the baritone Filippo Coletti. The Milan based bi-weekly magazine Il Pirata in its review praised each song and each singer and documented how many times Battista was called out by the enthusiastic audience. However, a long and detailed article in Museo di Scienze e Letteratura was less enthusiastic, claiming that Battista was being inspired by the wrong role models, a possible reference to Verdi.

By now his fame was spreading, and his next work, Rosvina de la Forest (1845), was commissioned by La Scala in Milan. His opera Eleonora Dori (1847) had a book by the leading librettist Salvadore Cammarano. Marietta Brambilla created the title role in his opera Irene (1847), while the soprano Balbina Steffenone sang in the première of his Giovanna di Castiglia at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1863.

He set to music Canto V of Dante’s Inferno adapting it to the soprano tessitura.

Later years Battista seems to have suffered the same problem as many other prodigies - an overinflated sense of his own worth. In the salons of Naples Battista would often sing his own salon music with great enthusiasm, much to the amusement of audiences. In addition, an affectionate review of his work in Napoli Musicale commented on his lack of in-depth musical training. Various of his friends blamed the changing tastes of opera goers and his being ignored by the publisher Casa Ricordi and the management of the Teatro San Carlo for his penury and his early death.

The Gazzetta Musicale di Milano (owned by Casa Ricordi) did not give him a separate obituary; instead reporting his passing between reports of a colder than usual winter in Naples and the appointment of a new concert master.

Selected operas Source: Emo (1846) Eleonora Dori (1847) libretto by Salvadore Cammarano Il Corsaro della Guadalupe (1853) Irene (1847) Ermelinda (1851) performed in London in English as Esmeralda, or The Hunchback of Notre Dame (c1856) Ermenilda (1863) Giovanna di Castiglia (1863) Alba d'Oro (1869)