Eliza Mazzucato Young
{{Short description|American composer and musician}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Eliza Mazzucato Young
| image = ElizaMazzucatoYoung1894.png
| alt = An older white woman with grey hair dressed back in a bun; she is seen in almost profile, wearing a high-collared dress.
| caption = Eliza Mazzucato Young, from an 1894 publication.
| birth_name = Elisa Mazzucato
| birth_date = July 7, 1846
| birth_place = Milan
| death_date = March 27, 1937
| death_place = Beverly Hills, California
| nationality = Italian, American
| other_names = Elisa M. Young
| occupation = composer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Eliza Mazzucato Young (July 7, 1846 – March 27, 1937) was an Italian-born American composer, musician, and educator. She wrote Mr. Sampson of Omaha (1888), one of the first operas by a woman to be produced in the United States.
Early life
Elisa Mazzucato was born in Milan, the daughter of opera composer Alberto Mazzucato and Teresa Bolza, a daughter of Count {{ill|Luigi Bolza|it}}, Austrian police commissioner in Milan.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofsaltlak00tul|title=History of Salt Lake City|last=Tullidge|first=Edward William|date=1886|location=Salt Lake City |publisher=Star Printing Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofsaltlak00tul/page/782 782]–783}}{{cite book |last1=Rutherford |first1=Susan |title=Verdi, Opera, Women |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107043824 |pages=30, 51}}
Her father was the director of the conservatory at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. She studied music with her father, and in London.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1A1HAQAAMAAJ&q=Eliza+Mazzucato+Young&pg=PA200|title=Young Folks Library: Music and drama|date=1911|pages=200–201|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ZnPDAAAQBAJ&q=Eliza+Mazzucato+Young&pg=PA71|title=Women Opera Composers: Biographies from the 1500s to the 21st Century|last=McVicker|first=Mary F.|date=2016-08-03|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786495139|pages=71|language=en}}
Career
Eliza Mazzucato taught at the National Training School of Music in London, before it closed in 1882, and then at the Royal College of Music.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34235073/eliza_mazzucato_young_1897/|title=The Art Divine|date=February 26, 1885|work=The Ogden Standard|access-date=July 25, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} She resigned in 1883 when she married one of the students, an American baritone named Bicknell Young. The couple moved to Salt Lake City in 1885, to open a music school, and they performed together in New York City in 1886. By 1895, they were living in Chicago, performing, touring, and teaching at the Chicago Conservatory.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34235007/eliza_mazzucato_young_1895/|title=Handel Hall Concerts|date=December 29, 1895|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 25, 2019|page=30|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34235073/eliza_mazzucato_young_1897/|title=In an Opening Song Recital|date=December 1, 1897|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 25, 2019|page=8|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite journal|date=November 1892|title=Chicago Conservatory advertisement|url=https://archive.org/details/music13unkngoog/page/n19?q=Mazzucato+Young|journal=Music|volume=3}}
Young composed the music for the comic opera Mr. Sampson of Omaha (1888),{{Citation|title=Mr. Sampson|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.m1508.39150/|work=It's Showtime! Sheet Music from Stage and Screen|access-date=2019-07-25}}{{Cite web|url=http://operadata.stanford.edu/catalog/10133255|title=Mr. Sampson of Omaha|website=Opening Night! Opera and Oratorio Premieres, Stanford University|access-date=2019-07-25}} one of the first operas by a woman to be produced in the United States; the libretto was by Fred Nye.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/americanopera00kirk|url-access=registration|quote=Eliza Mazzucato Young.|title=American Opera|last=Kirk|first=Elise Kuhl|date=2001|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252026232|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanopera00kirk/page/110 110]|language=en}} Sheet music for songs from the opera continued to be published for years after its debut.{{Cite web|url=https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/057/036|title=A Bulgarian Pin|website=The Lester S. Levy Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University|access-date=2019-07-25}} Other compositions by Young included a one-act opera, The Maiden and the Reaper, and short works for voice, including a song in French, "Le Roi Don Juan", and a setting of Psalm 130.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34234538/eliza_mazzucato_young_1896/|title=Numbers by Resident Composers|date=November 30, 1896|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 25, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} She also wrote pedagogical pieces, such as "Staccato Étude in B".{{Cite journal|date=January 1897|title=Editorial Bric-a-brac|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2GwPAAAAYAAJ&q=Eliza+Mazzucato+Young&pg=PA282|journal=Music: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Art, Science, Technic and Literature of Music|volume=11|pages=282}}{{Cite journal|date=November 1896|title=Reviews and Notices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sl21tF88RdAC&q=Elisa+Mazzucato+Young&pg=PA108|journal=Music: A Monthly Magazine, Devoted to the Art, Science, Technic|volume=11|pages=108|last1=Mathews|first1=William Smythe Babcock}}
Personal life
Eliza Mazzucato married fellow musician Brigham Bicknell Young (1856-1938),{{Cite journal|last=Hughes|first=Rupert|date=April 1898|title=American Concert Singers, Part V|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uUYT7cLzY9oC&q=Elisa%20Mazzucato%20Young&pg=PT77|journal=Godey's Magazine|volume=136|pages=407}} a son of Joseph Young and a nephew of Brigham Young, in London in 1883.{{Cite web|url=https://mbeinstitute.org/author/young-bicknell/bicknell-young.html|title=Bicknell Young C.S.B.|website=Mary Baker Eddy Science Institute|access-date=2019-07-25|archive-date=2019-07-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725230743/https://mbeinstitute.org/author/young-bicknell/bicknell-young.html|url-status=dead}} They had three sons, Arrigo Mazzucato Young (1884-1954, born in England),{{Cite web|url=http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/person/2358/|title=Arrigo Mazzucato Young|website=Pacific Coast Architecture Database|access-date=2019-07-25}} Hilgard Bicknell Young (1885-1979, born in Utah), and Umberto Young (1887-1965, born in Utah). Despite her husband's family connections in the Mormon community, the couple were adherents to Christian Science from the 1890s.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/churchmanualfir00eddgoog|quote=Eliza Mazzucato Young.|title=Church Manual of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts|last=Eddy|first=Mary Baker|date=1895|publisher=Christian Science Publishing Society|pages=[https://archive.org/details/churchmanualfir00eddgoog/page/n119 72]|language=en}} Eliza Mazzucato Young died in Beverly Hills, California in 1937, aged 90 years.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30886418/death_notice_for_elisa_mazzucato_young/|title=Elisa Mazzucato Young|date=March 29, 1937|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=July 25, 2019|page=20|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34234619/eliza_mazzucato_young_1937/|title=Elisa Mazzucato Young is Dead in California|date=March 30, 1937|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 25, 2019|page=12|via=Newspapers.com}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://cdmbuntu.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/USHS_Class/id/4222 An image of Eliza Mazzucato Young], from the Utah State Historical Society.
- Libretto of [https://archive.org/details/mrsampsonofomaha00nyef Mr. Sampson of Omaha] on Internet Archive
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Eliza Mazzucato}}
Category:19th-century American composers
Category:19th-century American women musicians
Category:Academics of the Royal College of Music
Category:American Christian Scientists
Category:American music educators
Category:American women music educators
Category:American opera composers
Category:American women opera composers
Category:Italian emigrants to the United States
Category:Italian music educators
Category:Italian women music educators
Category:Italian opera composers
Category:19th-century Austrian women composers