Ferdinando Bertoni
{{Short description|Italian composer and organist (1725–1813)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ferdinando Gasparo Bertoni
| image = Ferdinando Bertoni.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth-date|15 August 1725}}
| birth_place = Salò
| death_date = {{death date and age|1813|12|1|1725|8|15|df=y}}
| death_place = Desenzano del Garda
| nationality = Italian
| other_names =
| occupation = Composer and organist.
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = *Composed 70 operas
- Composed 200 sacred works
}}
Ferdinando Gasparo Bertoni (15 August 1725 – 1 December 1813) was an Italian composer and organist.
Early years
He was born in Salò, Republic of Venice, and began his music studies in Brescia, not far from his birthplace. Around 1740 he went to Bologna, where he studied until 1745 with the famous music theorist Giovanni Battista Martini.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/ferdinando-bertoni-sacred-choral-works|title=Ferdinando Bertoni: Sacred Choral Works|last=Anderson|first=Nicholas|date=2013-01-09|website=www.gramophone.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-03-21}}
Career
Then he moved to Venice, where in 1752 he was appointed as first organist at San Marco. From 1755 to 1777 he was choirmaster at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti, also in Venice. In the period 1778–1783 he was in London, where he composed operas for the King's Theatre. Back to Venice in 1784, he succeeded Baldassare Galuppi in 1785 as Kapellmeister of San Marco and preserved this position until his retirement in 1808.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ferdinando-bertoni-mn0001481832/biography|title=Ferdinando Bertoni {{!}} Biography & History {{!}} AllMusic|website=AllMusic|access-date=2018-03-21}}
Works
A prolific writer of church music, Bertoni also composed 70 operas which fell into oblivion, except Orfeo{{Cite web|url=https://www.discovery-records.com/product-ST84919/ferdinando-bertoni/orfeo-ed-euridice.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180321192804/https://www.discovery-records.com/product-ST84919/ferdinando-bertoni/orfeo-ed-euridice.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=March 21, 2018|title=Ferdinando Bertoni, Label Fra Bernardo|website=www.discovery-records.com|access-date=2018-03-21}} (Venice, Teatro San Benedetto, 1776), based on the same libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi for the work of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice (Burgtheater, Vienna, 1762).{{Cite web|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/ferdinando-bertoni-sacred-choral-works|title=Ferdinando Bertoni: Sacred Choral Works|last=Anderson|first=Nicholas|date=2013-01-09|website=www.gramophone.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-03-21}} Bertoni composed this work especially for his friend Gaetano Guadagni, a castrato, who would interpret the role of Orfeo (the same role he had interpreted in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice). Bertoni generally ignored Gluck's reforms and composed the work in the old style of opera seria.{{Cite web|url=https://bamptonopera.org/operadetail.htm?event=74|title = Welcome to Bampton Classical Opera}} Bertoni composed at least 200 sacred works (including about 50 oratorios) and cantatas, instrumental work and chamber music.{{Cite web|url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Ferdinando-Bertoni/Composer/1045-1|title=Ferdinando Bertoni {{!}} ArkivMusic|website=www.arkivmusic.com|language=en|access-date=2018-03-21}}
Death
He died in Desenzano del Garda.
Performances
File:Orfeo_%26_Blessed_Spirits.jpg in 2014, with Anna Starushkevych in the title role]]
Bampton Classical Opera performed his opera Orfeo ed Euridice in 2014, singing in English.{{cite web| url=https://www.bamptonopera.org/operadetail.htm?event=74|title=Orfeo Bertoni|access-date=28 November 2020}}
Recordings
- https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/206063--bertoni-f-addio-o-miei-sospiro-from-tancredi/browse
Orfeo ed Euridice
- https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/bertoni-orfeo-ed-euridice
- https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7955759--bertoni-f-orfeo
- https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-14353/
- https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8006849--vivaldi-stabat-mater
- Anna Starushkevych, the Ukrainian mezzo-soprano, explains how she prepares for a role, including (from about 7:40) her role in Bampton Classical Opera's production of Bertoni's Orfeo ed Euridice.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ1I1HEgz4s&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3ehRQ-z17EAnfSX7bPgf16NnvsvReHO3AAkjo2S1bqjk0FM0dogQExeso |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/UQ1I1HEgz4s |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Role Preparation Process. Anna Starushkevych|website=YouTube |date=30 June 2020 |access-date=15 November 2020}}{{cbignore}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{ChoralWiki}}
- {{IMSLP|id=Bertoni, Ferdinando}}
{{Maestri di cappella at Saint Mark's Basilica}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertoni, Ferdinando}}
Category:Musicians from the Republic of Venice
Category:Italian Classical-period composers
Category:Italian classical organists
Category:Italian male classical organists
Category:Italian opera composers