Ennio Porrino (20 January 1910 – 25 September 1959) was an Italian composer and teacher. Amongst his compositions were orchestral works, an

oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...

and several operas and ballets. His best known work is the

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ( ...

''Sardegna'', a tribute to his native

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, which premiered in Florence in 1933.

Life and career

Porrino was born in

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

and studied at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He later studied with

Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions ra ...

from 1932 to 1935. According to

Alfredo Casella Alfredo Casella (25 July 18835 March 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. Life and career Casella was born in Turin, the son of Maria (née Bordino) and Carlo Casella. His family included many musicians: his grandfather, a f ...

, he became one of Respighi's disciples, championing an Italian national music movement and openly opposing composers such as Casella, Dallapiccola, and Malipiero for their

Modernist music In music, modernism is an aesthetic stance underlying the period of change and development in musical language that occurred around the turn of the 20th century, a period of diverse reactions in challenging and reinterpreting older categories o ...

.Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura (2001)
"Porrino, Ennio"
'' Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians''. via

HighBeam Research HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive owned by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage, for thousands of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines, and encyclopedias in English. It was headqua ...

. After Respighi's death in 1936, Porrino and Respighi's widow Elsa completed his unfinished opera ''Lucrezia'' for its posthumous premiere at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

in 1937. In the course of his career, Porrino taught at the conservatories of Rome, Venice, and Naples, and in 1956 became the director of the Cagliari Conservatory. That same year he married Malgari Onnis (born 1935), a painter and theatrical designer. She designed the production of Porrino's last work, the opera '' I Shardana'', which premiered on 21 March 1959, six months before his death. The couple had one daughter, Stefania (born 1957), who became a playwright and stage director.Biblioteca Teatrale del Burcardo
Il Fondo Onnis-Porrino
Retrieved 9 November 2013 . Porrino died in Rome in 1959 at the age of 49. The ''Concorso Internazionale di Pianoforte Ennio Porrino'' was established in his memory in 1980.Associazione Amici della Musica di Cagliari

Retrieved 9 November 2013 .

Selected filmography

* '' The Howl'' (1948) * '' Altura'' (1949)

References

External links

* * Italian opera composers Italian male opera composers 20th-century Italian classical composers 20th-century male composers People from Cagliari 1910 births 1959 deaths Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni 20th-century Italian male musicians Pupils of Ottorino Respighi {{Italy-composer-stub