Count Nicolò Gabrielli di Quercita (21 February 1814 – 14 June 1891) was an Italian opera composer.

Biography

Born in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, at the time when the city was the capital of the

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by popula ...

, Nicolò Gabrielli was the scion of a distinguished yet decayed aristocratic

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

originally from

Gubbio Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennine Mountains, Apennines. History Prehistory The ol ...

and settled thereafter in

Tropea Tropea (; ; ; ) is a municipality in the province of Vibo Valentia, in the Italian region of Calabria. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). Tropea is a seaside resort with sandy beaches, located on ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. He showed since his early childhood a talent for music that led him to enter the

Naples conservatory This is a list of music conservatories in Naples, Italy. Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella The Naples Conservatory of Music is a music school located in Naples, Italy. It is situated in the complex of San Pietro a Majella. It was originally ...

where he studied under the supervision of Nicola Zingarelli and

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''be ...

. He dedicated himself especially to musical composition, and debuted in August 1835 with a melodrama in Neapolitan dialect, ''I dotti per fanatismo''. Nicolò Gabrielli was a very prolific composer, and from 1835 onwards worked at many

melodramas A melodrama is a dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on dial ...

opera buffa Opera buffa (, "comic opera"; : ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramma bernesc ...

s, commedias and farsas, including ''La lettera perduta'' (1836), ''Il Cid'' (1836), ''La parola di matrimonio'' (1837), ''L'americano in fiera ossia Farvest Calelas'' (1837), ''Vinclinda'' (1837), ''L'affamato senza danaro'' (1839), ''Edwige o Il sogno'' (1839), ''Il padre della debuttante'' (1839), ''La marchesa e il ballerino'' (1839), ''Nadan o L'orgoglio punito'' (1839), ''L'assedio di Sciraz ossia L'amor materno'' (1840), ''Basilio III Demetriovitz'' (1841), ''Il bugiardo veritiero'' (1841), ''Il condannato di Saragozza'' (1842), ''La zingara'' (1842), ''Carlo di Rovenstein'' (1843), ''L'assedio di Leyda'' (1843), ''Sara ovvero La pazza delle montagne di Scozia'' (1843), ''Il gemello'' (1845), ''Una passeggiata sul palchetto a vapore verso

Capri Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...

'' (1845), ''Giulia di Tolosa'' (1846), ''Il vampiro'' (1848), ''Bradamante e Ruggero'' (1849), ''Fiorina'' (1849), ''La regina delle rose'' (1850). He also worked at several ballets, including ''Ester d'Engaddi'' (1837), ''Il rajah di Benares'' (1839), that, similarly to other later works, was composed and represented in occasion of the birthday of

Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies Ferdinand II (; ; ; 12 January 1810 – 22 May 1859) was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death in 1859. Family Ferdinand was born in Palermo to King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his second wife Maria Isabella of Spain. ...

, ''Amore alla prova'' (1839), ''Il duca di Ravenna'' (1841), ''Giaffar'' (1841), ''Olga di Cracovia'' (1841), ''L'istituto delle fanciulle'' (1841), ''Il gobbo del Giappone'' (1841), ''La conquista del Messico'' (1842), ''Erissena'' (1845), ''L'orfanella africana'' (1845), ''Merope'' (1846), ''Alcidoro'' (1847), ''Ifigenia in Aulide'' (1847), ''Il trionfo d'amore'' (1848), ''Olema'' (1848), ''Paquita'' (1848), ''Gisella'' (1849), ''I Candiano'' (1849), ''Schariar ovvero Le mille e una notte'' (1849), ''Mocanna'' (1850), ''La stella del marinajo'' (1851). Other ballets were ''Le spose veneziane'' and ''Stefano re di Napoli''. In 1840 he was appointed musical director of the Royal Theatre of San Carlo in

, a position that enabled him to travel all over Italy and abroad and make acquaintance with the international society. In 1854 he was invited by

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

to join the imperial court in Paris, where he debuted at the Opéra with a ballet, ''Gemma'' (1854, libretto by

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...

and choreography by former ballerina Fanny Cerrito). Other works followed, including ''I paggi del Conte di Provenza'' (1856), (1856), ''La ninfa Cloe'' (1857), (1859), ''Melissa, ossia I viaggiatori all'isola incantata'' (1859), (1860), (1861), ''Les memoirs de Fanchette'' (1865). His last work to be represented in a theatre was (1865). The popularity of the ''comte Gabrielli'', as he was known in the aristocratic and artistic circles ''du tout Paris'', gradually decreased after the fall of

and the advent of the

Third French Republic The French Third Republic (, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France duri ...

. A staunch

Bonapartist Bonapartism () is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used in the narrow sense to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In ...

, he went into semi-secluded retirement in his Paris apartment, but still composed the military march '' Simon Bolívar'' (1883), and dedicated it to the

President of Venezuela The president of Venezuela (), officially known as the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (), is the executive head of state and head of government of Venezuela. The president leads the National Executive of the Venezuelan go ...

Antonio Guzmán Blanco Antonio Leocadio Guzmán Blanco (28 February 1829 – 28 July 1899) was a Venezuelan military leader, statesman, diplomat and politician. He was the president of Venezuela for , from 1870 until 1877, from 1879 until 1884, and from 1886 until 1 ...

. A ''cantique'' composed by Nicolò Gabrielli was adopted by the Protestant communities of the French-speaking part of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

as their unofficial hymn, and was later included in the work ''Chants populaires de Suisse romande pour voix mixtes'', published at

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

in 1887. Nicolò Gabrielli was appointed Knight of the French

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

and Knight of the Spanish

Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III (, originally ; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OC3) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bes ...

, both in 1864. He died in Paris in 1891 and was buried in the

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

cemetery. His remains were later moved to the Père Lachaise cemetery in the eastern part of the French capital.

Works

Melodramas, opera buffas, commedias and farsas

* ''I dotti per fanatismo'' (1835) * ''La lettera perduta'' (1836) * ''Il Cid'' (1836) * ''La parola di matrimonio'' (1837) * ''L'americano in fiera ossia Farvest Calelas'' (1837) * ''Vinclinda'' (1837) * ''L'affamato senza danaro'' (1839) * ''Edwige o Il sogno'' (1839) * ''Il padre della debuttante'' (1839) * ''La marchesa e il ballerino'' (1839) * ''Nadan o L'orgoglio punito'' (1839) * ''L'assedio di Sciraz ossia L'amor materno'' (1840) * ''Cante dei Gabrielli'' (1840) * ''Basilio III Demetriovitz'' (1841) * ''Il bugiardo veritiero'' (1841) * ''Il condannato di Saragozza'' (1842) * ''La zingara'' (1842) * ''Carlo di Rovenstein'' (1843) * ''L'assedio di Leyda'' (1843) * ''Sara ovvero La pazza di Scozia'' (1843) * ''Una domenica a Torre del Greco'' (first part of the ''Trittico napoletano'', 1844) * ''Il gemello'' (1845) * ''Una passeggiata sul palchetto a vapore verso Capri'' (second part of the ''Trittico napoletano'', 1845) * ''Giulia di Tolosa'' (1846) * ''L'ascensione al cratere del Vesuvio'' (third part of the ''Trittico napoletano'', 1847) * ''Bradamante e Ruggero'' (1849) * ''Fiorina'' (1849) * ''Il sogno di un emiro'' (1850) * ''La regina delle rose'' (1850) * ''Melissa, ossia I viaggiatori all'isola incantata'' (1859) * ''Le petit cousin'' (1860) * ''Les memoirs de Fanchette'' (1865)

Ballets

* ''Il ritorno d'Ulisse'' (1836) * ''Ester d'Engaddi'' (1837) * ''Il rajah di Benares'' (1839) * ''Amore alla prova'' (1839) * ''Le nozze di un mostro'' (1839) * ''Il duca di Ravenna'' (1841) * ''Giaffar'' (1841) * ''Olga di Cracovia'' (1841) * ''L'istituto delle fanciulle'' (1841) * ''Il gobbo del Giappone'' (1841) * ''La conquista del Messico'' (1842) * ''La zingara'' (1842) * ''I viaggi di Gulliver'' (1843) * ''Erissena'' (1845) * ''L'orfanella africana'' (1845) * ''Merope'' (1846) * ''Alcidoro'' (1847) * ''Ifigenia in Aulide'' (1847) * ''Matilde e Malek-Adhel'' (1847) * “Il vampiro” (1848) * ''Il trionfo d'amore'' (1848) * ''Olema'' (1848) * ''Paquita'' (1848) * ''Gisella'' (1849) * ''I Candiano'' (1849) * ''Schariar ovvero Le mille e una notte'' (1849) * ''La fedeltà premiata'' (1850) * ''Mocanna'' (1850) * ''La stella del marinajo'' (1851) * ''Gemma'' (1856) * ''I paggi del conte di Provenza'' (1856) * ''Les elfes'' (1856) * ''La ninfa Cloe'' (1857) * ''Don Grégoire ou Le précepteur dans l'embarras'' (1859) * ''L'étoile de Messine'' (1861) * ''La fin du monde'' (1865) * ''Le spose veneziane'' (?) * ''Stefano re di Napoli'' (?) * ''Les almées'' (?) * ''Yotte'' (?)

Military marches

* ''Simon Bolivar'' (1883)

References

Sources * Bussi, Francesco (1992) "Gabrielli, Count Nicolò", in ''The

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', ed. Stanley Sadie. London: pub? * Schueneman, Bruce R.; William E. Studwell (1997), "Gabrielli, Count Nicolò", in ''Minor Ballet Composers: Biographical Sketches of Sixty-six Underappreciated Yet Significant Contributors to the Body of Western Ballet Music''. Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, Inc.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gabrielli, Nicolo 1814 births 1891 deaths 19th-century Italian classical composers Italian opera composers Italian male opera composers Musicians from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 19th-century Italian male musicians