Mario Pasquale Costa (24 July 1858 –27 September 1933) was a prolific Italian composer primarily known for his

art song An art song is a Western world, Western vocal music Musical composition, composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical music, classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is ...

s, Neapolitan songs, and

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

s. Costa was born in

Taranto Taranto (; ; previously called Tarent in English) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Taranto, serving as an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base. Founded by Spartans ...

to Angelo and Maria Giuseppa ''née '' Malagisi. His father was a customs official, but the Costa family numbered several notable composers and musicians, including Costa's uncle Michael Costa and his great-grandfather

Giacomo Tritto Giacomo Domenico Mario Antonio Pasquale Giuseppe Di Tritto (2 April 1733 – 16 September 1824) was an Italian composer, known primarily for his fifty-four operas. He was born in Altamura, and studied in Naples; among his teachers were Nicola ...

. Costa studied composition, piano and singing at the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory in Naples under another uncle Carlo Costa, Paolo Serrao, and

Giuseppe Martucci Giuseppe Martucci (; 6 January 1856, in Capua – 1 June 1909, in Naples) was an Italians, Italian composer, conductor (music), conductor, pianist and teacher. Sometimes called "the Italian Brahms", Martucci was notable among Italian composers of ...

.Meloncelli, Raoul (1984)
"Costa, Pasquale Antonio Cataldo Maria"
''

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' () is a biographical dictionary published in 100 volumes by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1960 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biographies of distinguished Italia ...

'', Vol. 30. Treccani. Online version retrieved 18 December 2017 .Sanvitale, Francesco (2002
''La romanza italiana da salotto''
pp. 302–305. EDT srl. By the age of 17, Costa had already published numerous art songs. Possessed of an attractive

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

voice, he often performed them himself for the first time. Between 1881 and 1884 he lived and worked in London where Italian songs were very much in vogue. On his return to Naples, he became very active in the revival of the Neapolitan musical tradition. After 1920 he concentrated on composing operettas, pantomimes, and ballets. Costa died in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

in 1933. The following year his remains were brought to Taranto and placed in a monumental tomb erected by the city.Sanvitale, Francesco (1991)
''Tosti''
pp. 171–172. EDT srl.

References

External links

Scores by Mario Pasquale Costa
on the

International Music Score Library Project The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project uses MediaWiki software, and ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Mario Pasquale 1858 births 1933 deaths Italian classical composers Italian male classical composers Italian male songwriters Italian songwriters Operetta composers People from Taranto