Roberto Lupi (28 November 1908 – 17 April 1971) was an Italian composer, conductor, and music theorist. Born in Milan and trained at the conservatory there, he began his conducting career in 1937. His compositions of experimental music included large-scale works for chorus and orchestra, chamber music, and stage works. However, Lupi's most widely heard piece was his ' for

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

(or, sometimes,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

), harp and strings which was played each night from 1954 to 1986 at the close of

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terr ...

television transmissions. He held the chair in composition at the

Florence Conservatory The Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini is located in piazza delle Belle Arti in Florence. The conservatory, among the most important in Italy, is named after the Florentine composer Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842). History The conservatory occupies pa ...

from 1941 until his death and published three books on music theory, the last of them posthumously. From the 1950s his theoretical approach and his compositions, especially his stage works, were strongly influenced by the ideas of

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...

Life and career

Lupi was born in Milan to Maria ''née'' Torelli and Ermanno Lupi. His father was a school teacher and talented amateur violinist from

Guastalla Guastalla ( Guastallese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Reggio Emilia in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Geography Guastalla is situated in the Po Valley, and lies on the banks of the Po River. Guastalla is located at around from the citi ...

. His grandfather had been a professional violinist who died on a concert tour of South America in 1895. While his father was away in World War I, the family moved to back to Guastalla where Lupi began his music studies at the age of 8. When the war ended the family returned to Milan and he continued his studies at the

Milan Conservatory The Milan Conservatory (''Conservatorio di Milano'') is a college of music in Milan, Italy. History The conservatory was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year ...

. He received diplomas in piano (1927) and cello (1928) before he began his study of composition under

Arrigo Pedrollo Arrigo Pedrollo (5 December 1878 in Montebello Vicentino – 23 December 1964 in Vicenza) was an Italian composer. His father was his first teacher; at thirteen he went to study at the Milan Conservatory. Among his teachers there was Gaetano ...

, graduating from the conservatory in 1934. In 1937 he won the first Rassegna Nazionale, a competition for young conductors, and after period of further study at the

Accademia di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ( en, National Academy of St Cecilia) is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prom ...

with Bernardino Molinari, began an active career as a conductor.Affortunato, Tiziana (2006)
"Lupi, Roberto"
''

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' ( en, Biographical Dictionary of the Italians) is a biographical dictionary published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1925 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biogra ...

'', vol. 66.

Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' ( Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language ...

. Retrieved 18 March 2016 .Pironti, Alberto and Pozzi, Raffaele (2001)
"Lupi, Roberto"

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and the ...

. Retrieved 18 March 2016 .

Stage works

*''Orfeo'', choreographed cantata to a libretto based on Book IV of Virgil's ''

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

'', choreography by Janine Charrat. Premiere:

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice bec ...

, Venice, 19 September 1951 *''La nuova Euridice'', opera (''mistero melodrammatico'') in three acts to a libretto by Maria Della Quercia (Eva Bagni). Premiere:

Teatro Donizetti The Teatro Donizetti is an opera house in Bergamo, Italy. Built in the 1780s using a design by architect Giovanni Francesco Lucchini, the theatre was originally referred to as either the Teatro Nuovo or Teatro di Fiera. The first opera to be mo ...

, Bergamo, 3 October 1957 *''La danza di Salomè'', opera in one act set to an anonymous 14th century text. Premiere:

Teatro della Pergola The Teatro della Pergola is an historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name. It was built in 1656 under the patronage of Cardinal Gian Carlo de' Me ...

, Florence, 11 May 1960 *''Persefone'', opera in one act to a libretto by Maria Della Quercia (Eva Bagni) based on the myth of

Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld afte ...

, choreography by Giulio Chazalettes. Premiere: Teatro Comunale, Florence, 9 January 1970

Music theory

*''Armonia di gravitazione''. Rome: De Santis,1946 *''Ars bene movendi''. Milan: Carish, 1969 * ''Il libro segreto di un musicista''. Florence: Nardini, 1972

References

External links

*, RAI

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music {{DEFAULTSORT:Lupi, Roberto 1908 births 1971 deaths Italian male conductors (music) Milan Conservatory alumni Musicians from Milan 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century Italian male musicians Italian male classical composers 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century classical composers