Italo Montemezzi

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Italo Montemezzi (May 31, 1875-May 15, 1952) was an Italian composer. He was perhaps best known for his opera, L'amore dei tre re (The Love of the Three Kings).

Montemezzi was born in Vigasio, near Verona. He studied music at the Milan Conservatory and subsequently taught harmony there for one year. Next to Puccini he was the most talented Italian composer of his time.[1]

His opera, L’amore dei tre re, written in 1913, launched his career and enabled him to devote himself to composition. In 1919 he visited the United States, conducting the American premier of his opera La Nave (Chicago Opera Association, November 18), which had its world premiere in Milan (1918). He lived in California from 1939, but made frequent trips to Italy and returned permanently in 1949.

As a composer, Montemezzi was admired for combining traditional Italian lyricism with a Wagnerian approach to the use of the orchestra in opera, with instrumental color influenced by the works of Debussy.

[edit] Operas

• Bianca 1901 (never performed)
• Giovanni Gallurese (Turin, 1905)
• Hellera (Turin, 1909)
• L'amore dei tre re (Milan, 1913; New York, 1914]]
• La nave (Milan, 1918)
• La Principessa Lontana
• La notte di Zoraima 1931
• L'incantesimo 1943