Giordano, Umberto (1867–1948)

Italian composer. He was a popular composer in the tradition of romantic realism that was the vogue at the end of the 19th century, and most of his themes were melodramatic. He is best known for the operas Andrea Chénier (1896), set in the French Revolution, Fedora (1898), and the comic Il rè/The King (1929).

Giordano was born in Foggia, the son of an artisan. He was allowed to learn music as best he could, but in the end studied at the Naples Conservatory under Paolo Serrao. He attracted the attention of the publisher Edoardo Sonzogno (1836–1920) with the opera Marina (1889), written while he was still a student, and soon became very successful with a series of stage works.

Works Opera Marina (1889), Mala vita (1892), Regina Diaz (1894), Andrea Chénier (1896), Fedora (after Sardou, 1898), Siberia (1903), Marcella, Mese Mariano, Madame Sans-Gêne (after Sardou and Moreau, 1915), Giove a Pompei (with Franchetti), La cena delle beffe (1924), Il rè (1929).