Schira, Francesco (1809–1883)

Italian composer and conductor. He studied at the Conservatory of Milan where he produced his first opera in 1832. On the strength this he was engaged as conductor and composer for the Opera at Lisbon, where he also taught at the Conservatory. In 1842 he left for Paris in the hope of obtaining a French librettist, but met the manager of the Princess's Theatre in London, who engaged him as a conductor. In 1844 he went to the Drury Lane Theatre as Benedict's successor, and in 1848 to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He remained in London to his death. In 1873 the Birmingham Festival commissioned a cantata from him.

Works Operas Elena e Malvina (1832), I cavalieri di Valenza (1837), Il fanatico per la musica, Kenilworth (in English, after Scott), Mina (1849), Theresa, the Orphan of Geneva (1850), Niccolo de' Lapi, Selvaggia (1875), Lia, operetta The Ear-Ring.

Other works cantata The Lord of Burleigh (after Tennyson); vocal trios and duets; songs.