Zandonai, Riccardo (1883–1944)

Italian composer. His greatest success was with the verismo (extravagant) opera Francesca da Rimini in 1914, which is still performed in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera House.

Zandonai studied at Roveredo and later at the Liceo Musicale of Pesaro, where Mascagni was director. He left in 1902 and at Milan met the librettist Arrigo Boito, who introduced him to the publisher Giulio Ricordi, by whom his first opera was commissioned.

Works Opera Il grillo sul focolare (after Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth, 1908), Conchita (after Louÿs's La Femme et le pantin, 1911), Melenis (1912), La via della finestra, Francesca da Rimini (on d'Annunzio's play, 1914), Giulietta e Romeo (after Shakespeare, 1922), I cavalieri di Ekebù (after Selma Lagerlöf, 1925), Giuliano (1928), La farsa amorosa (1933), Una partitia.

Orchestral and choral film music for Princess Tarakanova; Requiem (1915), Pater noster for chorus, organ, and orchestra; Ballata eroica, Fra gli alberghi delle Dolomiti, Quadri di Segantini (1931), Rapsodia trentina, overture Colombina for orchestra; Concerto romantico for violin and orchestra (1919); serenade and Concerto andaluso for cello and orchestra.

Other string quartet; songs.