Blangini, (Giuseppe Marco Maria) Felice
Blangini, (Giuseppe Marco Maria) Felice
Blangini, (Giuseppe Marco Maria) Felice, Italian composer; b. Turin, Nov. 18, 1781; d. Paris, Dec. 18, 1841. He was a choirboy at Turin Cathedral. In 1799 his family moved to Paris, where he gave concerts. He wrote fashionable romances, and came into vogue as an opera composer when he completed Delia-Maria’s opera La Fausse Duègne (1802); he was also popular as a singing teacher. After producing an opera in Munich, he was appointed court Kapellmeister (1805). He later was Generalmusikdirektor at Kassel (1809), and upon his return to Paris in 1814, he was made superintendent of the King’s music, court composer, and prof. of singing at the Cons., positions which he held until 1830. His works include 30 operas, 4 masses with Orch., 170 nocturnes for 2 Voices, 174 romances for 1 Voice, etc. See his autobiography, Souvenirs de F. B., ed. by M. de Villemarest (Paris, 1834).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire