Santoliquido, Francesco

Santoliquido, Francesco Italian composer; b. San Giorgio a Cremano, Naples, Aug. 6, 1883; d. Anacapri, Aug. 26, 1971. He studied at the Liceo di Santa Cecilia in Rome, graduating in 1908. In 1912 he went to live in Hammamet, a village in Tunisia, spending part of each year in Rome; in 1933 he made his home in Anacapri. Many of his compositions contain melodic inflections of Arabian popular music. He publ. Il Dopo-Wagner, Claudio Debussy e Richard Strauss (Rome, 1909; second ed., 1922); also books of verse; wrote short stories in Eng. His third wife was the pianist and teacher Ornelia (née Puliti) Santoliquido (b. Florence, Sept. 4, 1906; d. there, Nov. 11, 1977). She studied with Brugnoli, and, after receiving her diploma at the Florence Cons., she continued her training with Casella in Rome and Cortot in Paris. She was a teacher at the Rome Cons. (1939–71); played in chamber-music concerts; became an advocate of contemporary music.

Works

DRAMATIC : Opera: La Favola di Helga (Milan, Nov. 23, 1910); Ferhuda (Tunis, Jan. 30, 1919); L’Ignota (1921; not perf.); La porta verde, musical tragedy (Bergamo, Oct. 15, 1953). Ba11et : La Bajadera dalla maschera gialla (1917). ORCH.: Crepuscolo sul mare (Nuremberg, Jan. 19, 1909, composer conducting); Acquarelli (1914; Rome, April 11, 1923); II profumo delle oasi sahariane (1915; Tunis, April 17, 1918); 2 syms. (1916; c. 1927); La sagra dei morti, heroic elegy for the victims of World War I (1920); Grotte di Capri (1925; rev. 1943); Preludio e Burlesca for Strings (1938); Alba di gloria sul passo Uarièu, symphonic prelude (1939; Rome, Nov. 13, 1940); Santuari asiatici, symphonic sketches (1952). chamber : Violin Sonata (1924); String Quartet (1931); Aria antica for Cello and Piano; Chiarita lunare for Violin and Piano; 2 pezzi for 5 Wind Instruments. Piano : Piccola ballata; 2 acquaforti tunisine. VOCAL : Song cycle after P. Louÿs; Messa facile for Chorus.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire