Giuseppe Capponi

Capponi was born in Cantiano (Pesaro). His parents were Francesco and Lucia Vandiani.

Having a good voice, he began to devote himself to singing (studying there with the composer and Cantiano's maestro di cappella, Natale Pellicci) until he was twenty-five when he entered, as a tenor, the choir of the Cappella della S. Casa di Loreto. There he was lucky enough to meet the tenor F. Borioni, who became interested in his musical education.

After his debut at the Teatro Valle in Rome as a comprimario during the carnival season 1858-59, he took up his first tenor role in Pesaro's carnival season in Norma in 1860

From then, he sang in the most important Italian and foreign opera houses.

In April 1868, he made his debut at La Scala in Don Carlo, replacing the tenor G. Fancelli. On this occasion, he won praise not only for the timbre of his voice, but also for the dramatic expression.

Don Carlo was among other things, one of his favorite roles, and he sang it with success at the Teatro Regio in Turin (1868), Trieste (1868) and Padua (1869).

On August 21 and 22, 1869 for the occasion of the commemoration of Rossini in Pesaro, he participated in the execution of the funeral Mass of Cherubini and Rossini's Stabat mater, conducted by Mariani.

In February 1872, he was chosen by Verdi as the first interpreter Radames in the first Italian performance of Aida at La Scala, but could not due to an illness, and was replaced by G. Fancelli.

Then he participated, together with T. Stolz, M. Waldmann and F. Pandolfini, in a memorable edition of the work carried out in Parma on April 20, 1872 and obtained a triumph; this was followed by other performances in Padua in 1872 and Trieste in 1873.

Verdi chose him for his Messa da Requiem (Milan, Chiesa di S. Marco on May 22, 1874), conducted by Verdi and replicated on May 25 at La Scala under the direction of F. Faccio. Together with Stolz, Waldmann and Maini, he moved to Paris, but his singing did not satisfy Verdi, who wrote about it: "Capponi goes from bad to worse ... he is transposing down by a quarter of a tone ..." (cf. Abbiati, p. 699).

Later, perhaps because he was already aware of an early decline, he left the company, and did not follow them to London and was replaced by A. Masini.

He sang, however, in various Italian opera houses and performed successfully the role of Alvaro in La forza del destino at the Teatro S. Carlo in Napoli (December 21, 1876). He returned to San Carlo in Ero e Leandro by G. Bottesini (April 8, 1880).

He continued to sing until 1882, when his vocal decline became apparent at the Apollo Theater in Rome where he took part in a cut version of La Juive to allow him to get along better with the part.

He retired in Loreto, where he was city councilor, and died there on August 6, 1889.

In addition to many Verdi roles, he sang in Meyerbeer and Donizetti operas, Guarany, Ruy Blas, Jone, ..

Bibliography: P. E. Ferrari, Spettacoli drammatico-musicali e coreogr. in Parma dal 1628 al 1883, Parma 1884, pp. 146, 150, 260, 274;
G. Sacerdote, Teatro Regio di Torino. Cronol. degli spettacoli rappresentati dal 1662 al 1890, Torino 1892, pp. 148 s., 153;
G. Radiciotti, Aggiunte e correzioni ai dizionari biogr. dei musicisti, in La critica musicale, V (1922), pp. 236 s.;
C. Gatti, Verdi, Milano 1931, I, p. 376; II, pp. 196, 239, 269 s.;
R. Celletti, G. C., in Enc. d. Spett., II, Firenze-Roma 1954, coll. 1729 s.;
F. Abbiati, G. Verdi, Milano 1959, ad indicem;
G. Monaldi, Cantanti celebri del sec. XIX, Roma s.d., p. 182;
F. De Filippis-R. Arnese, Cronache del Teatro di S. Carlo (1737-1960), I, Napoli 1961, pp. 89 s.;
C. Schmidl, Diz. univ. dei musicisti, I, p.291;
Casaglia, Gherardo (2005), "Giuseppe Capponi". Once on www.amadeusonline.net;
Kutsch & Riemens;
Luigi Bignami: Cronologia di tutti gli spettacoli rappresentati in Bologna, 1763-1880;
Enciclopedia Treccani.

Un posto d'onore bisogna concedere anche al Capponi, tenore di voce ben timbrata, che vibrava con bello squillo nelle note acute e conservava la purezza del metallo in tuta l'estensione della sua scala. Il Capponi non ha percorso lunga carriera: in compenso però il periodo della sua fioritura è stato ricco e rigoglioso.Gino Monaldi: Cantanti celebri