Masetti was a lyric tenor and a teacher. He studied music at the Bologna Conservatory with D. Martucci. In 1891, he
appeared both as a concert singer and as conductor. Five years later, he became assistant of A. Buzzi. Between
1895 and 1899, Masetti was a singing teacher at the Conservatory. R. Stracciari, F. Carpi, Pellicioni, Ja. Rubinstein (Son of A. Rubinstein) were his
students in Italy.
Between 1899 and 1919, Masetti was the director of the singing department at the Moscow Conservatory.
Because Masetti was an artist of high singing culture, an exact and thorough expert of the mechanism of singing,
he succeded in discovering and promoting the artistic personality of his students. As one of the most important singing teachers
of his time, he trained a whole generation of Russian singers and singing teacher
Among his students were:
L. Adamovich, A. V. Alexandrov, F. Bakhman, V. Barsova,
I. Bereznegovskij, N. Bravin, B. Bugajskij, K. Chugunov, O. Danilchenko, A. Dolivo, M. Gukhova,
E. V. Ivanova, A. Karatov, V. Karmilov, A. Kiselevskaja, A. K. Konchevskij, E. Konjus, N. Koshits,
M. Kurenko, M. Kurzhijamskij,
V. Ljuminarskij, Z. Maljutina, E. Malkowich, A. Nezhdanova, N. Obukhova, A. Orlovskaja, O. Pavlova, V. Politkovskij, E. Popello-Davidova, E. Popova,
A. Preobrazhenskij, R. Romanov-Dobrzhanskij, V. Sadovnikov, S. Shatskij, P. Skuba, S. Streltsov, N. Strizhenova, K. Tugarinova,
M. Vladimirova, E. Zhukovskaja...
He composed three operas (given with Masetti conducting in Rome and Bologna), some symphonies and several romances.
Other works include: Short singing instructions for my students, 1912; Singing school (textbook, 1895, translated from Italian
by A. S. Yakovleva, see her doctoral thesis "The famous professors of the Moscow Conservatory at the beginning of the 20th century",
1975, vol. 2, p. 93-141), State Library, Leningrad.
Bibliography:
A. Jakovleva: Umberto Masetti and his pedagogical views. Problems of vocal pedagogy, Article collection, Leningrad 1978, 5. Printing, p. 110-134
M. Lvov: A. V. Nezhdanova, Moscow 1952, P. 28-38, 220-222
I. K. Nazarenko: Singing art: studies and materials about the history, theory and practice of artistic singing. Text collection, Moscow 1968, p. 242
Antonina Vasilevna Nezhdanova: Materials and research, Moscow 1967
Nadezhda Andreevna Obukhova: Recollections – Articles – Materials, Moscow 1970
A. M. Pruzhanskij: Otechestvennie pevtsi, 1750–1917, Moscow 1991, Sovetskij kompozitor, part 1
