Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886), best known for his opera La Gioconda, was born in Paderno Fasolaro near Cremona. He won a scholarship at the age of 9 to study music at the Milan Conservatory. In 1856 he wrote his first opera, based on Alessandro Manzoni's great novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi), and it was as an opera composer that he eventually found fame. The turning point was the big success of the revised version of I promessi sposi in 1872, which brought him a contract with the music publisher G. Ricordi & Co. and the musical establishment at the Conservatory and at La Scala. First performed in 1876, La Gioconda was a major success for Ponchielli. Set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on a play in prose by Victor Hugo it is a famous example of the Italian genre of Grande opera, the equivalent of French Grand-Opéra. The opera contains the famous ballet Dance of the Hours as the third act finale. After La Gioconda, Ponchielli wrote the monumental biblical melodrama in four acts Il figliuol prodigo given in Milan in 1880, and Marion Delorme, from another play by Victor Hugo, which was also presented at La Scala five years later. In spite of their rich musical invention, neither of these operas met with the same success but both exerted great influence on the composers of the rising generation, such as Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and Umberto Giordano.