Eliza Mazzucato Young

Eliza Mazzucato Young (July 7, 1846 – March 27, 1937) was an Italian-born American composer, musician, and educator. She wrote Mr. Sampson of Omaha (1888), one of the first operas by a woman to be produced in the United States. Early life Elisa Mazzucato was born in Milan, the daughter of opera composer Alberto Mazzucato and Teresa Bolza, a daughter of Count , Austrian police commissioner in Milan. Her father was the director of the conservatory at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. She studied music with her father, and in London. Career Eliza Mazzucato taught at the National Training School of Music in London, before it closed in 1882, and then at the Royal College of Music. She resigned in 1883 when she married one of the students, an American baritone named Bicknell Young. The couple moved to Salt Lake City in 1885, to open a music school, Young composed the music for the comic opera Mr. Sampson of Omaha (1888), one of the first operas by a woman to be produced in the United States; the libretto was by Fred Nye. Sheet music for songs from the opera continued to be published for years after its debut. Other compositions by Young included a one-act opera, The Maiden and the Reaper,