Fabio Campana

Fabio Campana (14 January 1819 – 2 February 1882) was an Italian composer, opera director, conductor, and singing teacher who composed eight operas which premiered between 1838 and 1869. He was born in Livorno, the city where his first two operas premiered, but in the early 1850s he settled in London. There he opened a famous singing school, conducted concerts, and continued his reputation as a prolific and popular composer of art songs and concert arias. It was first performed on 14 August 1838 at the Teatro degli Avvalorati in Livorno, with Verdi’s future wife Giuseppina Strepponi in the title role. The opera was warmly received as was his next opera Giulio d’Este which premiered at the same theatre in 1841. Campana also directed several operas at the theatre, including Mercadante’s Il giuramento (1839), Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (1840), Meyerbeer’s Il crociato in Egitto (1840), and Bellini’s Il pirata (1840). In 1850 Campana had gone to Paris, armed with a letter of recommendation from Rossini to seek a position at the Théâtre des Italiens which at that time was run by Benjamin Lumley. The first of his “Grand Matinee Musicale” concerts took place in 1854 under the patronag