A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Blangini, Giuseppe

by Franz Gehring

BLANGINI, Giuseppe Marco Maria Felice, celebrated tenor-singer, teacher of singing, and composer, was born Nov. 18, 1781. At the age of 9 he was admitted into the choristers' school of Turin Cathedral. He made rapid progress in music under the Abbate Ottani, a pupil of Padre Martini. By the time he was 12 he composed a motet and a Kyrie. His favourite instrument was the violoncello. His singing was so exquisite that he is said by it to have revived Baron Stackelberg the Russian ambassador at Turin after he had been given up by the physicians. When the war broke out in 1797 his family took refuge in France, but it was not till 1799 that Blangini went to Paris, where he soon became the fashionable composer of songs (Romances et nocturnes), and teacher of singing. In 1802 he was commissioned to complete Delia Maria's unfinished opera 'La fausse Duègne,' which was followed in 1803 by 'Chimère et Réalité,' both for the Théâtre Feydeau, and in 1806 by 'Nephtali ou les Ammonites,' for the Grand Opéra. In 1805 he was called to Munich, where he produced 'Encore un tour de Caliphe,' and composed 'Ines de Castro,' and 'Les Fêtes Lacédemoniennes,' which were not performed. In 1806 Napoleon's sister, Princess Borghese, appointed him her chapel-master, and in 1809 King Jerome made him his 'General Musik-director' at Cassel. In 1811 Blangini produced at Cassel 'Le Sacrifice d'Abraham,' and 'L'Amour philosophe,' and at the Feydeau in Paris 'Les Femmes vengées.' In 1814 he returned to Paris, and was appointed 'Surintendant de la musique du Roi.' The whole fashionable world, particularly the Faubourg St. Germain, thronged to him for lessons. He drew up a list of his pupils which reads like Leporello's catalogue in Don Giovanni, as it includes 3 Queens, 12 Princesses, 25 Countesses, etc. Blangini was an indefatigable composer of operas, though none of much interest were performed in Paris before 'La Marquise de Brinvilliers ' (1831), in which Cherubini and Caraffa worked with him. One of the songs from Nephtali is still occasionally heard at a concert. His 'Romances,' in 34 numbers, continued in favour long after his death, which took place Dec. 18, 1841. His friend Maxime de Villemarest published his autobiography under the title 'Souvenirs de Blangini, maître de chapelle du Roi de Bavière, etc.' (Paris, 1834). The book is interesting, and gives an excellent picture of an artist's footing in society at that period.

[ F. G. ]