Feliciano Strepponi

Feliciano Cristoforo Bartolomeo Strepponi (26 October 1793 – 13 January 1832) was an Italian composer and conductor. He was born in Lodi and died in Trieste at the age of 38. Amongst his compositions were seven operas which had a modest success in their day. The last one, L'Ullà di Bassora, premiered at La Scala in 1831. He was the father and first teacher of the opera singer Giuseppina Strepponi who later became the second wife of Giuseppe Verdi.

Strepponi was born in the northern Italian city of Lodi to Maria (née Destefani) and Giuseppe Strepponi. Although some older sources give his birth year as 1797, research published in 2006 by Lodi historian Maria Moretti gives his birth date as 26 October 1793. He was baptised the following day with the name Feliciano Cristoforo Bartolomeo. The Strepponi family were intellectuals and liberal-minded supporters of Napoleon Bonaparte. They also had a strong interest in music with several members of the family having attended the Milan Conservatory. Strepponi's older brother Francesco became the maestro di cappella at the Church of the Beata Vergine Incoronata in Lodi. His sister Giovanna was a schoolmistress in the city.

Strepponi showed a precocious talent for music. In 1812 (aged 19), he conducted the Te Deum at the Lodi Cathedral celebrating the return of Napoleon Bonaparte. That year he met Rosa Cornalba (1793–1870), a native of Lodi who came from a family of modest shopkeepers and artisans distantly related to the noble Barberini family. They married on 3 November 1814 to an organ accompaniment composed by Strepponi's brother Francesco. Giuseppina, the first of their six children (four of whom survived to adulthood), was born on 9 September 1815. In 1820 Strepponi received his diploma from the Milan Conservatory winning a special prize in composition. His first opera, Amore e fedeltà alla prova premiered at the theatre in Lodi that same year.

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