Franco Leoni

Franco Leoni (24 October 1864 – 8 February 1949) was an Italian opera composer. After training in Milan, he made most of his career in England, composing for Covent Garden and West End theatres. He is best known for the opera L'Oracolo, written for Covent Garden but taken up successfully by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In addition to his operas, Leoni wrote several cantatas and oratorios and many ballads and other songs. He also worked as a conductor in London, both in the concert hall and in the theatre.

Leoni was born in Milan and studied music at the Milan Conservatory under Amilcare Ponchielli and Cesare Dominiceti. His opera Raggio di Luna (Moonbeam) to a libretto by Camillo Zanoni was first performed at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan in June 1890. Two years later, Leoni emigrated to England, which remained his home until 1917. At first he worked for the music publisher Chappell & Co., for whom he wrote "charming songs for our most famous vocalists." In 1896, he wrote what he called "a dramatic musical poem", "Sardanapalus", inspired by Byron's 1821 play of the same name. The work, for soloists, chorus and orchestra, was premiered at the Queen's Hall and was well reviewed, although reviewers commented on the influence of earlier composers on the score.

In 1897, Leoni's operatic version of Rip van Winkle was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre. The libretto, based on the story by Washington Irving, was by William Akerman. The score was through-composed, with no spoken dialogue, and received qualified praise from critics. One wrote: "Colour of a sort there is in the music, and some dramatic point, but of downright individuality and humour there is little" (The Times). Another commented, "Mr Leoni's instrumentation is clever, but there is a little too much of it" (Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper). A third stated, "his music flows on with the alternate suavity, passion and grace characteristic of modern Italian composers" (The Morning Post). A recurrent theme in criticisms of Leoni's music was that it was not strikingly individual: "Mr Leoni's score is throughout melodious, dramatically appropriate, well and picturesquely orchestrated … the composer's chief fault at present is his excellent memory [for] the works of Dvořák, Mascagni, Wagner, Bizet." The opera ran briefly and was taken off after a month. In 1898, Leoni presented another choral work, the cantata, The Gate of Life, which was premiered by the Royal Choral Society in March of that year and was then taken up by other choirs. Also in 1898, he took on the role of musical director for a West End show, conducting the theatre orchestra for the run of "The Topsy-Turvy Hotel" by Victor Roger and Lionel Monckton. He also took on the conductorship of the newly formed Queen's Hall Choral Society.

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