Giuseppe de Begnis

Giuseppe de Begnis (1793-10 August 1849) was an operatic bass singer. Born in Lugo di Romagna, he started his musical education when he was 7 years old, under Padre Bongiovanni, and sang soprano in the church. At age 15 he had serious problems with his voice and began studying acting under Mandini, a famous actor of the time. His father did not want Giuseppe to become a comedian and in due course the young man became a pupil of the composer Giovanni Morandi, the husband of the singer Rosa Morandi.

In the autumn of 1816 he married the soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis in Bologna and they were together until 1825. His countenance was seriously affected by smallpox, but he was skilled at applying make-up and on stage he gave no evidence of facial disfigurement.

By 1815 he had established himself in a promising career which continued until the late 1820s in Italy, France and London and then in Northern Ireland from 1829 where he also ran an opera company. He continued to sing and manage opera companies in Scotland and from New York from 1838, where he lived until his death in 1849. He has been described as "an ideal interpreter of Rossini's comic operas".

De Begnis made his debut in Modena during the Carnival 1813 season as a primo buffo in Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio. He was greeted by generous applause and this proved to him that he was moving in the right direction. From there he went to Forli and Rimini, ending the first year of his professional career again in Modena. For the new carnival season he was in Siena for the inauguration of the newly built Teatro degli Accademici Rozzi. There he sang the most demanding role of Uberto in Ferdinando Paër's Agnese – an opera semi-seria that includes one of the earliest and most dramatic mad scenes. This was a challenge that did not intimidate the young de Begnis because he had studied and refined his acting; in fact, the audience responded with enthusiasm and he was praised "both as an actor and singer".

This was followed by an equally successful Selim in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia. His familiarization with stage and public, as well as with colleagues and musicians, was a learning process that enabled him to aim higher. From Tuscany he moved on to Ferrara, Badia, and Trieste. At the Teatro Nuovo of the latter town he sang Don Placenzio in Luigi Caruso's Così si fa alle donne, followed by Carlo Coccia's farsa per musica La Matilde; Giuseppe Farinelli's Teresa e Claudio; Pietro Carlo Guglielmi's Don Papirio; and Filippo Celli's Don Timonella di Piacenza.

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