Giovanni Battista Gordigiani was an Italian opera singer, baritone, composer, and music teacher. He was born on July 17, 1795, in Mantua or Modena, and died in Prague on March 2, 1871. His father, opera singer and composer Antonio Gordigiani, gave him and his brother Luigi their first musical instruction. Giovanni Battista later studied at the Milan Conservatory.
Gordigiani sang for a time with the Florence Opera, then taught in Regensburg. In 1822 he settled in Prague, where he spent the rest of his life. He taught at the Prague Conservatory from 1822 to 1829 and again from 1838 to 1864. His students included Matilda Mallinger, Teresa Stolz, and Alois Jedlička.
Gordigiani focused on Mozart’s operas in his teaching, staging Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, and other works with his students. These productions were performed in Italian, which was unusual for Prague’s 19th-century opera scene. Gordigiani also sang in them, including the roles of Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva.
His compositions included the operas Pygmalion and Consuelo, both from 1845, as well as vocal and choral music and marches. Hector Berlioz, writing about his 1845 visit to Prague, praised Gordigiani’s Stabat for two choirs and described Consuelo, for which Gordigiani also wrote the text, as notable for its melodies and restrained orchestration.