Ottorino Respighi

Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, violist, and music teacher. He was born in Bologna, where he received his first music lessons from his father, a piano teacher. From 1891 he studied at the Bologna Musical Lyceum with Federico Sarti in violin and viola and with Giuseppe Martucci in composition. He also studied under the musicologist Luigi Torchi, from whom he inherited an interest in Italian music of the 16th to 18th centuries.

In 1899 Respighi received a diploma as an instrumentalist and went to Russia, where he played in the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. During this period he also spent five months studying composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He later worked for some time in Moscow, and during his stay in Saint Petersburg and Moscow he mastered the Russian language.

After returning to Bologna, Respighi earned a diploma in composition. He worked as an accompanist at Etelka Gerster's vocal school and played the viola in a quintet directed by Bruno Mugellini. For a time he also performed in Germany, while taking composition lessons from Ferruccio Busoni and Max Bruch. He later devoted himself entirely to composition.

From 1913 Respighi taught at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, and from 1923 to 1926 he served as its director. The most significant part of his legacy is his music for symphony orchestra. His creative development moved from impressionism toward neoclassicism.

In 1916 he composed the symphonic poem The Fountains of Rome, reflecting his impressions of four fountains of the Eternal City. This success was followed by Pines of Rome, Roman Festivals, and the suite The Birds. These works became central to his orchestral output and are especially associated with his name.

Respighi also wrote nine operas, among them Re Enzo, Semirama, Marie Victoire, The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, Belfagor, The Sunken Bell, Maria Egiziaca, La Fiamma, and Lucrezia, the last completed by Elsa Respighi and staged in 1937. His catalogue further includes ballets, concertante works, choral compositions, vocal-orchestral scores, chamber music, and piano music, showing the breadth of his activity across many genres.

Connections

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