Giuseppe Pietri

He studied harmony and counterpoint with Amintore Galli. He composed operas in versistical tradition, but it was his operettas that made him a popular success. He developed an independent Italian idiom for the operetta. The most famous was L'acqua cheta, which premiered in Rome in 1920. The text was from a 1908 Tuscan dialect piece by Augusto Novelli, a romantic comedy in the Florentine petty bourgeois style. Rompicollo was premiered in 1928 in Milan, and was translated into German as Das große Rennen ("The Big Race").

• Calendimaggio, libretto by Pietro Gori, Florence 1910 • Ruy Blas, based on Victor Hugo, Bologna 1916 • Maristella, Naples 1934 (excerpts available on CD from Myto Records, with Rina Gigli and Agostino Lazzari, 1956) • Bionda Rondine, Livorno 1937 • La canzone di San Giovanni, San Remo 1939

• In Flemmerland, libretto by Antonio Rubino, Teatro Fossati, Milan, 1913 • Addio giovinezza ("Adieu, Youth"), libretto by Sandro Camasio and Nino Oxilia, Teatro Goldoni, Livorno, 1915 • La modella, libretto by Antonio Lega and Alfredo Testoni, Teatro Quirino, Rome, 1917 • Lucciola, libretto by Carlo Veneziani, Teatro Leopoldo, Livorno, 1918 • L'acqua cheta ("Still Waters"), libretto by Augusto Novelli and Angelo Nessi, National Dramatic Theatre, Rome, 1920 • L'ascensione, libretto by Augusto Novelli, Teatro della Pergola, Florence, 1922 • Guarda, guarda la mostarda!, libretto by Giovanni Antonio Colonna di Cesarò, Teatro dei Piccoli, Rome, 1923 • La donna perduta, libretto by Guglielmo Zorzi and Guglielmo Giannini, Teatro Adriano, Rome, 1923 • Quartetto vagabondo, libretto by Enrico Serretta, Teatro Eliseo, Rome, 1924 • Namba Zaim, libretto by Carlo Veneziani, Teatro Lirico, Milan, 1926 • Prima Rosa, libretto by Carlo Lombardo and Renato Simoni, Teatro Lirico, Milan, 1926 • Tuffolina, libretto by Augusto Novelli, Politeama, Genoa, 1927 • Rompicollo ("The Race"), libretto by Luigi Bonelli and Ferdinando Paolieri, Teatro Dal Verme, Milan, 1928 • L'isola verde, libretto by Carlo Lombardo, Teatro Lirico, Milan, 1929 • Casa mia casa mia..., libretto by Augusto Novelli and Angelo Nessi, Teatro Quirino, Rome, 1930 • Gioconda Zappaterra, libretto by Giulio Bucciolini, Teatro Alfieri, Florence, 1930 • La dote di Jeannette, libretto by Arturo Rossato, Teatro Principe, Rome, 1931 • Vent'anni, libretto by Luigi Bonelli, Teatro Quirino, Rome, 1932