Riccardo Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai (28 May 1883 – 5 June 1944) was an Italian composer and conductor.
Riccardo Zandonai

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- Full name
- Riccardo Antonio Francesco Zandonai.
- Born
- 1883. · Rovereto.
- Died
- 1944. · Pesaro.
- Nationality
- Austria and Kingdom of Italy.
- Occupation
- composer, conductor, musicologist and music arranger.
- Fields
- opera.
- Teachers
- Pietro Mascagni.
- Known for
- Francesca da Rimini.
- Languages
- Italian.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Riccardo Zandonai (28 May 1883 – 5 June 1944) was an Italian composer and conductor.
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Note VALÉORINE
Riccardo Zandonai (1883–1944) was an Austrian and Italian composer, conductor and music arranger, among other activities. Born Riccardo Antonio Francesco Zandonai in Rovereto, the composer died in Pesaro.
Works include Francesca da Rimini. Genres include opera. Languages used include Italian.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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Authority files
museum · 475bfd8c-0d6e-4bde-8c07-b87d81d56e61 · wikidata · Q258329 · wikipedia · Riccardo Zandonai
In this article
Biography
Biography
Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria-Hungary. As a young man, he showed such an aptitude for music that he entered the Pesaro Conservatorio in 1899 and completed his studies in 1902; he completed the nine-year curriculum in only three years. Among his teachers was Pietro Mascagni, who regarded him highly. During this period he composed the Inno degli studenti trentini, that is, the anthem of the organised irredentist youth of his native province. His essay for graduation was an opera named Il ritorno di Odisseo (The Return of Ulysses), based on a poem by Giovanni Pascoli, for singers, choir and orchestra. The same year 1902 he put to music another Pascoli poem, Il sogno di Rosetta. At a soirée in Milan in 1908, he was heard by Arrigo Boito, who introduced him to Giulio Ricordi, one of the dominating figures in Italian musical publishing at the time. His opera Il grillo del focolare has received occasional Italian performances since its premiere at the Politeama Chiarella di Torino in 1908. Zandonai's fame rests largely on his opera Francesca da Rimini, a free adaptation of a tragedy which Gabriele D'Annunzio had written expanding a passage from Dante's Inferno; it has never fallen entirely from the repertoire, and has been recorded several times. Some time after the premiere, he married soprano Tarquinia Tarquini, for whom he had created the role of Conchita in the eponymous opera (dealing with a topic that Puccini had first considered and then rejected). Soon, however, war broke out; patriotic Zandonai in 1916 composed a song, Alla Patria ("For the Motherland"), dedicated to Italy, with the result that his home and belongings in Sacco (then still in Austro–Hungarian hands) were confiscated (they were returned to him after the war). When Puccini died without completing the music for the last act of Turandot, Zandonai was among several composers the Ricordi publishing firm considered for the task of finishing it. Puccini himself, in his final illness, seems to have supported the choice of Zandonai – certainly Toscanini looked with approval on this choice – but his son Tonio Puccini, for reasons still obscure, vetoed it. One version is that Tonio Puccini thought that Zandonai was too well-known and for that reason would be associated with the opera and might even overshadow his father. Ultimately Franco Alfano was chosen to complete Turandot. In 1935 Zandonai became the director of the Rossini Conservatory in his beloved Pesaro. There he revived some works of Rossini, such as Il viaggio a Reims and the overture for Maometto secondo. In 1941 he re-orchestrated La gazza ladra, reducing it to three acts. Three years later, he died in Trebbiantico (it), Pesaro, after undergoing gallstone surgery. His last words were for the priest who announced to him that Rome had been liberated the day before. The dying composer said, in his native dialect: "Good! Viva l'Italia; the sound part".
Operas
Operas
See List of operas by Riccardo Zandonai.
Sacred
Sacred
Te Deum for male choir and organ (1906) Two samplers of Melodie per canto e piano (1907, 1913) O Padre nostro che nei cieli stai for choir, organ and orchestra (1912) Messa da Requiem for choir (1914) Recently a Missa pro defunctis was discovered.
Other
Other
Various symphonic compositions: "Primavera in Val di Sole" "Autunno fra i monti" "Ballata eroica" "Fra gli alberghi delle Dolomiti" "Quadri di Segantini" (1931) "Rapsodia trentina" "Colombina" Concerto romantico for violin (1919) Concerto andaluso for cello
Selected filmography
Selected filmography
Princess Tarakanova (1938) Der singende Tor (1939) Love Me, Alfredo! (1940) Caravaggio (1941)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1883
Riccardo Zandonai born at Rovereto.
1944
Riccardo Zandonai died at Pesaro.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Rovereto.
Birth place
Pesaro.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- <i>Francesca da Rimini</i>. Riccardo Zandonai, The Opera Quarterly, 1987
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1987
- Zandonai, Riccardo (opera), Oxford Music Online, 2002
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2002
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q258329: Riccardo Zandonai
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Riccardo Zandonai”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Riccardo Zandonai
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Schirmer Books. 1935–1936. 1978. 0-02-870240-9.
- 2.Internet Archive. Il grillo del Focolare. Commedia musicale in tre atti (1907).
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
VerifiedInstitutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Riccardo ZandonaiMetaBrainz Foundation
Verifiedscholarly publication
Zandonai, Riccardo (opera), Oxford Music Online, 2002Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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