Ettore Panizza (born Héctor Panizza; 12 August 1875 – 27 November 1967) was an Argentineconductor andcomposer, one of the leading conductors of the early 20th century. Panizza possessed technical mastery and was popular and influential during his time, widely admired byRichard Strauss andGiacomo Puccini, among others.[1]
Panizza was born inBuenos Aires, of Italian parents.[2] His birth name wasHéctor Panizza but throughout his career he was known as Ettore. Panizza studied first with his father, who was a cellist at the oldTeatro Colón, and later inMilan. He made his debut as assistant conductor at theRome Opera in 1897.
He was closely associated withLa Scala in Milan (where he conducted, along withToscanini, titles likeWagner'sRing in 1926), theRoyal Opera House in London, theMetropolitan Opera inNew York City- where he succeededTullio Serafin as principal conductor of Italian repertoire, working for eight seasons with names likeRosa Ponselle andEnrico Caruso - and mainly at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires where his operaAurora was premiered during the inaugural season.
He conductedPuccini'sTurandot with the ending byFranco Alfano after the world premiere at La Scala on 25 April 1926 conducted byArturo Toscanini, who stopped at the point where Puccini had ceased writing before his death.
He worked at the Teatro Colón in 1908, 1909, 1921, 1927 (Claudia Muzio asTosca and inLa bohème), 1929 (Turandot withRosa Raisa), 1930, 1934 (Carmen with Gabriela Besanzoni), 1935, 1936, 1939 (Boris Godunov,La traviata,Macbeth,Turandot,Aida with Bizancio withGina Cigna), 1942 (Aida andSimon Boccanegra withZinka Milanov andLeonard Warren), 1943 (Falstaff), 1944 (Bizancio), 1945 (Aurora), 1946, 1947 (Tosca andAndrea Chénier withMaria Caniglia andBeniamino Gigli), 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952 (Madama Butterfly withVictoria de los Ángeles), 1954 and 1955. He also worked with singers such asAlessandro Bonci,Nellie Melba andEzio Pinza.
He also made guest appearances inChicago and European capitals such asParis,Madrid,Vienna, andBerlin.
He heard British sopranoEva Turner in 1924 asMadama Butterfly[3] and recommended her to Toscanini, launching her impressive international career (as also did the young conductorAntonino Votto).[1]
Among the many premieres he conducted wereFrancesca da Rimini andConchita byRiccardo Zandonai,Sly byErmanno Wolf-Ferrari, andThe Island God byGian Carlo Menotti. He also conducted many local premieres in London, New York, and Milan such asMussorgsky'sKhovanshchina andRespighi'sLa campana sommersa.
Panizza composed four operas;Il fidanzato del mare (1897),Medio Evo Latino (1900),Aurora (1908), his most successful work (the tenor aria "Alta en el cielo" in the second Spanish version became the patriotic song school children sing to the flag) andBizancio (1939).
He published his autobiographyMedio Siglo de Vida Musical in 1952.
Panizza died in Milan in 1967.
