Who was Ubaldo Pacchierotti?

[pcc]

It's been a very long time since I was on this forum, but I have a composer who has stumped me, despite some fairly intense looking around.  I can't remember the circs that led me to him, but I came across an opera _L'albatro_ (1905), supposedly based upon a portion of Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner", by Ubaldo Pacchierotti (1875/6/7 [it's very uncertain] - 1916) that the Gramophone Co.'s Milan branch invited him to conduct several excerpts of for records; they even made it into Victor's foreign series.  Most of the excerpts are on IRCC's _Souvenirs of Verismo Operas_ vol. 1, which I'm awaiting a copy of, and I found an original Gramophone Monarch disc of the orchestral interlude from it on eBay which I am awaiting from Italy - the only bit I've heard, however, is from a series of audio samples that Lawrence Holdridge made available for one of his record auctions, with Carmen Melis and Giuseppe Taccani and the composer conducting, and it was really, REALLY lovely.  What was also impressive was how well the orchestra played for Pacchierotti, and a fair bit of colour came through.  His most successful opera was _Eidelburgo mia!_ (1908), which uses the same play source as Sigmund Romberg's operetta _The Student Prince_ but evidently treats the material much more lavishly and emotionally; it was even staged in the US in German.  But through all of this, and he does have a short Wikipedia entry, I can find out _nothing else about him_  He evidently died in Milan, but I don't know if it was through disease or due to the war; he was certainly very young, and critics thought very well of him up to his last opera, _Il santo_ (1913), which seems to have been harshly received.  Does anyone here know _anything_ more about him?  He seems a worthy figure to examine.

[alberto]

I hoped to help through a generally useful (and reliable) 1930 Italian Dictionary of Music (Della Corte-Gatti).
Just a few lines are dedicated to Pacchierotti.
The birth year is stated 1876 (in Padova). He studied at Naples Conservatory.
The four operas are listed (with year and city of the premiere).
He is credited to have composed also orchestral and chamber music (but no title/work is listed).

[eschiss1]

See also Wikipedia and related links (ah- yes, pcc mentioned that. Sorry. Not so brief, though! See also Operone. Born Padua.)

[JMucci]

I have also been interested in L'ALBATRO, and after hearing all the excerpts that exist on YouTube (I have not heard the Interludio yet), I was determined to find the score to it. There are 3 vocal scores in libraries, apparently, in the USA, but none of them would lend it to me.  I have finally found one in Italy that I've bought, and it truly is a most remarkable piece of music. I cannot say I know any more about the composer, although I'd like to know more; but there is a site that has all the original costume sketches for L'ALBATRO that is also fascinating. ( http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/sr/dpla/search?utf8=✓&q=%22Costume+design+drawings%22&qf%5Bq%5D%5B%5D=Pacchierotti ) Once I get the score scanned, I'll post it to IMSLP.org. What I can see right off the bat, is that it is in two acts, not one, as usually stated, and I don't think it has anything to do with the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It has a character known as LEGGENDA, who speaks throughout, and there is not only an INTERLUDIO, but two dances between the acts. How would one perform it these days? Who on earth knows where the parts are? The publisher was Ruccio--who has his materials now I wonder?

[eschiss1]

By the way, the Free Library of Philadelphia has one other vocal score of his music, Alt-Heidelberg (Musikalische Scenen in vier Acten), also published by Puccio (but in 1908). (307 pp.)

SBN.IT (more-or-less the Italian library version of Worldcat.org - I say more or less, I know I am handwaving handwaving...) lists several works of his at several libraries, including
*Alt Heidelberg (or: Eidelberga mia -- title of the associated libretto, also available),  (I think Landesbibliothek Coburg may have the -full- score of this work, divided in their card catalog into separate 100ish-page entries for various subportions of acts... not sure!...)
*l'Albatro (leggenda nordica )
*an Andante religioso for piano quartet,
*Il santo : dramma lirico in tre atti (possibly libretto only available?)
*Guitare: arabesca (after Hugo) (song for voice and piano, I think)