Francesco Cilea

Francesco Cilea (1866–1950) was born in Palmi in Calabria and trained at the Naples Conservatory, where his student opera attracted the attention of the publisher Edoardo Sonzogno. He belonged to the generation of Italian composers, with Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano and Puccini, who made their names in the 1890s with direct, passionate operas in the verismo style. His reputation rests on two works: L’arlesiana (1897), in which the young Enrico Caruso created the role of Federico, and Adriana Lecouvreur (1902), about the great eighteenth-century French actress, which remains in the repertoire as a vehicle for star sopranos. After the failure of his last opera, Gloria (1907), Cilea withdrew from the stage and devoted himself to teaching, serving for many years as director of the conservatories of Palermo and Naples.