Campanini
Campanini names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Campanini Italian musical director
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Italian musical director, born at Parma, Italy, in 1860. He studied music at the Royal Conservatory at Parma and made his first appearance as director in that city in 1881. His reputation spread rapidly through Italy and to other countries of Europe, and to South America. From 1897 to 1906 he was principal director of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London. His first visit to America was made in 1883, and from 1906 to 1909 he was director of the Manhattan Opera Company. From 1910 to 1913 he was general musical director of the Chicago and Philadelphia opera companies. He was general manager of these companies since 1913. Among notable productions which he conducted were "Salome," "Natoma," "Thaïs," "Samson and Delilah," and "Monna Vanna." He received many orders from the crowns of Italy, Austria, Spain, and Portugal, and from several countries in South America. He died in 1919.
Campanini ITALO (käm-pä-në'nē)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ITALO (käm-pä-në'nē), an Italian singer; born in Parma, June 29, 1846. He served in Garibaldi's army in two campaigns, when only 15 years of age. He studied at the Parma Conservatory for one year, and in an appearance as the notary in "La Sonnambula" he was unsuccessful. He then studied with Lamperti at Milan, and in successful appearance made a "Faust" at La Scala, Milan. In 1872 he appeared in London, and a year later came to the United States as a member of the Nilsson Company, appearing in "Lucrezia Borgia." For a number of years he was considered the finest of living tenors. A disease of the throat afterward somewhat impaired his voice. He died near Parma, Italy, Nov. 23, 1896.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both men were already dead when Collier's compiled these notes in 1921, and the outlines still stand; what has shifted is mainly what gets remembered. The unnamed "Italian musical director, born at Parma... in 1860" is Cleofonte Campanini, younger brother of the tenor Italo in the second entry, and he is chiefly recalled today not for his Covent Garden or Chicago years but for conducting the world premiere of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" at La Scala in February 1904 — a fact Collier's omits from a list that runs to "Salome," "Natoma" and "Monna Vanna." Italo, called by Collier's "the finest of living tenors," is likewise now fixed in history for one night the entry does not mention: he sang Faust at the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on 22 October 1883. The Chicago company Cleofonte managed did not survive the 1930s; opera in the city was rebuilt from scratch as the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1954.
Written for this edition, 2026.