Bottesini, Giovanni (EN)

Bottesini Giovanni, *22 December 1821 Crema, Lombardy, †7 July 1889 Parma, Italian double bass player, conductor, and composer. He studied under L. Rossi (double bass), F. Basili and N. Vaccaia (composition) at the Milan Conservatory. Between 1840 and 1846, he gave concerts in Italy, then worked as a conductor in Havana, where he staged his opera Cristoforo Colombo in 1847. In 1849, he stayed in England, and from 1855 to 1857, he was the conductor of the Théâtre Italien in Paris. From 1861 to 1863, he conducted at the Teatro Bellini in Palermo, and in 1863 in Barcelona. In the same year, he founded the Società del quartetto in Florence, a society dedicated to the cultivation of classical music. In 1871, he was the director of the opera at the Lyceum Theatre in London, and in the same year, as conductor of the Italian Opera in Cairo, he conducted the premiere of Verdi’s Aida. In 1889, he became director of the conservatory in Parma. Bottesini was an outstanding double bass player. His playing was characterized by great discipline, purity of intonation, and richness of sound.

Literature: C. Lisei G. Bottesini, Milan 1886; A. Carniti In memoria di G. Bottesini, Crema 1922.