Francesco Bianchi (composer)
Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi was an Italian opera composer. Born at Cremona, Lombardy, he studied with Pasquale Cafaro and Niccolò Jommelli, and worked mainly in London, Paris and in all the major Italian operatic centres of Venice, Naples, Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence.
He wrote at least 78 operas of all genres, mainly in the field of the Italian opera, but in the French opera too. These included the drammi per musica Castore e Polluce, Arbace and Zemira, Alonso e Cora, Calto and La morte di Cesare, and Seleuco, re di Siria, and the opera giocosa La villanella rapita.
Bianchi committed suicide in Hammersmith, London, in 1810, probably out of family troubles. He was buried alongside his daughter in the churchyard of the old Kensington Church, now St Mary Abbots, Kensington.Works
Operas
- See: List of operas by Francesco Bianchi
Religious compositions
- Domine ad adiuvandum, 2 August 1773, Cremona
- Converte Domine, 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
- Exalta Domine, 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
- Deus noster refugium con Gloria patri, 10 May 1779, Milan, Metropolitan Cathedral
- Abraham et Isaac; Tres pueri hebrai; others