Francesco Paolo Tosti

Francesco Paolo Tosti composed songs in four languages. Born in Ortona on the Adriatic and trained as a violinist and composer at the Naples Conservatory, he found patrons in Rome and then built his working life in London, where he taught singing to the British royal family, held a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music, was naturalised and was knighted. Ideale, Aprile, 'A vucchella and L'alba separa dalla luce l'ombra are among his songs; he set Italian, Neapolitan, English and French texts, and worked with poets including D'Annunzio and Salvatore Di Giacomo. He died in 1916. He entered the Naples conservatory in 1858, studying violin with Ferdinando Pinto and composition with Carlo Conti and Saverio Mercadante. Rome brought him the patronage of Giovanni Sgambati, who arranged the concert at the Sala Dante at which Princess Margherita of Savoy heard him and made him her singing teacher, later putting the court's musical archives in his charge. He began visiting London in 1875 and settled there in 1880, took the Royal Academy professorship in 1894 and was knighted by his friend Edward VII; the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani dates his return to Rome to 1911, with further London visits until 1913. He died in Rome.