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Francesco Paolo Tosti

Ortona, Italy, 1846 - 1916, Ortona, Italy

BiographyTosti, Sir (Francesco) Paolo (1846–1916), songwriter and singing teacher, was born on 9 April 1846 in Ortona sul Mare, Abruzzi, Italy. In 1858 he went to Naples, where he entered the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella. There he studied the violin under Pinto. His teachers of composition were Saverio Mercadante, the director of the Collegio di San Sebastiano, the leading conservatory in Naples, and a prolific composer of operas, and Carlo Conti, professor of counterpoint and composition at San Pietro a Majella until 1858, and later director, regarded by Rossini as the most remarkable Italian contrapuntal composer of the time. His success as a pupil led Mercadante to appoint Tosti ‘maestrino’ (pupil teacher) at a salary of 60 lire a month. His health broke down under the strain of overwork, however, and he returned to Ortona in 1869 to convalesce. During the seven months he spent there he wrote two songs, ‘Non m'ama più’ and ‘Lamento d'amore’, which he had difficulty in publishing at the time, but which later became popular.

In 1870 Tosti went to Rome, where the pianist Giovanni Sgambati, a pupil of Liszt and a leading figure in the musical life of Rome, recognized his talent and encouraged him. A crucial event in launching his career was a concert at the Sala Dante in Rome, at which Tosti sang a ballad composed specially for the concert by Sgambati, ‘Eravi un vecchio’, as well as some of his own songs. In the audience was Princess Margherita of Savoy (later queen of Italy), who appointed him as her singing teacher and later keeper of the musical archives of the Italian court. His reputation as a songwriter meanwhile grew rapidly.

In 1875 Tosti made his first visit to London, and after this returned every year to the city, where he became very popular in fashionable circles. In 1880 he decided to settle in London permanently, and that same year Queen Victoria appointed him teacher of singing to the royal family. He gave lessons to the princess of Wales, and sang duets with the queen. In 1894 he became teacher of singing at the Royal Academy of Music; many of his pupils there became famous singers.

Tosti's popularity as a songwriter rested mainly on his English ballads, much used in drawing-rooms. The most famous, ‘Goodbye’, with lyrics by George Whyte-Melville, is a prime example of the genre:

What are we waiting for? Oh, my heart!
Kiss me straight on the brows! And part!
Again! Again! my heart! my heart!
What are we waiting for, you and I?
A pleading look—a stifled cry.
Goodbye, for ever! Goodbye, for ever!
Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye.

Other popular English ballads included ‘Parted’, with words by F. E. Weatherly, the librettist for many of Tosti's songs, ‘Mother’, ‘Forever’, ‘Beauty's Eyes’, ‘At Vespers’, ‘My Dreams’, and ‘That Day’. He also continued to write Italian songs, including fifteen duets, Canti populari abruzzesi. His later songs, ‘Mattinata’ and ‘Serenata’, were particularly successful. Of his French songs, ‘Ninon’, ‘Chanson de l'adieu’, and ‘Pour un baiser’ were all great favourites in England.

Tosti was appointed KCVO in 1908. Homesick for Italy, he returned there in 1913, and he died in Rome on 2 December 1916.

Anne Pimlott Baker
Sources

The Times (4 Dec 1916) · H. Simpson, A century of ballads, 1810–1910 (1910) · E. A. Mario, Francesco Paolo Tosti (1947) · M. Turner, The parlour song book (1972) · New Grove
Likenesses

Walery, photograph, pubd 1890, NPG [see illus.] · J. Lavery, oils, 1903, Royal College of Music, London · M. Beerbohm, caricature, ink and watercolour over chalk, 1908, BM · Ape [C. Pellegrini], lithograph, repro. in VF, 17 (1885), pl. 344 · G. W. Lambert, pencil drawing, NPG
Wealth at death

£102 10s.: administration, 28 Nov 1917, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
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All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

Anne Pimlott Baker, ‘Tosti, Sir (Francesco) Paolo (1846–1916)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38070, accessed 6 Aug 2013]

Sir (Francesco) Paolo Tosti (1846–1916): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38070

Person TypeIndividual

Last Updated8/7/24

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