RESPIGHI, OTTORINO. - Master composer, b. at Bologna on 9 July 1879, d. at Rome on 18 Apr. 1936.
He studied at the Musical Lyceum of Bologna, then at St. Petersburg and Berlin. He soon attracted notice with works which, by reason of their originality, won public favour. In 1913 he was appointed professor at the Musical Lyceum of S. Cecilia in Rome, of which he was later director until 1925. Purity of style, clarity of expression, and absolute independence from any artistic current or tendency—even though he has been regarded as a leading figure of Impressionism in opposition to the verismo of Puccini and Mascagni—make R. a composer of great merit. He gave the theatre several operas that established themselves with international audiences; he wrote choruses, symphonic-vocal poems, chamber music, transcriptions of ancient sacred airs, songs, cantatas, and sonatas of lofty inspiration and restrained modernity.