Description
Felice (Giuseppe Marco Maria) Blangini (1781-1841) was a tenor and opera composer of Italian birth. He was famous both for his romances and his own romancing. He arrived in Paris in 1799, opening a concert room that by 1811 was “frequented for preference by the best society of Paris”. In 1805, he had a stint in service to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg in Munich, then to Napoleon’s sister Pauline Borghese, with whom he had a liaison (alluded to in his songs), and in 1809 to Jérôme Bonaparte in Westphalia. By 1814, Blangini was back in Paris, appointed as superintendent of the King’s music and court composer. He excelled as professor of singing at the Conservatoire. His operas, mostly in a light comic vein, did not have staying power, but he did invent the vocal nocturne. He wrote hundreds of songs (romances, nocturnes, canzonets, etc.) for one, two or more voices to “piano or harp” accompaniment.
