Sir Michael Costa Italian Composer 1874 antique SIGNED ALS Letter + AFTAL COA for Sale

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Sir Michael Costa Italian Composer 1874 antique SIGNED ALS Letter + AFTAL COA For Sale

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Sir Michael Costa Italian Composer 1874 antique SIGNED ALS Letter + AFTAL COA:
$45.40

SirMichael Costa Italian Composer ALSdated 04/09/1874 and in very good condition.

Comes with a Certificate of Authenticityand lifetime guarantee from a major UK AFTAL dealer member

I do combine postage so you only pay one postage charge however many items you buy in one go - if it doesn't work out that way for you for some reason then let me know and I'll refund you down to just one postage charge.

Please see myother itemsfor more genuine hand signed autographs from some of the World's biggest Film and TV stars plus some items from the World War II and Space Race eraAFTAL Autographs Fair Trade Association. AFTAL isrunby the UK's best autographdealers and in person collectors. our objective is to help to stamp out fake autographs within our industry.Michael Costa (conductor)10 languagesToolsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaMichael Costa

Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa(14 February 1808– 29 April 1884) was an Italian-born conductor and composer who achieved success in England.

Biography[edit]

He was born inNaplesas Michele Andrea Agniello Costa. He studied in Naples with his father, at theReal Collegio di Musica, and later withNiccolò Antonio Zingarelli.

In his youth, as throughout his life, he wrote a great quantity of music, including operas, symphonies and cantatas, all of which has long since passed into oblivion. In 1829 he visited theBirmingham Music Festivalto conduct Zingarelli'sCantata Sacra, a setting of some verses fromIsaiahch. xii. This was the occasion of his memorably inauspicious début. The intention was that Costa should rehearse and conduct the work; butJ. B CramerandThomas Greatorexelbowed him out and was instead engaged as a tenor soloist in another concert. Unfortunately both the work and Costa's singing met with ferocious criticism: "[This cantata] is one of the most tame, insipid things we were ever doomed to hear: a heap of common-place trash from the first to the last note. After twaddling in B flat for half-an-hour, he ventures for a few bars into F, then returns to B, and there is an end." "As a singer [Costa] is far below mediocrity, and he does not compensate for his vocal deficiencies by his personal address, which is abundantly awkward. In the theatre while singing the air "Nel furor delle tempeste," [fromBellini'sIl pirata] and accompanying himself, he had a narrow escape. The tempests proved contagious, and were beginning to manifest themselves in the galleries, and had he remained but a few moments longer on the stage, he would have witnessed a storm compared to which the roarings of his own Vesuvius would have seemed but a murmur."[1]Nonetheless he decided to settle in England.

In 1830 he arrived in London, working atHis Majesty's Theatre. Costa exerted real influence for change as a conductor at Her Majesty's and, later, atCovent Gardentheatre, to which he seceded in 1847 after disagreements with the manager of Her Majesty's,Benjamin Lumley. His concern for discipline, accuracy, and ensemble was a novelty in its time and earned him the admiration both ofMeyerbeerandVerdi. Despite this, he could not be claimed as a purist: his re-scoring ofHandel'sMessiahincludes a part forcymbals.

Costa became a naturalized Englishman and received aknighthoodin 1869. He was conductor of thePhilharmonic Societyfrom 1846 to 1854, of theSacred Harmonic Societyfrom 1848, and of theBirmingham Triennial Music Festivalfrom 1849-1882. He conducted at theBradford(1853, 1856, and 1859) and Handel festivals (1857–1880), and theLeedsFestivals from 1874 to 1880.[2]He also taught several musicians in England, including contraltoEmma Albertazzi.

He died in 1884 inHoveand was buried atKensal Green. His home at 59Eccleston SquareinPimlico, London, is commemorated with ablue plaque.

Works[edit]Costa by lyall inVanity Fair, 1872

Amongst the works of Costa's maturity may be listed his balletsKenilworth(1831),Une Heure à Naples(1832),Sir Huon(composed forTaglioni) in 1833 and the balletAlma(1844, later revived asLa fille du marbre). His operaMalek Adelwas produced in Paris in 1837 and in London in 1844, as was his operaDon Carlos.

In 1855 Costa wrote the oratorioEli, and in 1864Naaman, both for Birmingham.Rossini's comment on the former was: "The good Costa has sent me an oratorio score and a Stilton cheese. The cheese was very good." An aria fromEli, "I will extol thee", was recorded in 1910 by the great British dramatic sopranoAgnes Nicholls(1876–1959), and the quality of Costa's music can be judged on various CD re-masterings of this particular disc which have been issued in recent years.

Freemasonry[edit]

On 3 May 1848 Costa followed in his brother's, Raphael, footsteps by becoming an EnglishFreemasonin the Bank of England Lodge, No.263, (London, England). In July 1849 the brothers (in both senses of the word) were Exhalted (Initiated) into the Royal Arch (another branch of Freemasonry) in Fidelity Chapter, No.3. Costa was appointed Grand Organist of theUnited Grand Lodge of Englandin 1851 a post he occupied for two years.

The brothers were instrumental in establishing Mark Masonry in England by signing a petition sent to the Bon Accord Royal Arch Chapter (Aberdeen,Scotland) requesting that a Bon Accord Mark Lodge be established in London. The inaugural meeting of this Mark Lodge was held in the Radley Hotel, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, on 19 September 1851. At that meeting both were 'Advanced' (Initiated) to the 'honorable degree of Mark Master.' Mark Masonry in England and Wales later came under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons but neither brother appears to have been involved in the creation of that body.[3]