Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio

Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio (b Milan, ? end of the 17th century; d Milan, ?c1758). Italian composer, possibly an impresario, singing teacher and violinist.

18th-century sources (e.g. BurneyH; GerberL; GerberNL and La BordeE) blur the distinction between two or more musicians active in Milan by failing to give first names. Only the revised edition of Mancini (1777) supplies Giuseppe Ferdinando as the composer’s first names and describes him as a prominent Milanese singing teacher without identifying him with the violinist, composer and impresario also active in Milan. In fact a family of Brivios could be involved, including an older singing teacher, Carlo Francesco Brivio, who appeared in Milanese operas of 1696, Teodolinda and L’Etna festante, the librettos for which call him ‘musico di S.E. il Castellano’ (the castle commander’s musician). Suggested as Giuseppe Ferdinando’s father (Martinotti in DBI), this Carlo Francesco may have been the bass employed in the ducal court chapel until 1737 and then as a substitute singer until 1749. Recent sources (relying on GerberNL but based on La BordeE) credit Carlo Francesco with having taught Giuseppe Appiani and Felice Salimbeni. Since Mancini (1777) stated that Giuseppe Ferdinando taught Caterina Visconti and Giovanna Astrua, both Brivios may have taught singing at about the same time.

In 1720 the orchestra of the ducal theatre in Milan included two performers named Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio, a first violinist and a trumpeter; only the latter, however, was cited in a list of June 1711 naming the Milanese players in Novara for the festival of S Gaudenzio. Although the ducal theatre orchestra did not include any player named Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio in 1748 or 1765, a Gaetano Brivio played second violin in both years. It is generally assumed that the violinist Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio also composed operas and symphonies and served as impresario in Milan. Archival documents indicate that he was in charge of the ducal theatre for a relatively long time: 26 February 1727 to 13 October 1732. Contrary to reports in modern encyclopedias, Brivio did not assist Giuseppe Milesio or any other of his predecessors, and his successor, G.A. Rozio, was forbidden to use him as partner.

Perhaps because some of Brivio’s arias were used in pasticcios at the King’s Theatre or because Brivio’s pupils Giulia Frasi (according to Burney) and Visconti sang in these pasticcios, Loewenberg and others have supposed that Brivio was in London about 1742–5; no document proving a visit has come to light, however. Even though certain arias were published by Walsh, the pasticcios Gianguir, Mandane (both 1742) and L’incostanza delusa (1745; with music from Brivio’s earlier opera of that name) were not especially popular with London audiences.

Archival papers of the ducal theatre at Milan indicate that Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio was reimbursed for lodging Leonardo Leo (1740), the choreographer François Sauveterre (1748) and the prima donnas A. Conti (1753) and Columba Mattei (1754) at his residence in Milan. No known documents, however, verify his death in 1758, and no evidence has been found to link unequivocally some of the instrumental music published at Paris and London (1730–63) under the name Brivio with Giuseppe Ferdinando.