FANTASIA on Themes from 'Aida' Op.240

Entering the Royal Parma School of Music as a boarder at the age of eleven, Giusto Dacci was to spend the rest of his working life there as piano teacher, Professor of Harmony and eventually, in 1875, Director and Composer in Residence. When the School was closed in 1888 to make way for the new Music Conservatoire he was passed over as Director by Verdi in favour of Giovanni Bottesini and later Franco Faccio, but nevertheless remained teacher of composition until his retirement in 1899. As well as popular academic treatises his writings include an important and detailed history of the Royal School up till 1884, published at his own expense. As Director he also kept a personal diary, rich in anecdotes and gossip about the School and the city. A bachelor, he bequeathed his estate to the Conservatoire to provide prizes for deserving students. His compositions, over 500 in all, include songs, piano pieces, chamber music and operatic fantasies for various instruments, including five for clarinet and piano. The fantasia on Aida was published approximately two years after the first performance of Verdi's opera at the Cairo Opera House (24 December 1871). It makes free use of the priests' motive first heard in the opera's prelude to link together a selection of the work's best known tunes.

©Colin Bradbury and Oliver Davies 2003

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