Musician and Composer
Francesco Schira was born in Valletta, the son of Michele and Giuseppa ne Radaelli, both of Milanese origin. Both parents were musical, Michele was a gifted primo tenore whose credits included Specchietti in Prota’s Le furberie deluse in the Teatro Nuovo sopra Toledo, Naples in 1739. Between 1795 and 1801 Michele Schira sang in Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos where he met ballerina Giuseppa Radaelli, who was a leading dancer.
They married in 1800. The family remained in Lisbon and in late 1808 the family travelled to Malta. It was in Malta that Giuseppa became pregnant with Francesco, Bernardo Giovanni Battista.
He was sent to Milan by his parents where he studied music at the Real Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi between 1818 to 1828 under Francesco Basili, Gaetano Piantanida, and Alessandro Rolla.
At the age of 23, Schirra had the honour to present his first opera Elena and Malvina at the Scala theatre on 17 November 1832, which was very successful. He was appointed director of the orchestra at the San Carlos Theatre, Lisbon where he remained for several years, during which time he composed ballet music, cantatas and two operas which included Il Fanatico per la Musica, written by Count del Farobo, who produced it in his own private theatre and later at the San Carlo.
In Lisbon, he was appointed professor of harmony at the city conservatorio.
On 31 July 1834 Francesco married ballerina Jesuina Gesualdi in the church of Nossa Senhora do Loreto in Lisbon. In the same year saw the productions of Bellini’s La sonnambula and Pacini’s Gli Arabi nell Gallie, ossia Il trionfo della fede.
During this time Schira have strated self-questioning whether the time had not come for him to move more on. He started feeling that in Lisbon he had achieved all that was possible in the city, if not more than he had initially hoped for. Perhaps it was the birth of his only child, Angelica, on 1 Janjuary 1838, which encouraged him to seek fresh and more lucrative channels that would better him and his family.
After six successful years in Lisbon, he went to London and Paris where he composed other operas, cantatas, duets, airs, etc. His duet Versatemi del Vino (written for the cousins Prince Emilio and Count Pompeo Belgioso, was performed in the best social circles, translated into German and sung in Germany and Russia. In London Schirra directed operas at Drury Lane and at Covent Garden. For Covent Garden he wrote the opera Kenilworth.
Schira had dedicated himself, also to the teaching of singing, having among his pupils the celebrated tenor Giovanni Mario (1810-1833), for whom he wrote a romance that Mario introduced in the opera Lucrezia Borgia. Schira passed then to London, where one of his pupils, Miss Louisa Fanny Pyne (1832-1904) made her debut in the London operatic stage with two of his operas, Mimì and Theresa.
Schira was appointed professor of singing at the London academy and director of music at Drury Lane Theatre and later at the Princess Theatre and Covent Garden.
Schira’s fame as an able conductor was now widely known and, in a period in which he could have been designated a freelancer, commissions continued to flow in. Typical was his engagement by businessman John Knowles, owner and impresario of Manchester’s Theatre Royal, who engaged him to conduct eight operas: Bellini’s Norma, I puritani, and La sonnambula; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lamermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, L’elisir d’amore, and Don Pasquale; and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. These were performed during June 1849, a commission that Schira discharged with great success. At the same time he was preparing two English operas which were composed for the Princess’ Theatre: Mina was premiered on 7 December 1849 and The Orphan of Geneve on 26 April 1850 with Schira himself as conductor.
He retired from this work to undertake only the teaching of the bel canto in which he established a name. His operas were never performed in Malta.
In October 1883 Francesco Schira had just returned from another visit to Milan, possibly supported by an eternal hope to consult with Boito again. Whilst there he contracted a fever, the effects of which manifested themselves precipitously only after his return to London. As in the case of so many other prodigiously gifted musicians, Schira’s pursuit of musical excellence had been the subliminal driving force of his life, even at the sacrifice of vital personal relationships, including his marriage. On 31 August 1866, when he was 57, and still young enough to re-marry, but old enough to understand the importance of developing a warm human relationship with a new wife, he had petitioned to be granted a divorce from Jesuina Gesualdi on grounds of her repeated adultery. The Judge Ordinary ordered that the petition be dismissed. There was to be no second chance of happiness for Francesco.
Francesco Schira died in his residence at 60 Welbeck Street, London aged 74.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.