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glasbena interpretacija ... | music interpretation ...
and his first works were published (by Carl Schmidl, Ricordi, and others).
Newspaper critics often define the origins of his inspiration in the Italian
operatic style.
Radeglia died in Istanbul on 22 August 1941. 18

Composer’s Work
After his studies, Radeglia spent some time in Italy, where his first opera
Colomba was performed in Milan (Teatro del Verme) on 15 June 1887, based
on the libretto by Ferdinando Fontana (which itself was based on the story
by Prosper Mérimée). The second opera, La Gemma del Karfunkel (legend
in three acts with a prologue; libretto by Luigi Martinotti) was first staged
in December 1891 in Turin (Teatro Vittorio Emanuele), as was the third,
19
Suprema Vis on 23 January 1902. Radeglia obviously arranged this perfor-
mance from Constantinople, where he had settled shortly after the perfor-
mance of his second opera, started a family and got a job, partly giving pri-
vate lessons, but was also engaged at the newly founded conservatory. A
fourth opera, Amore occulto, was premiered in Constantinople in March
1904. In addition to operas, the handbooks list church music, chamber
20
pieces, and a number of piano compositions.
At the time of Radeglia’s arrival in Constantinople, Turkey was ruled
by Sultan Abdul Hamid II (sultan from 1876 to 1909, when he was deposed,
and his brother Mehmed V succeeded him and led Turkey into the First
World War). He experienced the adversities of the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire, the decreasing of their territory in Europe and Africa at the turn
of the twentieth century, and is remembered for the Armenian genocide.
However, Abdul Hamid was a lover of European culture, a great admir-
er of opera and a sponsor of European composers. Therefore, he contin-
ued the affection for European musical culture that had intensified since
18 Anon., “La scomparsa d'un musicista dalmata. Il maestro Vittorio Radeglia è mor-
to a Istanbul,” Il piccolo di Trieste 19, no. 6756 (3 September 1941): 4, https://archi-
vio.ilpiccolo.it/sfoglio/aviator/aviator.php?newspaper=IEI0111767&edition=picco-
lo&issue=19410903&startpage=4.
19 Anon., “Im Theater Vittorio Emanuele […],” Signale für die musikalische Welt
50, no. 3 (1892): 42, https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=smw&da-
tum=1892&page=50. Allegedly, a few hours before the scheduled premiere on 5 De-
cember, the composer withdrew the libretto, but all sources indicate that it was still
premiered in December.
20 Cf. “Progetto CORAGO – Repertorio e archivio di libretti del melodramma italiano
dal 1600 al 1900,” http://corago.unibo.it/risultatoeventiautore/Radeglia%20Vittorio.

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