Born in
Palmi near
Reggio di Calabria, Cilea was the son of a prominent lawyer and originally intended to follow his father into a law career. He gave an early indication of an aptitude for music when at the age of four he heard a performance of
Vincenzo Bellini's
Norma and was greatly affected by it. He was sent to study music at the
Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in
Naples, where he quickly demonstrated his diligence and precocious talent, earning a gold medal from the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (Department of Education). In 1889, for his final examination at the end of his course of study, he submitted his opera
Gina, with a libretto by
Enrico Golisciani which was adapted from the old French play ''Catherine, ou La Croix d'or'' by Baron
Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville (1787–1865). This "melodramma idilico" was performed in the college theatre, and it attracted the attention of the publishers
Sonzogno, who arranged for a second production, in
Florence, in 1892. Sonzogno also then commissioned from Cilea
La Tilda, a
verismo opera in three short acts along the lines of
Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. With a libretto by
Angelo Zanardini,
La Tilda had a successful first performance in April 1892 at the
Teatro Pagliano in Florence, and after performances in a number of Italian theatres, it arrived at the
Vienna Exhibition on 24 September 1892, alongside other works from the firm of Sonzogno. The composer never showed much sympathy for this work, the subject of which he reluctantly agreed to set to music in order to please Sonzogno and to avoid throwing away a rare professional opportunity. The loss of the orchestral score has prevented the modern revival of this work. However, a new orchestration by musicologist and composer Giancosimo Russo enabled its modern performance in 2025, from which an audio CD was produced. On 27 November 1897, the Teatro Lirico in
Milan saw the première of Cilea's third opera ''L'Arlesiana
, based on the play by Alphonse Daudet, with a libretto by Leopoldo Marenco. Among the cast was the young Enrico Caruso, who performed with great success the Lamento di Federico: È la solita storia del pastore, the romance
which was to keep alive the memory of the opera even to the present day. In reality L'Arlesiana'' was a failure which Cilea, being convinced of the work's value, tried repeatedly to remedy, making drastic and detailed alterations throughout the remainder of his life. In the score which we hear today, it is hard to find a single bar which is completely unchanged from the original. The revised opera was however still not successful, apart from a brief period in the 1930s when it benefited from political support which the composer established through personal contact with
Mussolini. Again at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, on 6 November 1902 and again with Enrico Caruso, the composer won an enthusiastic reception for
Adriana Lecouvreur, a 4-act opera with a libretto by
Arturo Colautti, set in 18th century
Paris and based upon a play by
Eugène Scribe.
Adriana Lecouvreur is the opera of Cilea which is best known to international audiences today, and it reveals the spontaneity of a melodic style drawn from the Neapolitan school combined with harmonic and tonal shading influenced by French composers such as
Massenet. There are a number of extant examples documenting Cilea's modest skills as a performer. At the piano Cilea accompanied Caruso in a recording of a part of the duet
Non piu nobile and made another recording with the baritone De Luca at the same time (November 1902). In 1904, for the Gramophone (and Typewriter Company), he accompanied the tenor Fernando de Lucia in ''L'Anima ho stanca
from Adriana Lecouvreur and in the song Lontananza,'' an effort which critic Michael Henstock (in his biography of de Lucia) declares is hardly inspired by de Lucia's fine performances. According to Henstock, even given the crude recording techniques of the day Cilea's piano playing seems square and lifeless. Cilea's last opera, premièred at
La Scala in Milan on 15 April 1907 under the baton of
Arturo Toscanini, was the 3-act tragedy
Gloria, again with a libretto by Colautti, based on a play by
Victorien Sardou. The opera was withdrawn after only two performances; and the failure of this work, even though the composer attempted a later revision, was enough to drive him to abandon the operatic stage for good. There are however indications of some later unfulfilled operatic projects, which survive as parts or sketches of libretti, such as ''Il ritorno dell'amore
by Renato Simoni, Malena
by Ettore Moschino, and La rosa di Pompei
, also by Moschino (dated "Naples, 20 May 1924"). Some sources also refer to an opera of 1909, completed but never performed, called Il matrimonio selvaggio'', but no copy of this survives and Cilea himself made no mention of it in his volumes of memoirs ("Ricordi"). Nevertheless, he continued to compose chamber music, and some orchestral music. In 1913 he produced a
symphonic poem in honour of
Giuseppe Verdi with verses by
Sem Benelli, which was first performed at the Teatro Carlo Felice in
Genoa. After this he devoted himself principally to education and became director of the
Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini in
Palermo, and then at his
alma mater, the Conservatorio San Pietro a Maiella in Naples, where he ended his teaching career in 1936. In his last years Cilea's eyesight failed but his mind was active enough to encourage and work with singers of the day. Among his last musical activities was his championship of the soprano
Magda Olivero (1910–2014), whose performances in the title role of
Adriana Lecouvreur he especially admired. Cilea died in
Varazze, a town near
Savona in
Liguria, which offered him honorary citizenship and where he spent the last years of his life. The Conservatorio di Musica and the Teatro Comunale of
Reggio di Calabria were renamed in his memory, and his native town of Palmi built a
mausoleum in his memory, decorated with scenes from the myth of
Orpheus.
Personal life Cilea married Donna Rosa Lavarello in Varazze on 26 June 1909. ==Works==