Giovanni Antonio Speranza

Giovanni Antonio Speranza (Mantua, 1811 – Milan, 1850) was an Italian composer whose name appears in the opera repertoires of the first half of the nineteenth century, although his works never achieved lasting popularity. He belongs to a large generation of composers who maintained the conventions inherited from the Rossini era without managing to renew them.

He trained at the Naples Conservatory under Zingarelli, and his first operas were premiered in that city. He composed with considerable regularity but, apart from I due Figaro (1839), which was staged often, success eluded him. His works were premiered in Naples, Turin, Lucca and Florence, among other venues.

According to some accounts, his personal life was rather disorderly, and he apparently died in a state of dementia. His legacy is considered modest: he is remembered above all for I due Figaro, while the rest of his output barely survived his own era.