Targioni-Tozzetti, Giovanni, 1863-1934

Italian poet, librettist, teacher, politician, journalist, and critic, who was from Livorno. He studied letters at Liceo Niccolini in Livorno and, within a year of graduating in 1887, became chair of modern history and Italian literature at the Accademia Navale in the same city. He also taught at the technical institute in Livorno until his retirement in 1931. As a journalist, poet, and critic, he was a contributor to Fanfulla in Rome, the Gazzetta in Turin, and more frequently with Gazzetta livornese, which he directed for a time, and the Livornese Telegrafo and Cronaca minima. He was also a curator and editor of collections of poetry and prose, such as In Ciociaria: ricordi di usanze popolari (1891), Saggio di novelline, canti ed usanze popolari della Ciociaria (1891), and (in collaboration with Augusto Vittorio Vecchi) Il mare: antologia di prose e poesie di moderni e antichi scrittori originali e tradotte (1893). His friendship with composer Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) facilitated Targioni-Tozzetti's career as a librettist, collaborating on the former's Silvano (1896), Pinotta (1932), and Nerone (1935). Most notably, he, along with fellow writer, journalist, and academic Guido Menasci (1867-1925), composed the libretto for Mascagni's operas Cavalleria rusticana (1890), I Rantzau (1892), and Zanetto (1896). As a politician, he was a municipal councillor of his hometown and mayor, from 1911 to 1914, later an ardent supporter of the fascist regime. He died in Livorno on May 30, 1934.