Giovanni Tadolini

Giovanni Tadolini (18 October 1789 – 29 November 1872) was an Italian composer, conductor and singing instructor, who enjoyed a career that alternated between Bologna and Paris. Tadolini is probably best known for completing six sections of Rossini's 1833 version of the Stabat mater after the latter fell sick. However, he also composed eight operas as well as sinfonias, sonatas, chamber music, and numerous pieces of religious music and art songs.

Born in Bologna, he studied privately with Matteo Rubini (singing) and Stanislao Mattei (composition) at the Liceo Musicale (now the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini) of his native city, before going to work at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris as a répétiteur and chorus master from 1811 to 1814. Following the occupation of Paris by the Russian and Austrian armies in 1814, he returned to Italy where over the next 15 years he wrote a series of operas and served as a conductor and chorus master for the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. He also became a member of Bologna's Accademia Filarmonica and maestro di cappella of St. Peter's Cathedral in the city.

In 1827, he married the soprano Eugenia Tadolini (née Savorani) who had been his student in Bologna. Tadolini returned to the Théâtre-Italien in 1829 with his wife, he as the director, and she as a singer in the company. The marriage ended in divorce in 1834. Following the divorce, Tadolini remained in his post at the Théâtre-Italien until 1839 when he returned definitively to Bologna.

Later in his life, he ran a singing school in Bologna, where he died in 1872.