Arturo Buzzi-Peccia

Who was Arturo Buzzi-Peccia?

Arturo Buzzi-Peccia was an Italian singing instructor and song composer whose career is very poorly documented.

He was born in Milan, Italy and died in the U.S. His year of birth is sometimes given as 1856. He studied with Massenet and Saint-Saëns in Paris. Most of his songs were written in Italian. His most famous novelty song, La Cigarette du Paradis, was written in French. However, he was apparently quite a linguist, since he wrote tunes for some English songs. One of his most famous works is Lolita. In the 1933 film My Song Goes round the World, Joseph Schmidt sang "Mal d'amore". His opera Forza d'amore was conducted by Arturo Toscanini in 1897.

He came to the United States in 1898. By 1906, Buzzi-Peccia was living in New York. He came across a singer called Reba Feinsohn and was so impressed by Reba's singing that he offered to give her free lessons. She eventually became famous under the name Alma Gluck and as the wife of violinist Efrem Zimbalist, mother of the actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and grandmother of actress Stephanie Zimbalist.

Other pupils of Buzzi-Peccia included the poet Dorothy Caruso, wife of Enrico Caruso, and Sophie Breslau.