Licinio Refice

Who was Licinio Refice?

Licinio Refice was an Italian composer and priest. With Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi he represented the new direction taken by Italian church music in the twentieth century, and he left the popular song Ombra di nube as well as two completed operas.

His first opera Cecilia, about the legend of Saint Cecilia, created a sensation with its premiere in Rome in 1934; Claudia Muzio took the title role. His second, Margherita da Cortona, appeared in 1938. A third opera, Il Mago, was left incomplete.

Refice died in 1954 during morning rehearsals of Cecilia in Rio de Janeiro; Renata Tebaldi was singing the title role. For readers of Italian, more information about Refice is here.