Costa, Sir Michael (Andrew Agnus) (actually, Michele Andrea Agniello)

Costa, Sir Michael (Andrew Agnus) (actually, Michele Andrea Agniello) , Italian-born English conductor of Spanish descent; b. Naples, Feb. 4, 1806; d. Hove, England, April 29, 1884. He studied with his maternal grandfather, Giacomo Tritto, with his father, Pasquale Costa (a composer of church music), and with Giovanni Furno. He then studied at the Naples Cons, with Crescentini (singing) and Zingarelli (composition). His operas // sospetto funesto (Naples, 1826), // delitto punito (1827), II carcere d’lldegonda (Naples, 1828), and Malvina (Naples, 1829) were well received; when Zingarelli was commissioned to write a Psalm (Super Flumina Babilonis) for the Music Festival at Birmingham, England, he sent Costa to conduct it. When Costa arrived in Birmingham, the directors of the Festival refused to accept him as a conductor owing to his extreme youth, but offered to pay him a similar fee for performance as tenor in Zingarelli’s Psalm and in other works. He was compelled to accept, but his debut as a singer was disastrous. Despite this setback, he decided to remain in England, a decision in which he was encouraged by Clementi, who was impressed by Costa’s scoring of a Bellini aria. In 1830 Costa was engaged as maestro al cembalo at the King’s Theatre in London; from 1833 to 1846 he was director and conductor of the Italian Opera there. During this time, he produced three of his ballets, Kenilworth (1831), line Heure a Naples (1832), and Sir Huon (1833). From 1846 to 1854 he was conductor of the Phil. Soc. concerts; in 1847 he organized the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden, conducting it until 1868. He was conductor of the Handel Festivals at the Crystal Palace (1847–80), the Sacred Harmonic Soc. (1848–82), and the Birmingham Festivals (1849–82). From 1868 to 1871 he conducted opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre, and then was its music director from 1871 to 1881. In 1869 he was knighted. Costa was generally acknowledged as the leading conductor in England in his day. He produced two operas in London: Malek Adel (May 18, 1837; a revision of Malvina) and Don Carlos (June 20, 1844).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire