Paolino Vassallo

Paolino Vassallo was a Maltese composer born in Cospicua on 24 July 1856.[1] Vassallo studied with Massenet and Guiraud at the Conservatoire Royal in Parsi. He founded his Musical Institute in Valletta in 1885[1] and was appointed the maestro di cappella at Mdina Cathedral in Valletta in 1902. He wrote three operas; Amor Fatale, Frazir and Edith Cavell.[2] "Edith Cavell" was a melodrama in three acts to a libretto by poet Alfonso Giglio, and received its première at the Teatru Rjal (Valletta, Malta) on 21 March 1927, four years after Vassallo’s death, and was an immediate sensational triumph. Vassallo died on 30 January 1923.[3]

Vassallo was featured on a Maltese postage stamp in 2006. There is also a school, Paolino Vassallo Upper Lyceum, and a square, Pjazza Paolino Vassallo (in Bormla), named after him.