Vittorio Monti

Italian composer Vittorio Monti (1868-1922) is one of those composers who have become famous for a single piece of music - in his case, the Csárdás. He was a well-educated man, however, who studied the violin and composition at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella. At the age of just eighteen he moved to Paris to perfect his violin playing, and for many years he was the leader of the Lamoureux Orchestra. His ballet Il giardino incantato was produced in Naples in 1891, and the following year Parisian audiences could hear his operetta En pleine lune. As time went by, several of his operettas enjoyed great success in Paris, but everything he wrote has fallen into oblivion with the exception of the Csárdás, which is hugely popular.