Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

'
EIBIBLE BICCI 89
it foi- ever in the Overture Leonore No. 3 '
(bar 75 of Allegro).
See too another passage farther on, before
the Flute solo. [See Tkill.] g.
RIBIBLE, an obsolete instrument played by
a bow. It is mentioned by Chaucer and other
early writers, and appears to have been either
the rebec itself, or a particular form of it.
Sometimes it is spelled ' rubible.' It has been
suggested that both 'rebec' and 'ribible' are
derived from the Moorish word ' rebeb ' or
' rebab, ' which seems to have been the name of
a somewhat similar musical instrument. (See
Eebec.) f. k.
KIBS (Pr. tclisses; Germ. Zarge). The
sides of stringed instruments of the violin type,
connecting the back and the belly. They consist
of six (sometimes only five) pieces of maple,
and should be of the same texture as the back,
and if possible cut out of the same piece. After
being carefully planed to the right thickness,
they are bent to the required shape, and then
glued together on the mould by means of the
corner and top and bottom blocks, the angles
being feather -edged. The back, the linings,
and the belly are then added, and the body of
the violin is then complete. The ribs ought to
be slightly increased in depth at the broader
end of the instrument, but many makers have
neglected this rule. The flatter the model,
the deeper the ribs require to be ; hence the
viol tribe, having perfectly flat backs and bellies
of slight elevation, are very deep in the ribs.
The oldest violins were often very deep in the
ribs, but many of them have been since cut
down. Carlo Bergonzi and his contemporaries
had a fashion of making shallow ribs, and often
cut down the ribs of older instruments, thereby
injuring their tone beyond remedy. Instruments
made of ill-chosen and unseasoned wood
will crack and decay in the ribs sooner than in
any other part ; but in the best instruments the
ribs will generally outlast both belly and back.
Some old makers were in the habit of glueing
a strip of linen inside the ribs. E. j. p.
EICCI, Ltjigi, born in Naples, June 8, 1805,
in 1814 entered the Royal Conservatorio, then
under Zingarelli, of which he became in 1819
one of the sub-professors together with Bellini.
His first work, ' L' Impresario in angustie,' was
performed by the students of the Conservatorio
in 1823, and enthusiastically applauded. In
the following four years he wrote 'La Cena
frastomata,' 'L' Abate Taccarella,' 'II Diavolo
condannato a prender moglie,' and La Lucerna
'
d'Epitteto,' all for the Teatro Nuovo. In 1828
his 'UUsse,' at the San Carlo, was a failure.
In 1 829 ' II Colombo ' in Parma and L' Orfanella
'
di Ginevra' in Naples were both successful.
The winter of 1829-30 was disastrous for Ricci,
his four new operas ( ' II Sonnambulo, '
' L' Eroina
del Messico,' 'Annibale in Torino,' and 'La
Neve ') being all unsuccessful. In the autumn
of 1831 he produced at the Scala, Milan,
'Chiara di Eosemberg,' and this opera, performed
by Grisi, Sacchi, Winter, Badioli, etc.,
was greatly applauded, and soon became successful
in all the theatres of Italy. II nuovo
'
Figaro' failed in Parma in 1832. In it sang
Bozer, who afterwards married Balfe. The
same fate attended ' I due Sergenti ' at the Scala
in 1833, where the following year he gave Un'
'
Avveutura di Scaramuocia,' which was a very
great success, and was translated into French
by Flotow. The same year ' Gli esposti,' better
known as Eran due ed or son ' tre, ' was applauded
in Turin, whilst Chi dura ' vince, ' like Rossini's
immortal ' Barbiere,' was hissed at Rome. It
was afterwards received enthusiastically at Milan
and in many other opera-houses of Europe. In
1835 'Chiara di Montalbano' failed at the
Scala, while La ' serva e 1' ussero ' was applauded
in Pavia. Eicci had thus composed twenty
operas when only thirty years old ; and although
many of his works had met with a genuine and
well-deserved success, he was still very poor
and had to accept the post of musical director
of the Trieste Cathedral and conductor of the
Opera. In 1838 his 'Nozze di Figaro' was a
fiasco in Milan, where Eossini told him that
its fall was due to the music being too serums.
For the next six years Rioci composed nothing.
In 1844 he married Lidia Stoltz, by whom he
had two children, Adelaide, who in 1867 sang
at the Theatre des Italiens in Paris, but died
soon after, and Luigi, who lives in London.
'
La SoHtaria delle Asturie ' was given in Odessa
in 1844 ; 'II Birraio di Preston' in Florence
in 1847 ; and in 1852 La Festa di Piedigrotta'
'
was very successful in Naples. His last opera,
'
II Diavolo a quattro, ' was performed in Trieste
in 1859.
Luigi Eicci composed in collaboration with
his brother Fedbrico ' II Colonnello, ' given in
Eome, and ' M. de Chalumeaux, ' in Venice, in
1835; in 1836 'II Disertore per amore' for
the San Carlo in Naples, and ' L'Amante di
richiamo,' given in Turin in 1846. Of these
four operas, ' II Colonnello ' alone had a welldeserved
reception. But Eioci's masterpiece,
the opera which has placed him in a very high
rank among Italian composers, is ' Crispino e
la Comare,' written in 1850 for Venice, and to
which his brother Federico partly contributed.
This opera, one of the best comic operas of
Italy, enjoyed a long success all the world over.
Shortly after the production of ' II Diavolo a
quattro' in 1859, however, symptoms of insanity
showed themselves, a;nd the malady soon became
violent. He was taken to an asylum at Prague,
his wife's birthplace, and died there Deo. 31,
1859. He was much mourned at Trieste ; a
funeral ceremony was followed by a performance
of selections from his principal works, his bust
was placed in the lobby of the Opera-house,
and a pension was granted to his widow. He
g