AGNESI, Luigi Fernando [AGNIEZ, Louis [Loedwyck] Ferdinand Léopold] (b Erpent, Namur, Belgium, 17 July 1833; d 56 Loudon Road, St John’s Wood, London, 2 February 1875)

This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century singer Luigi Fernando Agnesi. The Belgian bass-baritone Agnesi, always praised for his artistry and musicianship, rose to a high place in the British music world of the 1870s. In the 1850s he became maître de chapelle at the Église Ste Catherine, taught music, and penned a regular flow of songs, signed L F Agniez-Scribe. On 10 March 1858, Agniez' two-act opera Hermold le Normand was staged at Brussels' Théâtre de la Monnaie. The piece was a failure, and thereafter Agniez angled his musical life rather towards singing. In 1863, Agnesi was engaged for the Italian theatres of Paris, in Madrid, for a Merelli season at the Vienna Carltheater and at Frankfurt. In 1865, Agnesi was engaged for London's Italian Opera to play the role of Il Prefetto alongside the Linda di Chamounix of di Murska, Carrión and Grossi. In 1869–1870 Agnesi sang at Lille, Orleans, Caen, Poitiers, and Homburg.