La cambiale di matrimonio - opera

Rossini’s first professional work premieres in Venice

The title page of the libretto
for the opera, by Gaetano Rossi

La cambiale di matrimonio - the first opera by Gioachino Rossini to be performed before a paying audience - premiered at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice on this day in 1810.

Although the Pesaro-born composer, who would go on to write 39 operas including Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola (Cinderella), had tried his hand at the genre earlier, La cambiale di matrimonio was the first to be staged in public.

Rossini had written the one-act farce - translated in English as The Bill of Marriage or The Marriage Contract - in the space of just a few days while he was an 18-year-old student at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna.

Based on a play of the same name by Camillo Federici, an 18th century dramatist from Piedmont, La cambiale di matrimonio revolves around the attempts by a London merchant, Tobias Mill, to marry off his daughter, Fanny, to a somewhat mature Canadian businessman by the name of Slook.

Mill makes this arrangement, which is designed primarily for his own financial gain, without knowing that Fanny has a lover, Edward Milfort, whose existence she has kept secret from her father on account of his lowly financial status.

The action takes place in the drawing room of the Mill house, where Edward and Fanny are together at just the moment Slook arrives.

La cambiale di matrimonio had a brief run, lasting just 13 performances, but the presence of a well-regarded mezzo-soprano, Rosa Morandi, in the role of Fanny attracted attention and the two baritones cast as Mill and Crook are said to have played to the gallery as the composer intended.

The young Rossini wrote a series of
farces for the Teatro San Moisè

Rossini himself was pleased enough with one aria, performed by Morandi, that he used it as the basis for a duet between Figaro and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, which premiered in 1816, by which time the composer was enjoying enormous fame and the wealth that came with it.

The Teatro San Moisè, meanwhile, invited the young Rossini to compose more works along the same lines. He obliged by delivering three more farces, L'inganno felice (The Fortunate Deception), La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) and Il signor Bruschino.

Active from 1620 to 1818, the Teatro San Moisè, which could be found near the start of the Grand Canal and just a few steps from Piazza San Marco, was a small theatre but an influential one.

Its first opera production was Claudio Monteverdi's L'Arianna in 1640, while in the 18th century the music of the Baroque composers Francesco Gasparini, Antonio Vivaldi and Tomaso Albinoni was frequently performed there. 

When the Neapolitan opera buffa genre arrived in Venice in the 1740s, San Moisè became something of a showcase for the genre, staging works by Baldassare Galuppi, who formed a partnership with the brilliant playwright and librettist, Carlo Goldoni.

The theatre closed in 1818 and was later revived as a puppet theatre and a cinema but the building was demolished in the 20th century.

The church of San Moisè contains works
by Tintoretto and Palma il Giovane

Travel tip:

The church of San Moisè, from which the theatre took its name, can be found just 124m (135 yards) from Piazza San Marco in Campo San Moisè, flanked on one side by the modern, five-star Hotel Bauer and on the other by the Venice stores of Versace and Prada. Built originally in the eighth century, the church’s elaborately decorated Baroque facade was added in the late 17th century to a design by the Padua architect Alessandro Tremignon. The interior is dominated by Heinrich Meyring's huge altarpiece, depicting Moses at Mount Sinai receiving the Tablets. The Old Testament prophets were considered by the Venetians as saints. Also inside are a Washing of the Feet by Tintoretto and a Last Supper by Palma il Giovane.

The Ducal Palace in Pesaro was commissioned
by ruler Alessandro Sforza in the 15th century

Travel tip:

Pesaro, while a major centre for tourism due to its location on the Adriatic coast, is also a former mediaeval city of some standing, ruled by Giovanni Sforza between 1483 and 1510. It had a 15th century Ducal Palace, commissioned by Alessandro Sforza, one of Giovanni’s ancestors, and an imposing castle, the Rocca Costanza, built by Costanza I Sforza, the condottiero who was Alessandro’s son. Today, it is known as the city of music. Each summer, in honour of Gioachino Rossini, born in 1792, it hosts the Rossini Opera Festival, and the town is home to the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Gioachino Rossini, which was founded from a legacy left by the composer.

Also on this day:

1560: The birth of painter Annibale Carracci

1801: The birth of composer Vincenzo Bellini

1908: The birth of politician Giovanni Leone

1918: The Villa Giusti Armistice

1931: The birth of actress Monica Vitti

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Carlo Bergonzi – operatic tenor

Singer whose style was called the epitome of Italian vocal art

Carlo Bergonzi made his professional opera debut in
the role of Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville

Carlo Bergonzi, one of the great Italian opera singers of the 20th century, died on this day in 2014 in Milan.

He specialised in singing roles from the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, helping to revive some of the composer’s lesser-known works.

Between the 1950s and 1980s he sang more than 300 times with the Metropolitan Opera of New York and the New York Times, in its obituary, described his voice as ‘an instrument of velvety beauty and nearly unrivalled subtlety’.

Bergonzi was born in Polesine Parmense near Parma in Emilia-Romagna in 1924. He claimed to have seen his first opera, Verdi’s Il Trovatore, at the age of six.

He sang in his local church and soon began to appear in children’s roles in operas in Busseto, a town near where he lived.

Bergonzi spent two years in a prisoner
of war camp during World War II 

He left school at the age of 11 and started to work in the same cheese factory as his father in Parma.  At the age of 16 he began vocal studies as a baritone at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma.

During World War II, Bergonzi became involved in anti-Fascist activities and was sent to a German prisoner of war camp. After two years he was freed by the Russians and walked 106km (66 miles) to reach an American camp.

On the way he drank unboiled water and contracted typhoid fever. He later recovered, but when he returned to the Arrigo Boito Conservatory after the war he weighed just over 36kg (80lb).

Bergonzi made his professional debut as a baritone in 1948 singing the role of Figaro in Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Other baritone parts followed but Bergonzi soon realised the tenor repertoire was more suited to his voice. After retraining he made his debut as a tenor in the title role of Andrea Chenier at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari in 1951.

The same year he sang at the Coliseum in Rome in a 50th anniversary concert commemorating Verdi’s death. The Italian radio network RAI engaged Bergonzi for a series of broadcasts of the lesser-known Verdi operas.

Carlo Bergonzi and Maria Callas (left) performed
together at the Metropolitan Opera

These included I due Foscari, Giovanna d’Arco and Simon Boccanegra.

He made his La Scala debut in 1953 creating the title role in Jacopo Napoli’s opera Mas’Aniello. His London debut came in 1953 and his American debut followed in 1955 in Chicago.

After he appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time the following year he received a glowing review from the New York Times.

He continued to sing at the Met for the next 30 years, appearing opposite such famous sopranos as Maria Callas, Victoria de los Angeles and Leontyne Price. He sang in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem at the Met in 1964 in memory of President John F. Kennedy, under the baton of Georg Solti. His last role at the Met was Rodolofo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller in 1988.

Bergonzi’s chief Italian tenor rivals during his career were Franco Corelli and Mario Del Monaco but he outlasted them both, continuing to sing in concerts into the 1990s.

Franco Corelli's was one of Bergonzi's
rivals among Italian operatic tenors

In May 2000 it was announced he was to sing the title role in Verdi’s Otello in a concert in New York. It attracted a great deal of interest and Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti were all in the audience.

Sadly, Bergonzi was unable to finish the performance because his voice had been affected by the air conditioning in his dressing room and a substitute tenor had to sing in his place.

After retiring, Bergonzi mentored many famous tenors and the soprano, Frances Ginsberg, was also one of his pupils.

Bergonzi died 12 days after his 90th birthday in Milan, leaving a widow and two sons. He was laid to rest in the Vidalenzo Cemetery, not far from Polisene Parmense.

He left a legacy of beautiful recordings of individual arias and complete operas, including works by Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo.

The church of the Beata Vergine di Loreto

Travel tip:

The village of Polisene Parmense, where Bergonzi was born, is about 40km (25 miles) northwest of Parma and around 20km (12 miles) south of Cremona. In January 2016 it merged with Zibello to form the new municipality of Polesine Zibello.  The village contains two buildings of interest - the church of the Beata Vergine di Loreto, also known as Madonnina del Po, which was built between 1846 and 1920 to preserve an effigy fresco of Our Lady of Loreto that had been discovered in an ancient shrine, and the nearby Antica Corte Pallavicina, a fortress that dates back to the 13th century.

The entrance to Bergonzi's restaurant in Busseto, I due Foscari

Travel tip:

Busseto, where Bergonzi sang as a child, is a town in the province of Parma, about 40km (25 miles) from the city of Parma. Verdi was born in the nearby village of Le Roncole but moved to Busseto in 1824. Bergonzi owned a house there and after his retirement also opened a restaurant and hotel there, I due Foscari, named after the Verdi opera about court intrigue in Venice. At the time of his death, I due Foscari was still being run by his son, Marco.

More reading:

How Italy mourned the loss of Giuseppe Verdi

Why Franco Corelli was called 'the prince of tenors'

Pietro Mascagni - a reputation built on one brilliant opera

Also on this day:

1467: The Battle of Molinella sees artillery used for the first time in warfare

1654: The birth of baroque musician Agostino Steffani

1883: The birth of Alfredo Casella, the musician who revived interest in Vivaldi

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Fire at Teatro di San Carlo

Royal theatre reopens quickly after blaze 

The damage wreaked by the 1816 fire, captured in a
painting by an unknown artist

Fire broke out during a dress rehearsal for a ballet at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on this day in 1816.

The flames spread quickly, destroying a large part of the building in less than an hour.

The external walls were the only things left standing, but on the orders of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, the prestigious theatre was rebuilt at once.

It was reconstructed following designs drawn up by architect Antonio Niccolini for a horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats. A stunning fresco was painted in the centre of the ceiling above the auditorium depicting a classical subject, Apollo presenting to Minerva the greatest poets of the world.

The rebuilding work took just ten months to complete and the theatre reopened to the public in January 1817.

Teatro di San Carlo had opened for the first time in 1737, way ahead of Teatro alla Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.

Gioachino Rossini is among the former
artistic directors at San Carlo

Built in Via San Carlo close to Piazza Plebiscito, the main square in Naples, Teatro di San Carlo had quickly become one of the most important opera houses in Europe, known for its excellent productions.

The original theatre was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano for the Bourbon King of Naples, Charles I, and took only eight months to build.

The official inauguration was on the King’s saint’s day, the festival of San Carlo, on the evening of November 4. There was a performance of Achille in Sciro by Pietro Metastasio with music by Domenico Sarro, who also conducted the orchestra for the music for two ballets.

This was 41 years before La Scala and 55 years before La Fenice opened. San Carlo is now believed to be one of the oldest remaining opera houses in the world, if not the oldest.

Both Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti served as artistic directors at San Carlo and the world premieres of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Rossini’s Mosè were performed there.

During the Second World War the theatre was damaged by bombs but after the liberation of Naples in 1943 it was repaired and was able to reopen.

Between 2008 and 2009 a major refurbishment was carried out but the theatre reopened again to the public in 2010.

Inside Teatro di San Carlo, looking down
from above the royal box

Travel tip:

In the magnificent auditorium, the focal point is the royal box surmounted by the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Opera enthusiasts can take a guided tour of the theatre and see the foyers, the auditorium, the boxes and the royal box. Tours run at 10.30, 11.30, 12.30, 14.30, 15.30 and 16.30 between Monday and Saturday and at 10.30, 11.30 and 12.30 on Sundays. Booking is recommended.

Naples accomodation by Booking.com

Travel Tip:

Close to Teatro di San Carlo in the centre of ‘royal’ Naples, there are many other sights, such as Galleria Umberto I, Caffè Gambrinus, the church of San Francesco di Paola and Palazzo Reale, that are all well worth visiting.


More reading:

The 1996 fire that destroyed La Fenice opera house in Venice

How Pietro Metastasio progressed from street entertainer to renowned librettist

Donizetti - the musical genius born in a darkened basement

Also on this day:

1539: The death of influential marchioness Isabella d’Este

1571: The death of painter Benvenuto Cellini

1912: The birth of poet Antonia Pozzi

1960: The birth of football referee Pierluigi Collina

(Painting: Rossini portrait by Vincenzo Camuccini, Museo del Teatro alla Scala in Milan) 

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Franco Zeffirelli – film director

Shakespeare adaptations made director a household name

Franco Zeffirelli excelled in adapting
classic plays and operas for the big screen

The film, opera and television director Franco Zeffirelli was born on this day in Florence in 1923.

He is best known for his adaptations of Shakespeare plays for the big screen, notably The Taming of the Shrew (1967), with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Hamlet (1990) with Mel Gibson. 

Boldly, he cast two teenagers in the title roles of Romeo and Juliet and filmed the tragedy against the backdrop of 15th century buildings in Serravalle in the Veneto region. His film became the standard adaptation of the play and has been shown to thousands of students over the years.

His later films include Jane Eyre (1996) and Tea with Mussolini (1999), while he directed several adaptations of operas for the cinema, including I Pagliacci (1981), Cavalleria rusticana (1982), Otello (1986), and La bohème (2008). 

Zeffirelli's name was, in fact, an invention, and a misspelled one to boot.

He was the child of Alaide Garosi, a fashion designer, as a result of an affair with a wool and silk dealer, Ottorino Corsi. Since both his parents were married to other partners, his registered surname could neither be Garosi or Corsi. Instead, his mother intended him to be registered as Zeffiretti - the Italian for 'little breezes' - in a reference to a line in Mozart's opera, Idomeneo. However, it was misspelled in the register and he became Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli.

Zeffirelli worked with Luchino Visconti
in his early days of film direction

Alaide died when Franco was six and he subsequently was looked after within expatriate English community in Florence, an experience that later inspired his film Tea with Mussolini, which was semi-autobiographical.

Zeffirelli studied art and architecture at Florence University before fighting as a partisan during the Second World War.

After the war he worked as a scenic painter in Florence until he was hired by Luchino Visconti, initially as an actor and stage director in his theatre company, and subsequently as assistant director on his 1948 film La terra trema (The Earth Trembles). He also worked with directors Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini in Italy's booming post-war cinema industry.

His focus then switched more to stage design, particularly for opera. His first major design for opera was a 1952-53 production of Gioachino Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri for La Scala in Milan. He maintained his link with opera in theatrical and arena settings throughout his career, working on notable productions of La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, Tosca, Falstaff, and Carmen. He became a friend of Maria Callas, eventually directing her in La Traviata in America and in Tosca at the Royal Opera House in London, with Tito Gobbi.

A 17-year-old Olivia Hussey in Zeffirelli's Romeo and
Juliet, which established the director's reputation

The Taming of the Shrew was Zeffirelli's first film as director in 1967. It was originally planned that Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni would take the starring roles but to help fund production it was decided that Taylor and Burton would give the film a higher profile. 

Zeffirelli's major breakthrough came the year after with Romeo and Juliet (1968), which earned $14.5 million dollars at the box office in the United States and made Zeffirelli's name, earning him a nomination for Best Director at the Oscars, although at the same time it set a standard that some critics believe he never quite met in his subsequent work, for all his success. 

As well as Shakespeare adaptations, Zeffirelli made a number of films with religious themes, such as a life of St. Francis of Assisi entitled Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), then his TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977), although these attracted criticism from some religious groups for what they perceived as the blasphemous representation of biblical figures. 

Zeffirelli, who received the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1977, is a former senator for the Forza Italia political party and received an honorary knighthood in Britain in 2004. 

UPDATE: Franco Zeffirelli died in Rome in June 2019 at the age of 96.

The Florence floods of 1966 did huge damage
to precious art treasures

Travel tip:

The University of Florence can trace its origins back to the 14th century, but the modern University, where Zeffirelli studied, dates back to 1859, when a number of higher studies institutions were grouped together. When his native Florence was flooded in the 1960s, causing millions of pounds worth of damage to precious art and literary treasures and the buildings housing them, Zeffirelli made a documentary film, Florence: Days of Destruction, to raise funds for the disaster appeal.

Book your stay in Florence with Booking.com

A typical Serravalle palace

Travel tip:

Serravalle, where Zeffirelli filmed Romeo and Juliet, was combined with the town of Ceneda nearby and renamed Vittorio in 1866 in honour of King Vittorio Emanuele II. After the last decisive battle of the First World War had taken place nearby, Vittorio was renamed Vittorio Veneto. The small town of Serravalle is the more picturesque of the two places that make up Vittorio Veneto and its fine 15th century palazzi and pretty arcaded streets made a wonderful backdrop for Zeffirelli’s film.  

Hotels in Serravalle by Booking.com



More reading:

Why Luchino Visconti was called 'the aristocrat of Italian cinema'

The genius of Vittorio De Sica

Sophia Loren - glamorous star is one of just three Italian Oscar-winning actors

Also on this day:

1602: The birth of Baroque painter Michelangelo Cerquozzi

1799: The death of biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani, pioneer of artificial insemination

1937: The birth of Vittorio Emanuele, heir to the last King of Italy

1944: The birth of actress and singer Claudia Mori

(Picture credits: Zeffirelli in 2008 by Alexey Yushenkov; Serravalle palace by Paolo Steffan; via Wikimedia Commons)

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