Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola - architect

Legacy of beautiful Renaissance buildings throughout Italy

Vignola's Villa Farnese at Caprarola, near Viterbo in Lazio,
which is acknowledged as one of the architect's masterpieces

One of the great architects of the 16th century, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, died on this day in 1573 in Rome.

Often referred to simply as Vignola, the architect left the world with a wealth of beautiful buildings and two acknowledged masterpieces, the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Church of the Gesù in Rome.

Along with Andrea Palladio and Sebastiano Serlio, Vignola was responsible for spreading the style of the Italian Renaissance throughout Europe.

He was born at Vignola near Modena in Emilia-Romagna in 1507. He began his career as an architect in Bologna and then went to Rome to make drawings of Roman temples. He was invited to Fontainebleau  to work for King Francois I, where it is believed he first met the Bolognese architect, Serlio.

Back in Italy he designed the Palazzo Bocchi in Bologna and then moved to Rome to work for Pope Julius III. He later worked alongside the artist Michelangelo, who greatly influenced his architectural style.

From 1564 onwards, Vignola worked on the new St Peter’s Basilica, following the plans Michelangelo had drawn up for the domes.

Vignola died in Rome at the age of 65. His remains were reburied in the Pantheon as recently as 1973.

Travel tip:

Villa Farnese, which is also sometimes known as Villa Caprarola, is a beautiful house in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo in Lazio, about 50 kilometres north west of Rome. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese commissioned Vignola to design his residence and it is now recognised as one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture in Italy. The architect worked on it until his death in 1573.

The Chiesa del Gesù in Rome was built to Vignola's design

Travel tip:

The Church of the Gesù, Chiesa del Gesù, is the mother church of the Jesuits in Piazza del Gesù in the Campo dè Fiori area of Rome. The church was built in 1568 to Vignola’s specifications and its baroque façade is believed to be the first of this style ever designed.

(Photo of Villa Farnese by Livioandronico2013 CC BY-SA 4.0)
(Photo of Chiesa del Gesù by Jebulon CC0 1.0)

Home

Mirella Freni – opera singer

Good advice from Gigli helped soprano have long career

Mirella Freni, pictured in 1970

Singer Mirella Freni was born Mirella Fregni on this day in 1935 in Modena in Emilia-Romagna .

Freni’s grandmother, Valentina Bartolomasi, had been a leading soprano in Italy from 1910 until 1927, specialising in Wagner roles. By coincidence, her mother worked alongside the mother of tenor Luciano Pavarotti in a tobacco factory in Modena.

Freni was obviously musically gifted and sang an opera aria in a radio competition when she was just ten years old.

One of the judges was the tenor Beniamino Gigli, who advised her to give up singing until she was older to protect her voice.

Freni took his advice and resumed singing when she was 17, making her operatic debut at the Teatro Municipale in Modena at the age of 20 in Bizet’s Carmen.

Her international debut came at Glyndebourne in Franco Zeffirelli’s staging of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.

In the 1960 season at Glyndebourne she sang comic roles from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.

Listen to Mirella Freni performing "Un bel di vedremo" from Madame Butterfly

Freni made her Covent Garden debut in 1961, her La Scala debut in 1963 and her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1965.

She started singing the heavier Verdi roles in the 1970s but she always refused roles for which she thought she was unsuited, or that might overtax her voice, which contributed to her longevity as a singer.

The soprano starred in a 1975 film of Madame Butterfly opposite Placido Domingo.

In 1978 she married Nicolai Ghiaurov, a leading operatic bass. Together they established the Centro Universale del Bel Canto in Vignola, near Modena in 2002, where they began giving master classes. Freni continued this work after his death in 2004.

She celebrated her 50th anniversary on the operatic stage in 2005 at the age of 70 at the Met in New York before retiring.

Modena's 11th century Duomo

Travel tip:

Modena is an historic city in Emilia Romagna with a magnificent main square, Piazza Grande, which has an 11th century Duomo dedicated to San Geminiano, and is now a Unesco world heritage site. The city’s opera house was renamed Teatro Communale Luciano Pavarotti in 2007 after the great tenor. Modena is also famous for its balsamic vinegar, Aceto Balsamico di Modena.

Hotels in Modena from Booking.com



Travel Tip:

South of Modena is the city of Vignola, where Freni and Ghiaurov established their Centro Universale del Bel Canto. Famous for its cherry trees and the abundant fruit they produce, Vignola has one of the best preserved castles in the region, the Rocca di Vignola, founded in the eighth century but rebuilt and turned into a residence for a wealthy family in the 13th century. The city was also the birthplace of the brilliant architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola in 1507.

Stay in Vignola with Booking.com

More reading

Enrico Caruso: The voice of the great Caruso can still be heard

Renata Tebaldi: soprano with 'the voice of an angel'

Beniamino Gigli: one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century

Also on 27 February:

1950: The birth of fashion designer Franco Moschino

1964: Italy appeals for help with Leaning Tower of Pisa

1973: The birth of singer and actress Chiara Iezzi

1978: The birth of dancer Simone Di Pasquale

Books:

Understanding Italian Opera, by Tim Carter

(Picture credit: Modena Cathedral by Icco80 via Wikimedia Commons)

Home