13 June 2017

Pope's would-be killer pardoned

Turkish gunman 'freed' but immediately detained


Pope John Paul II's historic meeting in prison with Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who attempted to kill him
Pope John Paul II's historic meeting in prison with Mehmet
Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who attempted to kill him
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italy’s president, signed the order granting an official pardon to Pope John Paul II’s would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, on this day in 2000.

The Turkish gunman had spent 19 years in jail after wounding the pontiff in St Peter’s Square in Rome in May 1981 but John Paul II, who had forgiven Agca from his hospital bed and visited him in prison in 1983, had been pressing the Italian government to show clemency and allow him to return to Turkey.

However, at the same time as granting him his freedom under the Italian judicial system, Ciampi also signed Agca’s extradition papers at the request of the Turkish authorities, who required him to serve the outstanding nine years of a 10-year jail sentence after being convicted in his absence of the murder of a Turkish journalist in 1978.

He was handed over to Turkish police, who escorted him onto a military flight to Istanbul airport on Tuesday night.

The pontiff pressed the Italian authorities to show clemency towards Agca
The pontiff pressed the Italian authorities
to show clemency towards Agca
At the time, a Vatican statement described the Pope as "very happy" about the pardon and said that John Paul II’s satisfaction was all the greater for the pardon being carried out during the Roman Catholic Church's Holy Year, the theme of which was pardon and forgiveness.

The attempt on the Pope's life had come on May 13, 1981 as he drove across St Peter's Square in an open car to hold a general audience with a crowd of 20,000 people.

He was hit by four bullets, wounding him in the stomach, his left hand and his right arm.  Two of his aides were also injured in the attack, as were two bystanders.  John Paul II suffered considerable loss of blood but attributed his survival to the Virgin of Fatima, whose feast day falls on May 13.

Agca was arrested by Italian police as he tried to flee the scene. He was sentenced to life imprisonment two months later, although it was always likely he would be released. It is rare for criminals in Italy to remain incarcerated much beyond 20 years, even for very serious offences.

The gunman, who spent the last part of the sentence in Montacuto prison near Ancona, had kissed John Paul II’s ring when he was visited in his cell in 1983 at the Rebibbia prison in Rome and later described the pontiff as his friend and thanked him for the help he had given to his family in Turkey while he remained imprisoned.

The open vehicle in which Pope John Paul II was travelling when the assassination attempt took place
The open vehicle in which Pope John Paul II was
travelling when the assassination attempt took place
Despite three investigations and two trials, mystery has long surrounded the assassination attempt. It was at first believed to be linked to Bulgarian and Soviet secret services as part of a communist plot to kill John Paul II because of his influence in his native Poland, where he had helped to loosen the grip of the communist authorities.

Agca had allegedly told the pontiff when they met in 1983 that he had been instructed to kill him by the Bulgarian secret services on behalf of the Russian KGB but, at a second trial in 1986, prosecutors failed to prove that Bulgarian secret services had hired him on the orders of the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, a court in Istanbul had sentenced him in absentia to death for his part in the murder of newspaper editor Abdi İpekçi, carried out by a far-right Turkish paramilitary group, the Grey Wolves. The sentence was later commuted to a 10-year jail term.

Bernini's awe-inspiring sweep of colonnades makes St Peter's Square instantly recognisable
Bernini's awe-inspiring sweep of colonnades makes
St Peter's Square instantly recognisable
Travel tip:

St Peter’s Square – Piazza San Pietro – took shape under the supervision of the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1656 and 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, who wanted an appropriate space in front of the basilica "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace". Bernini, who had been working on the interior of St Peter's for many years, chose to enclose the square within colonnades, using simple Doric columns so as not to detract from the majesty of Carlo Maderno’s basilica façade but created a sense of awe with the sheer size of the sweep of colonnades on each side. The Egyptian obelisk, erected in 1586, was retained as the centrepiece. One of the two fountains was built by Maderno in 1613 and matched by the addition of a second by Bernini in 1675.

Travel tip:

The coastal town of Ancona, about 7km (4 miles) from Montacuto, is a bustling port that at first glance can appear to lack obvious charm but which possesses much history, bearing witness to its Greek and Roman past. The 18m-high Arch of Trajan, built in honour of the emperor who built the city’s harbour, is regarded as one of the finest Roman monuments in the Marche region. The Duomo – also known as the Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Ciriaco – is equally impressive, as is the Lazzaretto, the pentagonal building constructed on an artificial island in the 18th century as a quarantine station designed to protect Ancona from diseases carried by infected travellers.


12 June 2017

Charles Emmanuel II - Duke of Savoy

Ruler who was notorious for massacre of Protestant minority


Charles Emmanuel II's good work for Turin was overshadowed by his persecution of minority
Charles Emmanuel II's good work for Turin was
overshadowed by his persecution of minority
Charles Emmanuel II, who was Duke of Savoy for almost his whole life, died on this day in 1675 in Turin.

His rule was notorious for his persecution of the Valdesi – a Christian Protestant movement widely known as the Waldenses that originate in 12th century France, whose base was on the Franco-Italian border.

In 1655, he launched an attack on the Valdesi that turned into a massacre so brutal that it sent shockwaves around Europe and prompted the English poet, John Milton, to write the sonnet On the Late Massacre in Piedmont.

The British political leader Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, proposed to send the British Navy if the massacre and subsequent attacks were not halted, and raised funds for helping the Waldensians.

More positively, Charles Emmanuel II was responsible for improving commerce and creating wealth in the Duchy. He was a driver in developing the port of Nice and building a road through the Alps towards France.

He also reformed the army so that it did not rely on mercenaries, forming five Piedmontese regiments and reviving the cavalry, as well as introducing a standardised uniform.

Charles Emmanuel with his mother Christine Maria
Charles Emmanuel with his mother Christine Maria
Charles Emmanuel restored crumbling fortifications and many of Turin’s most beautiful buildings were built on his initiative. He also continued the development of the Palazzo Reale, which had been built by mother, Christine Marie of France, during her regency, as a new residence for the Court of Savoy.

He was born in Turin in June 1634. His father was Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, who died when Charles Emmanuel was just three. His maternal grandparents were Henry IV of France and his second wife Marie de' Medici.

Charles Emmanuel was only four when he succeeded to the title following the death of his older brother, Francis Hyacinth. Because of his age, his mother governed as regent. He showed little interest in affairs of state himself as he grew up and even after turning 18, when he might have taken charge in his own right, he invited his mother to extend her regency, allowing him to continue to enjoy the carefree life of a wealthy young man.

It was only with the death of his mother in 1663 that he was forced to take responsibility for governing the Duchy.  Apart from his persecution of the Valdesi, he also flexed his military muscles in a war against Genoa which was inconclusive.

Charles Emmanuel was Duke of Savoy from the age of four years old
Charles Emmanuel was Duke of Savoy
from the age of four years old
His first marriage was rather forced on him by his mother, who paired him with Françoise Madeleine d'Orléans, daughter of her younger brother, Gaston, Duke of Orléans. They were married in April 1663 but the marriage lasted less than one year because of the death of his new wife in 1664. They had no children.

This freed him to marry Marie Jeanne of Savoy, whom he had first met in 1659 and fallen in love with her. They married in May 1665 and had one son, who would become Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, future King of Sicily and later Sardinia.

Charles Emmanuel II is also thought to have fathered at least five illegitimate children by three different mistresses.

He died in Turin a few days short of what would have been his 41st birthday, leaving his wife to act as regent on behalf of Victor Amadeus.  He is buried in Turin’s Duomo – the Cathedral of St John the Baptist.

The Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista in Turin
The Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista in Turin
Travel tip:

The Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista, to give the Turin Duomo its Italian name, is the seat of the Archbishops of Turin. It was built between 1491–98 on the site of an old Roman theatre and adjacent to an earlier campanile built in 1470. Designed by Guarino Guarini, the Chapel of the Holy Shroud – the resting place of the Shroud of Turin - was added in 1668–94, Guarini having been called in to complete a project begun in 1649 by Bernardino Quadri at the behest of Charles Emmanuel II.

The Palazzo Reale is at the heart of Turin
The Palazzo Reale is at the heart of Turin
Travel tip:

The Royal Palace of Turin – the Palazzo Reale – was built on the site of what had been the Bishop’s Palace, built by Emmanuel Philibert, who was Duke of Savoy from 1528 to 1580, who chose the site because it had an open and sunny position close to other court buildings. Opposite is the Palazzo Vecchio or the Palazzo di San Giovanni, which was later replaced by the grand Ducal Palace. In 1946, the building became the property of the state and was turned into a museum. In 1997, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



11 June 2017

Corrado Alvaro - writer and journalist

Novelist from Calabria won Italy's most prestigious literary prize



Corrado Alvaro
Corrado Alvaro
The award-winning writer and journalist Corrado Alvaro died on this day in 1956 at the age of 61.

Alvaro won the Premio Strega, Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, in 1951 with his novel Quasi una vita – Almost a lifetime.

The Premio Strega – the Strega Prize – has been awarded to such illustrious names as Alberto Moravia, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Elsa Morante, Primo Levi, Umberto Eco and Dacia Maraini since its inception in 1947.

Alvaro made his debut as a novelist in 1926 but for much of his life his literary career ran parallel with his work as a journalist.

He was born in San Luca, a small village in Calabria at the foot of the Aspromonte massif in the southern Apennines. His father Antonio was a primary school teacher who also set up classes for illiterate shepherds.

Corrado was sent away to Jesuit boarding schools in Rome and Umbria before graduating with a degree in literature in 1919 at the University of Milan.

He began his newspaper career writing for Il Resto di Carlino of Bologna and Milan’s Corriere della Sera, both daily newspapers, for whom he combined reporting with literary criticism.

Gente in Aspromonte was Alvaro's breakthrough novel in 1931
Gente in Aspromonte was Alvaro's
breakthrough novel in 1931
After serving in the Italian army during the First World War, in which he was wounded in both arms and spent a long time in hospital, he resumed his journalistic career as a correspondent in Paris (France) for the anti-Fascist paper Il Mondo. In 1925, he supported Benedetto Croce’s Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals.

Alvaro’s debut novel L’uomo nel labirintothe Man in the labyrinth, published in 1926, explored the growth of Fascism in Italy in the 1920s, when his politics made him the target of surveillance by Mussolini's Fascist regime. Worried about the possibility of arrest, he moved to Berlin in 1928, and subsequently spent time in the Middle East and the Soviet Union.

On his return to Italy, having had little success with his early novels, he made a breakthrough in 1931 when Gente in Aspromonte, his 1930 novel about an uprising in the area around his home village, won a 50,000 lira prize sponsored by the newspaper La Stampa after impressing a judging panel including the novelist and playwright Luigi Pirandello.

Ironically, given that he was previously under scrutiny as an anti-Fascist, his 1938 novel L’uomo è forte – Man is strong – led him to be accused of being a Fascist sympathiser because its content was strongly critical of communist totalitarianism. Nonetheless, the book won the literary prize of the Accademia d’Italia in 1940.

Alvaro lost his father in 1941 but retained his connection with Calabria through his mother, who had moved from San Luca to nearby Caraffa del Bianco, where his brother, Massimo, was parish priest.

The monument to Corrado Alvaro in Reggio Calabria
The monument to Corrado Alvaro in Reggio Calabria
During the Second World War, Alvaro was briefly editor of the Rome newspaper Il Popolo but he was forced to flee Rome in the later years of the war to escape the Nazi occupation, taking refuge in Chieti, where he assumed a false name, Guido Giorgi, and made a living by giving English lessons.

In 1945 he was co-founder of the Italian Association of Writers, of which he became secretary two years later, a position he retained until his death.  He continued to write for prominent Italian newspapers and penned several more novels and a number of screenplays.

His Strega Prize in 1951 came in a vintage year for Italian literature, coinciding with the publication of L'orologio – the Clock – by Carlo Levi , Il conformista – the Conformist – by Alberto Moravia , A cena col commendatore – Dinner with the commander – by Mario Soldati and Gesù, fate luce – Jesus, make light – by Domenico Rea.

Alvaro died in Rome from lung cancer, having previously undergone surgery for an abdominal tumour. He is buried in the small cemetery of Vallerano in the province of Viterbo in Lazio, about 80km (50 miles) north-west of Rome, where he had bought a large country house in 1939.

His memory is celebrated both in Lazio and Calabria.

In Vallerano, a street, a library and an elementary school are named in his honour, with a statue at the entrance to the library.  The city also established a Corrado Alvaro literary prize in 2015.

In Calabria, the Aspromonte National Park contains a cultural itinerary that includes San Luca and a ‘literary park’ in his name. The regional capital, Reggio Calabria, honoured him with a monument in Piazza Indipendenza.

San Luca is on the eastern slope of Aspromonte
San Luca is on the eastern slope of Aspromonte
Travel tip:

That Alvaro’s home town of San Luca, situated on the eastern slopes of Aspromonte, could produce a literary giant of his standing is remarkable given its history as a stronghold of the N’drangheta – the Calabrian mafia – and the fact that in 1900, when Alvaro was five, it had no drinking water and a 100 per cent illiteracy rate. The only way to reach the village during his childhood was on foot. The convent known as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Polsi, founded in 1144 by Roger II of Sicily, is situated in a spectacular setting at the foot of a deep gorge just outside the town.

The Loggia del Palazzo dei Papi in Viterbo
The Loggia del Palazzo dei Papi in Viterbo
Travel tip:

Viterbo in Lazio is regarded as one of the best preserved medieval towns in Italy, with the historic San Pellegrino quarter, which features an abundance of typical external staircases, at its centre.  The Palazzo dei Papi, which was the papal palace for about 20 years in the 13th century, and the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, which dates back to the 12th century, has a 14th century Gothic belfry and was largely rebuilt in the 16th century, are among a number of impressive buildings.



10 June 2017

Arrigo Boito – writer and composer

Death of a patriot who fought for Venice


Arrigo Boito met Verdi in Paris
Arrigo Boito met Verdi in Paris
Arrigo Boito, who wrote both the music and libretto for his opera, Mefistofele, died on this day in 1918 in Milan.

Of all the operas based on Goethe’s Faust, Boito’s Mefistofele is considered the most faithful to the play and his libretto is regarded as being of particularly high quality.

Boito was born in Padua in 1842, the son of an Italian painter of miniatures and a Polish countess. He attended the Milan Conservatory and travelled to Paris on a scholarship.

It was there he met Giuseppe Verdi, for whom he wrote the text of the Hymn of the Nations in 1862.

He fought under the direction of Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1866 in the seven weeks of the Third Italian War of Independence, against Austria, after which Venice was ceded to Italy.

While working on Mefistofele, Boito published articles, influenced by the composer Richard Wagner, in which he vigorously attacked Italian music and musicians.

Verdi was deeply offended by his words and by 1868, when Mefistofele was produced in Milan, Boito’s opinions had provoked so much hostility there was nearly a riot.

The opera was withdrawn after two performances, but a revised version, produced in 1875, still survives.

Boito and Verdi in 1892
Boito and Verdi in 1892
Influenced by Beethoven and Wagner, the opera was unconventional. Boito’s second opera, Nerone, was completed after his death by Vincenzo Tommasini and Arturo Toscanini and produced in Milan in 1924.

Boito and Verdi were reconciled in 1873 and Boito revised the libretto for Simon Boccanegra. He also produced a libretto for both Otello and Falstaff.

He wrote the libretto for Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Giocondo in 1876 and also produced a volume of poetry and several novels. 

Boito received the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Cambridge in 1893.

After his death in 1918, he was interred at the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan.

A memorial concert was given in his honour at La Scala in 1948 when the orchestra was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. This concert has since been issued on CD.

The Scrovegni Chapel features the brilliant frescoes by Giotto
The Scrovegni Chapel features the brilliant frescoes by Giotto
Travel tip:

Padua in the Veneto, where Boito was born, is one of the most important centres for art in Italy and home to the country’s second oldest university. Padua has become acknowledged as the birthplace of modern art because of the Scrovegni Chapel, the inside of which is covered with frescoes by Giotto, an artistic genius who was the first to paint people with realistic facial expressions showing emotion. His scenes depicting the lives of Mary and Joseph, painted between 1303 and 1305, are considered his greatest achievement. At Palazzo Bo, where Padua’s university was founded in 1222, you can still see the original lectern used by Galileo and the world’s first anatomy theatre, where dissections were secretly carried out from 1594.

Travel tip:

La Scala in Milan has a fascinating museum that displays costumes and memorabilia from the history of opera. The entrance is in Largo Ghiringhelli, just off Piazza della Scala. It is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and a few days when it is closed in December. Opening hours are from 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.30 pm.



9 June 2017

The Maestà of Duccio

Masterpiece influenced the course of Italian art history


Duccio's altarpiece in the Duomo di Siena, the Maestà
Duccio's altarpiece in the Duomo di Siena, the Maestà
A magnificent altarpiece by the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna was unveiled in the cathedral in Siena on this day in 1311.

Duccio’s Maestà was to set Italian painting on a new course, leading away from Byzantine art towards using more realistic representations of people in pictures.

The altarpiece was commissioned by the city of Siena from the artist and was composed of many individual paintings.

The front panels made up a large picture of an enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels.

At the base of the panels was an inscription, which translated into English means: ‘Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and life to Duccio because he painted thee thus.’

Duccio's Madonna col bambino, which is housed  in the Metropolitan Museum in New York
Duccio's Madonna col bambino, which is housed
 in the Metropolitan Museum in New York
When the painting was installed in the cathedral on June 9, 1311, one witness to the event wrote: ‘…on that day when it was brought into the cathedral, all workshops remained closed and the bishop commanded a great host of devoted priests and monks to file past in solemn procession.

‘This was accompanied by all the high officers of the commune and by all the people; all honourable citizens of Siena surrounded said panel with candles held in their hands, and women and children followed humbly behind.

‘They accompanied the panel amidst the glorious pealing of bells after a solemn procession on the Piazza del Campo into the very cathedral; and all this out of reverence for the costly panel… the poor received many alms, and we prayed to the holy mother of God, our patron saint, that she might in her infinite mercy preserve this our city of Siena from every misfortune, traitor or enemy.’

The altarpiece remained in place until 1711, when it was dismantled in order to distribute the pieces between two altars. The five-metre high construction was sawn up and some of the paintings were damaged in the process. Some pieces went astray and are unaccounted for, while some pieces are now in museums.

The Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption in Siena
The Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption in Siena
Travel tip:

Siena’s Duomo, the Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption, was designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has a beautiful façade built in Tuscan Romanesque style using polychrome marble. In the attached Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Duccio’s Maestà can be seen in a first floor room.

Travel tip:

The shell-shaped Piazza del Campo in Siena, where the Palio di Siena takes place twice each year, was established in the 13th century as an open marketplace. It is now regarded as one of the finest medieval squares in Europe. The red brick paving, fanning out from the centre in nine sections, was put down in 1349.



8 June 2017

Giuseppe Fiorelli - archaeologist

The man whose painstaking work saved Pompeii


Giuseppe Fiorelli was in charge of the  Pompeii excavations from 1860-75
Giuseppe Fiorelli was in charge of the
Pompeii excavations from 1860-75
Giuseppe Fiorelli, the archaeologist largely responsible for preserving the ruins of Pompeii, was born on this day in 1823, in Naples.

It was due to Fiorelli’s painstaking excavation techniques that much of the lost Roman city on the Neapolitan coast was preserved as it had looked when, in 79 AD, it was totally submerged under volcanic ash following the eruption of Vesuvius.

He also hit upon the idea of filling the cavities in the hardened lava and solidified ash left behind by long-rotted bodies and vegetation with plaster to create a model of the person or plant that had been engulfed.  This became known as the Fiorelli process.

Little is known of Fiorelli’s early life apart from some details of his academic career, which clearly show him to be precociously clever.  He studied law from the age of 11 and obtained a degree in legal studies at the age of 18. He was also a student of italic languages, numismatics – the study of coins, paper money and medals - and epigraphy – the study and interpretation of ancient inscriptions.

Having chosen to pursue his interest in archaeology and the study of ancient civilisations, he wrote an article on numismatics for an erudite archaeological journal that won him membership of a number of academies at the age of 20, including the Accademia Ercolanese and the prestigious Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica.

One of the main streets in Pompeii
One of the main streets in Pompeii
In 1844, still only 21, he was appointed an inspector in the Soprintendenza Generale degli Scavi – the body responsible for all excavations in the Naples region – and in 1847 inspector specifically for the Pompeii site.  His role at that stage was essentially to supervise other archaeologists to ensure their work was carried out in accordance with standards set down by the Soprintendenza.

In a bizarre twist to his story, in 1848 Fiorelli was arrested and imprisoned, in part as a result of malicious accusations made by rival archaeologists.

One was Carlo Bonucci, who had been demoted from his position as Architect-Director in charge of Pompeii after being found guilty of dishonesty but had been restored to his position when his successor fell ill.  Bonucci, an established archaeologist of twice Fiorelli’s age, resented his techniques being questioned by someone he regarded as a young upstart, and when the riots that erupted in Italy in 1848 prompted a collapse of government and a crackdown on political activists, he reported Fiorelli as nationalist republican.

Fiorelli was arrested and held in prison from April to June 1849, at which point he was released only to be re-arrested, this time after a member of the Accademia Ercolanese made a similar complaint.  It was January the following year before the case against him was dropped.

Fiorelli's techniques enabled models of the victims of the  eruption to be created exactly as they were buried
Fiorelli's techniques enabled models of the victims of the
eruption to be created exactly as they were buried
The episode set back his career but in 1853 he was offered a job as personal secretary to Leopold, Count of Syracuse, brother of the Bourbon King Ferdinand II, who used his influence to put Fiorelli in charge of the excavations at Cumae, another archaeological site in the Naples area.

Unrest in Italy continued, and as Leopold’s secretary, Fiorelli was able to use his influence with him in 1860, when Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand set its sights on Naples, seeking to unify Italy under the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II. Fiorelli drafted a letter for Leopold to deliver to Ferdinand’s successor, King Francis, urging him to abdicate gracefully rather than be defeated.

Later in the year, Fiorelli returned to Pompeii as Inspector-Director of Excavations and began the work that was to make him famous.

Fiorelli introduced new excavation techniques. Where other archaeologists would attempt to dig out streets and uncover adjoining buildings from the bottom upwards, Fiorelli would work at all times from the surface downwards, carefully removing the covering layers of soil and volcanic materials, which took longer but, he felt, reduced the risk of damaging precious artefacts as they were uncovered.

His idea to fill cavities with plaster allowed the archaeologists to recreate the position and look of a body at the time of death.

Fiorelli directed the excavation of Pompeii from 1860 to 1875.  He was appointed director of the Naples National Archaeological Museum in 1863. In 1875 he was appointed as the director general of Italian Antiquities and Fine Arts. 

Fiorelli died in January 1896 in Naples. The cause of his death is unknown.

The Greek remains at Cumae
The Greek remains at Cumae
Travel tip:

Before Pompeii, Fiorelli was assigned to the ruins of the Greek city of Cumae, an ancient city of Magna Graecia on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy. The ruins of the city lie near the modern village of Cuma. In Roman mythology, there is an entrance to the underworld located at Avernus, a crater lake near Cumae. 

Travel tip:

Pompeii is believed to have grown on the site of a seventh or sixth century BC settlement by the Oscans that came under the domination of Rome in the fourth century BC, and became a Roman colony in 80 BC after soldiers of the Roman Republic crushed a rebellion there. By the time it was destroyed, its population as a port city was put at around 11,000 people. Evidence of its fate in the 79 AD eruption was first found in a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who described the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, as he tried to rescue citizens.







7 June 2017

Gaetano Berenstadt – operatic castrato

Italian-born performer who specialised in roles created by Handel


Gaetano Berenstadt (right) in a caricatured impression of his performance in Handel's Flavio
Gaetano Berenstadt (right) in a caricatured impression
of his performance in Handel's Flavio
Gaetano Berenstadt, an alto castrato who sang many roles in George Frideric Handel’s operas, was born on this day in 1687 in Florence.

His parents were German and his father played the timpani - kettle drums - for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Berenstadt was sent to be a pupil of Francesco Pistocchi, a singer, composer and librettist who founded a singing school in Bologna.

After performing in Bologna and Naples, Berenstadt visited London where he performed the role of Argante in a revival of Handel’s Rinaldo. The composer created three new arias especially for Berenstadt’s voice.

George Frederick Handel created many  roles for Gaetano Berenstadt
George Frideric Handel created many
roles for Gaetano Berenstadt
On a later visit to London, Berenstadt sang for the composers of the Royal Academy of Music. On this visit he created the roles of Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, the title role in Flavio, and the role of Adalberto in Ottone.

Back in Italy, he sang music by Italian composers and in two new compositions by Johann Adolph Hasse. He usually took on the role of a villainous tyrant and, despite the quality of his voice, he never portrayed a female character.

His final appearances on stage were in his native Florence. In retirement he published some music of his own until his death in Florence in 1734.

Letters that he wrote, which describe his love of books and art, are still in existence and he built up an extensive library of old books and pamphlets.

Travel tip:

The Grand Dukes of Tuscany lived in Palazzo Pitti in Florence from the 16th century to the 18th century when the last Medici Duke died without a male heir. The Pitti Palace is on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance away from Ponte Vecchio. It is now the largest museum complex in Florence with eight museums and galleries.

The entrance to Teatro alla Pergola
The entrance to Teatro alla Pergola
Travel Tip:

Berenstadt would have probably sung at Teatro della Pergola in Florence in the centre of Florence on Via della Pergola. The theatre was built in 1656 to designs by architect Ferdinando Tacca, the son of the sculptor, Pietro Tacca. The interior was finished in time to celebrate the wedding of the future Grand Duke Cosimo III de Medici with a special production for the court.  It was opened to the public after 1718 and the theatre presented operas by Mozart for the first time in Italy.