Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel – poet and revolutionary
Noblewoman who sacrificed her life for the principle of liberty
A writer and leader of the movement that established the Parthenopean Republic in Naples, Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel was hanged on this day in 1799 in a public square near the port. A noblewoman, she would have expected her execution to be carried out by beheading, but had given up her title of marchioness when she became involved with the Jacobins, founded by supporters of the French Revolution, who were working to overthrow the monarchy. Pimentel had asked to be beheaded anyway, but the restored Bourbon monarchy showed her no mercy, reputedly because she had written pamphlets denouncing Queen Maria Carolina as a lesbian. On the day of her execution, Pimentel was reputed to have stepped calmly up to the gallows, quoting Virgil by saying: ‘Perhaps one day this will be worth remembering.’ She was 47 years of age. Read more…
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Carla Fracci – ballerina
Brilliant Romantic dancer brought ballet to the people
Destined to become one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, Carolina ‘Carla’ Fracci was born on this day in 1936 in Milan. Carla became a leading dancer of the La Scala Theatre Ballet in her home town and then worked with the Royal Ballet in London, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, becoming known for her interpretations of leading characters in Romantic ballets such as Giselle, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. Sent to live with relatives in the countryside during World War Two, she returned to Milan after the conflict ended and her mother took her and her sister to sit the La Scala Theatre ballet school entrance exam. At first she was bored, but after performing alongside Margot Fonteyn in The Sleeping Beauty when she was 12, Carla changed her mind and started working hard to make up for lost time. Read more…
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Stelvio Cipriani – composer
Musician wrote some of Italy’s most famous film soundtracks
Stelvio Cipriani, an award-winning composer of film scores, was born on this day in 1937 in Rome. One of his most famous soundtracks was for the 1973 film, La polizia sta a guardare (also released as The Great Kidnapping). The main theme was used again by Cipriani in 1977 for the film, Tentacoli, and also featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof in 2007. Although Cipriani did not come from a musical background, he was fascinated with the organ at his church when he was a child. His priest gave him music lessons and then Cipriani went to study piano and harmony at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome at the age of 14. His first job was playing in a band on a cruise ship and then he became the accompanist for the popular Italian singer, Rita Pavone. Stelvio wrote his first movie soundtrack for the 1966 spaghetti western, The Bounty Killer. Read more…
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Pope Pius X
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Good hearted pontiff was made a saint
Pope Pius X, who chose to live in poverty and devote his life to the Blessed Virgin Mary, died on this day in 1914 in the Apostolic Palace in Rome. His body was exhumed from its tomb nearly 30 years later and was found to be miraculously incorrupt and Pius X was made a saint in 1954. Pius X was born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto in 1835 in Riese in the province of Treviso. He was the second son of the ten children born to the village postman and his seamstress wife. Although the family were poor, they valued education and, as a young boy, Sarto walked six kilometres (3.7 miles) to attend school every day. In 1850 he was given a scholarship to attend the seminary in Padua, where he completed classical, philosophical and theological studies with distinction. After being ordained a priest, he continued to study while carrying out the duties of a parish pastor. Read more…
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Jacopo Peri – composer and singer
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Court musician produced the first work to be called an opera
The singer and composer Jacopo Peri, also known as Il Zazzerino, was born on this day in 1561 in Rome. He is often referred to as the ‘inventor of opera’ as he wrote the first work to be called an opera, Dafne, in around 1597. He followed this with Euridice in 1600, which has survived to the present day although it is rarely performed. It is sometimes staged as an historical curiosity because it is the first opera for which the complete music still exists. Peri was born in Rome to a noble family but went to Florence to study and then worked in churches in the city as an organist and a singer. He started to work for the Medici court as a tenor singer and keyboard player and then later as a composer, producing incidental music for plays. Peri’s work is regarded as bridging the gap between the Renaissance period and the Baroque period. Read more…
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Book of the Day: In the Shadow of Vesuvius: A Cultural History of Naples, by Jordan Lancaster
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Jordan Lancaster has a PhD in Italian Studies from the University of Toronto. She taught Italian language and literature at universities in Canada and the United States before moving to Naples where she was a post doctoral fellow at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici. Dr Lancaster now works as a translator/interpreter in the City of London.
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