28 March

NEW - Premiere of Andrea Chénier

Giordano’s masterpiece is still stirring emotions

Andrea Chénier, the greatest and most enduring opera to be written by the composer Umberto Giordano, was performed for the first time on this day in 1896 in Milan.  It was immediately acknowledged as a triumph and many members of the audience at Teatro La Scala on the first night were moved by the emotional intensity of Giordano’s music.  The four act opera was based on the life story of the French poet Andrea Chénier who was executed by guillotine in Paris in 1794, during the French revolution, at the age of just 31. He was accused of being a counter revolutionary in the final days of the so called ‘reign of terror.’  Ironically, just three days after Chénier’s horrific death, France’s radical Jacobin leader, Robespierre, one of the main architects of ‘the terror’, was himself arrested and sent to the guillotine.  Giordano’s music, in particular the arias he wrote for the tenor who sings the title role, captured the turmoil and poignancy of this dangerous time in France’s history.  Read more...

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Alberto Grimaldi - film producer

Spaghetti Western trilogy gave Naples producer his big break

Film producer Alberto Grimaldi, who boasts an extraordinary list of credits that includes Last Tango in Paris, The Canterbury Tales, Man of La Mancha, Fellini's Casanova, 1900, Ginger and Fred and Gangs of New York, was born in Naples on this day in 1925. Grimaldi trained as a lawyer and it was in that capacity that he initially found work in the cinema industry in the 1950s.  However, he could see the money-making potential in production and in the early 1960s set up his own company, Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA).  His first three productions, cashing in on the popularity in Italy of westerns, enjoyed some success but it was a meeting with Sergio Leone, the Italian director, that earned him his big break. Leone’s first venture into the western genre, A Fistful of Dollars, had been an unexpected hit both for him and the young American actor, Clint Eastwood. Read more…

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Anselmo Colzani - opera star

Baritone who had 16 seasons at the New York Met

Anselmo Colzani, an operatic baritone who was a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as La Scala in his home country, was born on this day in 1918 in Budrio, a town not far from Bologna.  His stage career continued until 1980, when he made his final stage appearance in one of his signature roles as Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca.  Although his repertoire was much wider, his reputation became strongly associated with the works of Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi, with Jack Rance in Puccini's Fanciulla del West and the title role of Verdi's Falstaff, as well as Amonasro in Aida and Iago in Otello among his most famous roles.  Colzani’s association with the Met began in March 1960 after he was approached by Rudolf Bing, the opera house’s general manager. Read more…

Vincenzo Capone - prohibition agent

'War hero'-turned-lawman hid his family identity

Vincenzo Capone, older brother of the notorious mobster Al Capone, was born on this day in 1892 in Angri, a town in Campania located between Salerno and Naples.  While Al drifted into crime as a teenager, Vincenzo wanted a different life. After running away to join a circus, he changed his name and invented a new background to conceal his true identity. He acquired a reputation as a war hero before forging a career in law enforcement, notably pitting himself against the criminal gangs of his brother’s world as an agent for the Bureau of Prohibition.  The first in a family of nine children, Vincenzo had just one sibling, his brother Ralph, when his father, Gabriele, a barber, and his mother, Teresa, emigrated to the United States in 1895. His father continued to work as a hairdresser, while Teresa’s skills as a seamstress enabled her to find a job. Read more…

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Fra Bartolommeo - Renaissance great

Friar rated equal of Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo

Fra Bartolommeo, the Renaissance artist recognised as one of the greatest religious painters, was born on this day in 1472 in Savignano di Vaiano, in Tuscany.  Also known as Baccio della Porta, a nickname he acquired because when he lived in Florence his lodgings were near what is now the Porta Romana, Bartolommeo created works that chart the development of artistic styles and fashion in Florence, from the earthly realism of the 15th century to the grandeur of High Renaissance in the 16th century.  His most famous works include Annunciation, Vision of St Bernard, Madonna and Child with Saints, The Holy Family, The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, God the Father with SS Catherine of Siena and Mary Magdalene and Madonna della Misericordia.  Bartolommeo always prepared for any painting by making sketches, more than 1,000 in total over the years he was active.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns, by Howard Hughes

The ideal popular guide to the key Spaghetti Westerns - mainly the good but also the bad and the ugly - this is an authoritative, entertaining and comprehensive companion to the films that created the mythical Spaghetti West in the most improbable circumstances. Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy is covered, with many more major and minor Spaghetti Westerns, including Sergio Corbucci's Navajo Joe, Carlo Lizzani's The Hills Run Red and Duccio Tessari's A Pistol for Ringo. This popular guide explores the films through the biographies and filmographies of key personnel, stories of the films' making, their locations and sets, sources, musical scores, detailed cast information, box office fortunes internationally, with many illustrations, including original posters and stills. Once Upon a Time in the Italian West is a well-researched, detailed, no-nonsense and above all enthusiastic guide to 20 of the best Italian Westerns.

Howard Hughes is a UK-based film writer and researcher. He is the author of the IBTauris Filmgoers' Guides and Aim for the Heart: The Films of Clint Eastwood.

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