21 October

NEW - Giuseppe Giacosa – poet and playwright

Writer produced polished libretti for composer Giacomo Puccini

One of Italy’s most prominent 19th century playwrights, Giuseppe Giacosa, was born on this day in 1847 in Colleretto Parella, which is now called Colleretto Giacosa, around 40km (25 miles) north of Turin. Along with his plays, he is remembered for his success as a librettist for the opera composer Giacomo Puccini. Giacosa, who was the son of an attorney, obtained a law degree from the University of Turin and practised law for a while from his father’s office, while also writing plays. But after his play Una partita a scacchi - A Game of Chess - was a success in 1871, Giacosa concentrated on writing for the stage. His plays were mainly set in Piemonte and had themes that addressed contemporary bourgeois values. In 1885, Giacosa was appointed as professor of history and literature at the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, but he would often go to stay in the town of Ivrea, which was near the village he was born in, and he would spend long periods writing.  Read more...

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Domenichino - Baroque master

Artist whose talents rivalled Raphael

The painter Domenico Zampieri, in his era spoken of in the same breath as Raphael, was born on this day in 1581 in Bologna.  Better known as Domenichino (“Little Domenico”), the nickname he picked up early in his career on account of his small stature, he painted in classical and later Baroque styles in Rome, Bologna and Naples.  Noted for the subtle, almost serene lighting and understated colours of his compositions, he painted portraits, landscapes, religious and mythological scenes and had a prolific output. Among his most notable works were significant frescoes commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese for the Badia (monastery) at Grottaferrata, outside Rome, and for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini at the Villa Belvedere (also known as the Villa Aldobrandini) in nearby Frascati, as well as Scenes from the Life of Saint Cecilia at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. Read more…

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Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta

Cousin of Italy's wartime monarch died in a POW camp

Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, who died in a British prisoner-of-war camp after leading the defeated Italian Army in the East Africa Campaign of the Second World War, was born on this day in 1898 in Turin.  After distinguished military service in the First World War and seeing action as a pilot in the pacification of Italian Libya in the early 1930s, Amedeo had been appointed by Mussolini as Viceroy of Ethiopia and Governor-General of Italian East Africa in 1937, replacing the controversial Marshal Rodolfo Graziani.  Italy’s entry into the Second World War on the side of Germany in June 1940 meant the Duke of Aosta became the commander of the Italian forces against the British in what became known as the East African Campaign.  As such, he oversaw the Italian advances into the Sudan and Kenya and the Italian invasion of British Somaliland.  Read more…

Edmondo De Amicis - writer and journalist

Author whose most famous work became a staple text in Italian schools

The writer, journalist and former soldier Edmondo De Amicis, famous as the author of Cuore, his imagined diary of a schoolboy in Turin, was born on this day in 1846 in Oneglia, now part of modern Imperia in Liguria.  Through its daily diary entries by the book’s central character, Enrico, interspersed with uplifting stories told by one of his teachers, Cuore - published for the first time in 1886 - came to be seen as something of a moral compass for young people growing up in post-unification Italy.  At a time when the newly-formed Italian State was keen to impose its authority over a Catholic Church that had vehemently opposed unification and still refused to recognise the Kingdom of Italy, Cuore’s emphasis on values such as patriotism, compassion, diligence, and respect for authority, resonated deeply with the new secular government.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Pinelli - anarchist

His 'accidental death' inspired classic Dario Fo play

Giuseppe 'Pino' Pinelli, the railway worker from Milan who inspired Dario Fo to write his classic play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was born on this day in 1928.  Pinelli fell to his death from a fourth floor window of the Milan Questura - the main police station - on December 15, 1969, three days after a bomb exploded at a bank in Piazza Fontana in Milan, killing 17 people and wounding 88.  A known anarchist during a period of growing political and social tension in Italy, Pinelli had been picked up for questioning, along with a number of other activists, over the Piazza Fontana bomb.  The story put out first by police was that Pinelli had jumped, willing to take his own life rather than face prosecution. Yet three police officers who had been interrogating Pinelli were put under investigation.  Read more… 

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Book of the Day: La bohème: Original libretto with side-by-side English translation, by Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa 

Step into the vibrant and unforgiving world of 1830s Paris with Giacomo Puccini’s timeless masterpiece, La bohème. This is the story of the "four Musketeers" - the poet Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the philosopher Colline, and the musician Schaunard - who navigate a "gay and terrible life" balanced between the freezing cold of a Latin Quarter attic and the intoxicating euphoria of the Caffè Momus. Amidst the naive enthusiasm of their "brief youth," a fragile and tragic love blossoms between Rodolfo and the gentle seamstress Mimì, creating one of the most profoundly moving stories in the history of opera.With La bohème, Puccini broke away from the dominant trends of his time to invent a revolutionary musical language. Through the technique of "sung conversation" (conversazione cantata), the melody flows seamlessly from everyday dialogue, elevating simple objects - such as a lost key or a pink bonnet - into poignant, universal symbols of love and loss. Experience the original Italian within a unique bilingual format. For Anglo-American opera lovers, students, and performers, fully grasping the nuances of Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa’s libretto has never been easier.

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. He was widely regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Giuseppe Verdi. Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica wrote the libretti for some of his most successful works.

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