Showing posts with label 1737. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1737. Show all posts

19 January 2020

Giuseppe Millico - opera singer, composer and teacher

Castrato taught Lord Nelson’s lover


Giuseppe Millico was for a while a celebrated and in-demand castrato singer
Giuseppe Millico was for a while a celebrated
and in-demand castrato singer
The castrato opera singer and composer Giuseppe Millico, who numbered Lord Nelson’s future lover, Emma Hamilton, as among his pupils as a singing teacher in Naples, was born on this day in 1737 in Terlizzi, a town in Apulia.

As a singer, Millico is best remembered for his performances in the operas of the Bavarian composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. He also compiled a significant body of work of his own, including eight operas, eight cantatas, numerous arias and duets not part of wider works, and 82 canzonets.

Having learned his craft in Naples in the 1750s, Millico returned to the city in 1780 after many years of touring, becoming a teacher as well as a composer. He taught singing to the Bourbon princesses Maria Teresa and Luisa Maria, as well as to Emma, Lady Hamilton, the actress and model, who was living in Naples after her marriage to Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador.

After studying at one of the Naples conservatories, Millico made his performing debut in Rome in 1757. Soon afterwards, he went to Moscow to sing at the Russian court. He remained in Russia for seven years, earning the nickname Il Moscovita on his return.

His links with Gluck began in 1769 in Parma, Gluck was preparing a great celebratory work, Le feste d’Apollo, for the marriage of the Bourbon Duke Ferdinand of Parma and Maria Amalia of Austria. The work incorporated part of his opera Orfeo ed Euridice, which Gluck adapted to suit voice of Millico in the role of Orfeo. The following year, Gluck rewrote the whole of the opera with Millico in mind and invited him to play Orfeo in Vienna. He similarly adapted his opera Alceste and wrote a new work, Paride ed Elena, specifically for him.

One of the many paintings of Emma Hamilton by the English portrait painter, George Romney
One of the many paintings of Emma Hamilton
by the English portrait painter, George Romney
After performing for the composer Antonio Sacchini in Milan, Millico joined Sacchini in London in 1772, becoming primo musico - principal castrato - at the King's Theatre. He performed the leading male roles in the first London operas by Sacchini, Il Cid and Tamerlano, both in 1773.

While he was based in London, Millico travelled extensively, singing in Paris and at several opera houses in Germany, including Mannheim, Schwetzingen and Zweibrücken. He toured the major opera centres in Italy – Venice, Milan, Florence and Rome before returning to Naples.

Some time after 1777, he was appointed Virtuoso di Camera e della Regia Cappella - Virtuoso of the Chamber and Royal Chapel - in Naples, and music master to the Royal princesses, Maria Teresa and Luisa Maria.

It was not long before he had given up performing as a singer in order to dedicated himself to composing and teaching.

His operas included Le cinesi and L’isola disabitata, written for the Bourbon princesses. He wrote two operas to libretti by Pietro Metastasio and one to words by Ranieri de' Calzabigi, who had been Gluck's librettist.  His work La pietà d’amore, commissioned by Antonio Lucchesi-Palli, Prince of Campofranco in Sicily, was interpreted as a message of support for Gluck.

Millico came into contact Emma Hamilton, who was married to Sir William Hamilton in 1791, having become his lover in Naples, probably through Queen Maria Carolina, sister of Marie Antoinette and wife of Ferdinand I of Naples, with whom she developed a friendship.

Lady Hamilton became a talented amateur singer under Millico’s tutelage, confidently entertaining guests at her home. Indeed, she was good enough to be approached by the Royal Opera in Madrid, who tried to engage her for a season to compete with their star, the Italian soprano Angelica Catalani. She turned down the offer.

Millico remained in Naples until his death in 1802, at the age of 65.

The Naples waterfront, as depicted in an 18th century view  towards Santa Lucia and Castel dell'Ovo
The Naples waterfront, as depicted in an 18th century view
towards Santa Lucia and Castel dell'Ovo
Travel tip:

Naples in the 18th century was one of Europe's great cities. It featured what was then Italy's largest opera house, the Teatro di San Carlo, and was considered by Grand Tourists to be a stimulating diversion from the stuffier historical splendour of Rome. South of Naples, the newly excavated remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii, the ancient Roman cities buried by volcanic lava in the first century AD, were another attraction.   Part of the Bourbon legacy to Naples is the vast Reggia di Caserta, the royal palace commissioned in 1752 by Charles VII of Naples and built by the Italian architect Luigi Vanvitelli along the lines of the French royal palace at Versailles.

The Roman ruins at Ercolano are in many ways better preserved than at neighbouring Pompeii
The Roman ruins at Ercolano are in many ways
better preserved than at neighbouring Pompeii
Travel tip:

Until 1969, the town now called Ercolano was known as Resina, the name given to the medieval settlement that built on top of the volcanic material left by the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius that also destroyed nearby Pompeii.  The existence of Ercolano - the Roman city of Herculaneum - was not known until the early 18th century, when a farmer sinking a well came across ancient marble columns.  Herculaneum was smaller and less prestigious than Pompeii but is better preserved due to the different volcanic materials that covered the town.  The ruins at Ercolano are better preserved than Pompeii’s, although its more famous neighbour was a bigger city and its destruction particularly well documented.  The ruins at Pompeii and Ercolano can both be reached by using the Circumvesuviana railway, which runs from Naples along the southern stretch of the Bay of Naples, terminating at Sorrento.

Also on this day:

1739: The birth of architect Giuseppe Bonomi, also known as Joseph Bonomi the Elder

1853: Verdi's opera Il trovatore is performed for the first time

1935: The birth of Assunta Maresca, the beautiful gangster's widow famous for murdering a Mafia boss in an act of revenge

1940: The birth of anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino


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18 December 2015

Antonio Stradivari – violin maker

Craftsman from Cremona produced the world’s best stringed instruments


The man who produced violins worth millions, Antonio Stradivari, died at the age of 93 on this day in Cremona in 1737.

Stradivari was an ordinary man who worked as a luthier, a maker of stringed instruments, but experts now consider him to be the greatest ever in his field.
Cremona is the birthplace of the world's greatest violin maker, Antonio Stradivari.
A street violinist in Cremona,
home of Antonio Stradivari

He is believed to have produced more than 1,100 instruments, often referred to as 'Stradivarius' violins.  About 650 of them are still in existence today and in the last few years some of his violins and violas have achieved millions of pounds at auction.

The Stradivari family date back to the 12th century in Cremona and it is believed Antonio was born there in 1644.

It is thought he was apprenticed to the violin maker Nicolò Amati. The label on the oldest violin still in existence, known to have been made by Stradivari, bears the date 1666.

He had enough money to buy a house for himself and his family in Cremona by 1680. He used the attic as a workshop and kept producing better and better instruments until his reputation spread beyond Cremona.

In 1688 a Venetian banker ordered a set of instruments to present to King James II of England, though what happened to them still remains a mystery.

In the 1690s Stradivari’s style changed and he started to use a darker varnish and different methods to achieve even better results. The high quality of the instruments he produced between 1700 and 1720 have made experts call this his golden period.

Some of his instruments are still played by violinists today and many of the top orchestras have, what are now referred to as ‘Strads’, in their collections.

In 2011 a violin made by Stradivari in 1721, which had been discovered still in pristine condition, sold in London for £9.8 million, the equivalent of 14.1 million dollars.

Antonio Stradivari died on 18 December 1737 and was buried in his local church of San Domenico in Cremona.

Il Torrazzo, Cremona's famous bell tower,
at 112 metres is the tallest in Italy
Travel tip:

Cremona is famous for having the tallest bell tower in Italy, il Torrazzo, which measures more than 112 metres in height. As well as violins, Cremona is also famous for producing confectionery. Negozio Sperlari in Via Solferino specialises in the city’s famous torrone (nougat). The concoction of almonds, honey and egg whites was created in the city to mark the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza in 1441, when Cremona was given to the bride as part of her dowry.

Travel tip:

There is a Museo Stradivariano in Cremona in Via Ugolani Dati. The collection of items in the museum is housed in the elegant rooms of a former palace. Visitors can see how the contralto viola was constructed in accordance with the classical traditions of Cremona, view instruments commemorating Italian violin makers in the 19th and early 20th centuries and look at more than 700 relics from Stradivari’s workshop.

4 November 2015

First night at Teatro di San Carlo

Oldest opera house in the world opens its doors in Naples


Teatro di San Carlo in Naples was officially opened on this day in 1737, way ahead of Teatra alla Scala in Milan and Teatro La Fenice in Venice.


Teatro San Carlo opened on 4 November 1737 with a performance of Mestastasio's Achille in Sciro
Teatro di San Carlo opened on 4 November 1737 with
a performance of Mestastasio's Achille in Sciro

Built in Via San Carlo, close to Piazza del Plebiscito, the main square in Naples, Teatro di San Carlo quickly became one of the most important opera houses in Europe and renowned for its excellent productions.


Originally known as the Real Teatro di San Carlo, the theatre was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano for the Bourbon King of Naples, Charles I, and took just eight months to build.

Medrano was primarily a military architect, but he was advised by Angelo Carasale, the former director of the Teatro San Bartolomeo, which the San Carlo was to replace. 

Incorporating 184 boxes plus a 10-seater royal box, the theatre had a capacity of more than 3,000 people, although modern safety regulations limit today's theatre to 1,386 seats. 

The official inauguration was on the King’s saint’s day, the festival of San Carlo, on the evening of 4 November. There was a performance of Achille in Sciro by Pietro Metastasio with music by Domenico Sarro, who also conducted the orchestra for the music for two ballets.


This was 41 years before La Scala and 55 years before La Fenice opened. San Carlo is now believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, remaining opera houses in the world.

Both Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti served as artistic directors at San Carlo and the world premieres of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Rossini’s Mosè were performed there. 

Teatro di San Carlo is a short walk from the Piazza del Plebiscito in the heart of Naples
Teatro di San Carlo is a short walk from the
Piazza del Plebiscito in the heart of Naples
In the magnificent auditorium, the focal point is the royal box surmounted by the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 


It is a lasting demonstration of the power of the Bourbon King Charles I in Naples at the time, which, thankfully, he used to give the city, and the rest of the world, a magnificent opera house.

Since then, San Carlo has suffered partial destruction in a fire in 1816 and was damaged by bombing raids in World War Two, although not too severely. It was open for business again within two months of Naples being liberated by the Allies in October 1943, relaunching on 26 December of that year with a performance of Puccini's La bohème.

Ironically, the great Neapolitan tenor, Enrico Caruso, did not enjoy a good relationship with San Carlo. From 1901 onwards, after being booed by a section of the audience during a performance of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Caruso refused to sing there again.

The Caffè Gambrinus has a long and illustrious
history as a meeting place in the heart of Naples
Travel Tip:

Close to Teatro San Carlo in the centre of Naples, Galleria Umberto I, Caffè Gambrinus, the church of San Francesco di Paola and Palazzo Reale are all well worth visiting.  The Gambrinus is an historic coffee house situated next to the start of Via Chiaia.  It was was founded in 1860 by Vincenzo Apuzzo, whose dream was to make his cafe the most important of the newly unified Italy. The next owner, Mario Vacca, began a refurbishment programme and commissioned numerous contemporary artists to provide decoration. Their artwork still graces the elegant Art Nouveau interiors. Later, the Gambrinus became known as a meeting place for intellectuals and artists, among them Gabriele D'Annunzio and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway and Jean Paul Sartre.

President Sergio Matarella leads part of the ceremony in Rome in 2018
President Sergio Matarella leads part of
the ceremony in Rome in 2018
Travel Tip:

National Unity and Armed Forces Day (Giorno dell’Unità Nazionale e Festa delle Forze Armate) is a day of celebration held in Italy on or close to 4 November each year. Originally conceived as a way to to commemorate the victory over Austria-Hungary in 1918, which to many marked the completion of Italian unification, it was somewhat hijacked as a celebration of military strength under Mussolini, who renamed it as the Anniversary of Victory. After World War Two, there was a reassertion of the sense that the celebration was about unity rather than a battlefield triumph. A national holiday until 1976, it became a moveable celebration after that and declined in importance for a while in the 1980s and '90s before being revived by former president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. You may still see parades and celebrations of the day, which was marked with particular ceremony on the centenary of the end of World War One in 2018, with events held in Trieste and Trento, two cities at the forefront of the victory in 1918, as well as in Rome.

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(Picture credits: Teatro di San Carlo by Radomil Binek; Piazza del Plebiscito by Baku; Caffè Gambrinus by Armando Mancini; Sergio Matarella by Quirinale.it; via Wikimedia Commons)