Showing posts with label Composers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Composers. Show all posts

1 October 2023

Sylvano Bussotti - composer, writer and painter

The productive life of a Renaissance man with many strings to his bow

Sylvano Bussotti was described as a modern Renaissance man
Sylvano Bussotti was described as a
modern Renaissance man
The multi-talented Sylvano Bussotti, a leading composer who was part of Italy’s avant-garde movement, was born on this day in 1931 in Florence.

Bussotti was also a painter, set and costume designer, opera director and writer. His operas and ballets were performed at the most prestigious theatres in Italy and abroad and he served as artistic director of Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Puccini festival in Tuscany and the music section of the Venice Biennale.

Before he was five years old, Bussotti was learning to play the violin and he soon became a prodigy. He was also introduced to painting early in his life by his older brother and uncle.

At the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, he studied harmony and counterpoint and learnt the piano, but he was unable to complete his studies and receive any official qualifications because of the start of World War II.

However, Bussotti continued to study composition on his own and, from 1958, he took private composition lessons with Max Deutsch in Paris.

Bussotti embarked on what has been described as an important editorial relationship with music publishers Casa Ricordi in 1956. His first composition to be performed in public, entitled Breve, was heard at a gallery in Dusseldorf in 1958.

The American mezzo-soprano Cathy  Berberian with Bussotti at a performance in 1960
The American mezzo-soprano Cathy  Berberian
with Bussotti at a performance in 1960
His compositions employed the use of graphic notation, which represented music through the realm of visual symbols instead of traditional music notation.

The composer received many awards and prizes for his music, both in Italy and abroad. In the 1960s he was invited to the United States to visit Buffalo and New York, by the Rockefeller Foundation.

His first opera, La passion selon Sade, was premiered in Palermo in 1965. Along with other composers of the time, Bussotti experimented with the interaction between sound, sign, and vision.

Bussotti also acted and sang himself and he directed films. He was a painter and graphic artist and his art works have been exhibited in many different countries. He wrote novels and poems and he was able to write most of the librettos for his own operas.

Later in life, Bussotti taught composition, analysis, and the history of musical theatre at academies in L’Aquila, Fiesole, and Stuttgart.

He served as the artistic director of La Fenice in Venice, directed the Puccini festival in Torre del Lago in Tuscany, and became director of opera at La Scala in Milan. He was head of the music section of the Venice Biennale from 1987 to 1991.

Bussotti was openly gay and his partner, the ballet dancer and choreographer Rocco Quaglia, collaborated with him on many of his projects.

The composer died at a nursing home in Milan after a long illness just before his 90th birthday. A five-day cultural event in Florence, which had been planned to celebrate Bussotti’s birthday, still went ahead in the city to celebrate his artistic achievements instead.

Bussotti has been sometimes described as a Renaissance man because of his many talents, which enabled him to combine different art forms creatively.

The Luigi Cherubini Conservatory is one of the most important in Italy
The Luigi Cherubini Conservatory is one
of the most important in Italy
Travel tip:

Sylvano Bussotti received his early musical education at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Piazza delle Belle Arti in Florence, one of the most important music conservatories in Italy. The conservatory, which is not far from La Galleria dell’Accademia, is named after the 18th century composer, Luigi Cherubini, who was born in the city. The conservatory occupies part of a former nunnery, which was closed in the 18th century by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, who would go on to become Holy Roman Emperor.

Teatro La Fenice has risen from the  ashes more than once in its history
Teatro La Fenice has risen from the 
ashes more than once in its history
Travel tip:

Teatro La Fenice in Venice, where Bussotti served as artistic director, has had a fascinating history. The theatre, in Campo San Fantin, which is not far from Piazza San Marco, was named La Fenice, the Phoenix, when it was originally built in the 1790s, to reflect the fact it was helping an opera company rise from the ashes after its previous theatre had burnt down. But in 1836, La Fenice itself was destroyed by fire, although it was quickly rebuilt. Then in 1996, when the theatre burnt down again, arson was suspected, leading to a long criminal investigation. La Fenice had to be rebuilt once more at a cost of more than 90 million euros and was not able to reopen for performances until 2003.


Also on this day:

1450: The death of Leonello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara

1910: The birth of cycling champion Attilio Pavesi

1961: The birth of football coach Walter Mazzarri


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25 August 2023

Carlo Eduardo Acton – composer and musician

Musical member of the Acton family was born in Naples

Carlo Acton was the nephew of the former PM of Naples, Sir John Acton
Carlo Acton was the nephew of the
former PM of Naples, Sir John Acton
Opera composer Carlo Eduardo Acton, who was part of the distinguished Italian-based branch of the Acton family, was born on this day in 1829 in Naples.

Carlo became a concert pianist and is particularly remembered for composing the opera Una cena in convitto.

His father, Francis Charles Acton, was the youngest son of General Joseph Acton, and he was also the younger brother of Sir John Acton, the sixth Baronet.

Sir John Acton, Carlo’s uncle, had served as Commander of the naval forces of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Naples while the city was under the rule of King Ferdinand IV. He was the son of Edward Acton, an English physician who had settled in France, and he was the great-grandson of Sir Walter Acton, the second Baronet.

Sir John had succeeded to the title and the family estate in Shropshire in 1791 on the death of his second cousin once removed.

Following his distinguished service in the navy of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Sir John was invited to Naples by Queen Maria Carolina and he was asked to reorganize the Neapolitan navy.

Sir John Acton served as prime minister
of Naples under the rule of Ferdinand IV
One of Sir John's grandchildren, John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902), better known as Lord Acton, was an historian, English politician, and writer, also born in Naples. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge from 1895 until his death. He edited the first series of the Cambridge Modern History, served as a Liberal Party MP and is remembered for coining the phrase 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely' in a letter to an Anglican bishop.

Sir John’s younger brother, Francis Charles Acton, had married Esther Fagan, the daughter of the Irish painter, Robert Fagan, who had spent most of his career working in Rome and Sicily, but had fled to Naples to live there at a time when Napoleon’s armies were known to have been approaching Rome.

Francis and Esther had three sons, the talented musician Carlo, and his two brothers, Richard, and Edward.

Carlo learnt to play the piano and in addition to writing an opera, he composed sacred music. His most well-known sacred composition is his work, Tantum ergo.  

Carlo died at Portici, a small port to the south of Naples, in 1909, at the age of 89.

The Acton family's connection with Naples continued into the 20th century. Sir Harold Acton (1904-1994), the British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was born and died at Villa La Pietra outside Florence, was the author of an authoritative two-volume history of the kingdom of Naples under the Bourbons: The Bourbons of Naples (1957) and The Last Bourbons of Naples (1961).


The Villa Pignatelli is set in beautiful gardens in Riviera di Chiaia
The Villa Pignatelli is set in beautiful
gardens in Riviera di Chiaia
Travel tip:

An Acton family landmark worth seeing in Naples is Villa Pignatelli, a house commissioned by Carlo’s cousin, the seventh Baronet, Sir Ferdinand Richard Edward Dalberg-Acton, in 1826, three years before the birth of the composer. The villa is in the Riviera di Chiaia in Naples, which is a long street running along the sea front and the Doric columns along the front of the villa can still be seen from the road. It was designed as a neo-classical residence that would be the centrepiece of a park. The property has changed hands several time since the death of Sir Ferdinand in 1841. It was purchased by Carl Mayer von Rothschild, a member of the German family of financiers. Later, it was used by the Jewish community of Naples for services. It was then sold to the Duke of Monteleon, whose widow, Princess Rosa Fici, left it to the Italian state in her will in 1852. Villa Pignatelli now houses a coach museum and a collection of 18th and 19th century English and French vehicles.

The Royal Palace of Portici was built as a home for Charles III of Spain, King of Naples and Sicily
The Royal Palace of Portici was built as a home
for Charles III of Spain, King of Naples and Sicily
Travel tip:

Portici, where Carlo Eduardo Acton died, is a town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius situated on the Bay of Naples, about eight kilometers (five miles) southeast of the city of Naples. The city had been destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, but was later rebuilt. Charles III of Spain, King of Naples and Sicily, built a royal palace in the town between 1738 and 1749. A botanical garden run by the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Naples is now located there. The garden has an important collection of desert plants, which include specimens from South Africa and Madagascar. The gardens are open to the public from Monday to Friday in the mornings, and can be visited free of charge.



Also on this day:

79: Vesuvius erupts, destroying Pompeii and other cities

665: The death of Saint Patricia of Naples

1509: The birth of Borgia cardinal Ippolito II d'Este

1609: Galileo demonstrates the potential of telescope

1691: The birth of architect Alessandro Galilei 


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19 February 2023

Orazio Vecchi – composer

Late Renaissance church musician wrote madrigal comedies to entertain audiences

Vecchi mixed sacred music with pieces written for entertainment
Vecchi mixed sacred music with
pieces written for entertainment
Orazio Vecchi, who is regarded as a pioneer of dramatic music because of his innovative madrigal comedies, died on this day in 1605 in the city of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region.

His most famous composition, L’Amfiparnaso, was always intended as music for entertainment. It was a set of 15 pieces that were dramatic in nature, although they were not meant for the stage.

Vecchi is known to have been baptised in December 1550 in Modena. He was educated  at a Benedictine monastery and took holy orders.

He knew composers of the Venetian school, such as Giovanni Gabrieli, and he composed himself in the form of sacred music, such as masses and motets, as well as canzonette and madrigals for entertainment.

Vecchi served as maestro di cappella at the cathedral of Salò and as choirmaster at the cathedral of Reggio Emilia. He then became a canon at Correggio, where he was able to compose prolific amounts of music during his time there, before moving back to Modena, where he served as a priest and also had charge of the choir.

A woodcut of an actor delivering the prologue of Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso in Venice in 1597
A woodcut of an actor delivering the prologue of
Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso in Venice in 1597
In 1594 his madrigal comedy, L’Amfiparnaso, was premiered at Modena and it was published in an illustrated edition in 1597. In the same year, Vecchi visited Venice where he published a collection of canzonette. During his life, he published four volumes of sacred music and 13 volumes of canzonette, madrigals and madrigal comedies.

Duke Cesare d’Este appointed Vecchi his maestro di corte at the ducal court in Modena in 1598. The composer was put in charge of music at the court as well as the musical education of the Duke’s children. He accompanied the Duke to Rome and Florence in 1600 and while they were in Florence, Vecchi heard Jacopo Peri’s opera, Euridice. Vecchi died in Modena in 1605.

Vecchi has become renowned for his idea of grouping madrigals together in a new form called the madrigal comedy. This was light, popular, dramatic entertainment, which some regard as one of the precursors to opera. It included music of many types and even used burlesque and dramatic dialogue. There was no scenery and the audience would have been friends of the singers, so it cannot be considered as an early form of opera.

However, the sense of drama and contrast displayed in Vecchi’s work has caused experts to say that he led the way with dramatic music, even though they believe L’Amfiparnaso stands apart from the path that opera was to eventually take.

The Palazzo dei Principi in Corregio, which is today home to a museum of archaeology and art
The Palazzo dei Principi in Corregio, which is
today home to a museum of archaeology and art
Travel tip:

Correggio, where Orazio Vecchi served as a canon and wrote much of his music, is a town in the Emilia-Romagna region. The Renaissance painter Antonio Allegri, who was known as Il Correggio, was born there in 1489. One of the main sights in Correggio is the elegant Palazzo dei Principi in Corso Cavour. In 1659 Correggio was annexed to the Duchy of Modena. The present Duke of Modena, Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este, is the current holder of the title of Prince of Correggio.

The Ducal Palace in Modena, which was built  for Francesco I d'Este in the 17th century
The Ducal Palace in Modena, which was built 
for Francesco I d'Este in the 17th century
Travel tip:

Modena, where Orazio Vecchi was born and died, is a city on the south side of the Po Valley in Emilia-Romagna. It is known for its car industry, as Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati have all been located there. The city is also well known for producing balsamic vinegar. Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Mirella Freni were both born in Modena. One of the main sights in the city is the huge, baroque Ducal Palace, which was begun by Francesco I on the site of a former castle in 1635, after Vecchi’s death. His architect, Luigi Bartolomeo Avanzini, created a home for him that few European princes could match at the time. The palace is now home to the Italian national military academy. 

Also on this day:

1461: The birth of cardinal and art collector Domenico Grimani

1743: The birth of cellist Luigi Boccherini

1953: The birth of actor and director Massimo Troisi

1977: The birth of operatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo


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5 August 2022

Leonardo Leo - composer

Baroque musician known for his sense of humour

Leonardo Leo wrote or contributed to more than 70 operas, mainly comic
Leonardo Leo wrote or contributed to
more than 70 operas, mainly comic
A prolific composer of comic operas, Leonardo Leo was born on this day in 1694 in San Vito degli Schiavoni (now known as San Vito dei Normanni) in Apulia.

His most famous comic opera was Amor vuol sofferenza - Love requires suffering - which he produced in 1739. It later became better known as La finta frascatana, and received a lot of praise, but Leo was equally admired for his serious operas and sacred music. He has been credited with forming the Neapolitan style of opera composition.

He was enrolled as a young boy as a student at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples and was a pupil first of Francesco Provenzale and later of Nicola Fago. It has been speculated that he may have been taught by Alessandro Scarlatti, but it has since been proved by music historians that he could not possibly have studied with the composer, although he was obviously influenced by his compositions.

Leo’s earliest known work was a sacred drama, L’infidelta abbattuta, which was performed by his fellow students in 1712, while he was still a teenager.

His first opera, Pisistrato, was produced at the court theatre in Naples in 1714 and was much admired.

As an adult Leo held various posts at the royal chapel in Naples while continuing to write for the stage and teach at the conservatory.

Leo was a major influence in the 
development of opera's Neapolitan school 
In 1722 he added comic scenes to Francesco Gasparini’s Bajazet for a performance in Naples. He then started to compose his own comic operas in Neapolitan dialect, such as La ’mpeca scoperta in 1723 and L’Alidoro in 1740.

His most famous serious operas were Demofoonte (1735), Famace (1737) and L’Olimpiade (1737). With L’Olimpiade he became the first composer to introduce the chorus into Neapolitan opera.

Handel was so impressed with Leo’s opera, Catone in Utica, that he used some of the music from it in a performance at the King’s Theatre in London in 1732.

Leo died of a stroke in 1744 while he was composing new arias for a revival of his acclaimed opera, La finta frascatana.

Experts believe Leo was the first composer of the Neapolitan School to achieve a complete mastery over modern harmonic counterpart and agree that in his comic operas he reveals a keen sense of humour. He was to be one of the last major Italian Baroque composers and was well regarded as a teacher, with Niccolò Piccinni and Niccolò Jommelli among his students.

Leo wrote or contributed to about 70 operas, as well as composing oratorios, masses and instrumental works, some of which are still performed and are available on contemporary recordings. His Miserere (🎵Listen 🎵) for double choir and orchestra is regarded as his signature piece.

The Corso Leonardo Leo in San Vito dei Normanni is typical of the town's quaint narrow streets
The Corso Leonardo Leo in San Vito dei Normanni
is typical of the town's quaint narrow streets
Travel tip:

San Vito dei Normanni, where Leonardo Leo was born, is a town with a population of around 20,000, situated about 24km (15 miles) west of Brindisi in the area of Puglia known as Salento. An attractive town of narrow streets lined with baroque-style churches and palaces and numerous restaurants and bars, it was formerly known as San Vito degli Schiavoni on account of a large number of Slavs - Schiavoni in Italian - who settled in the area after migrating from Dalmatia, on the opposite side of the Adriatic, to escape persecution by the Saracens in the 10th century. The town’s history, though, dates back much further, with archaeological remains discovered that show the area was inhabited during the Bronze Age. Things to see include the medieval Castello di Dentice Frasso, sometimes known as the Castello di San Vito, which overlooks the main piazza, and the beautiful Baroque church of San Giovanni Evangelista, built in soft Lecce stone.


Inside the Church of the Pietà dei Turchini, which dates back to the time of the conservatory
Inside the Church of the Pietà dei Turchini, which
dates back to the time of the conservatory
Travel tip:

Founded in 1583, the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini, where Leonardo Leo was a pupil, was the longest running of four Naples conservatories that were ultimately incorporated into the Real Collegio di Musica, which became the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella. Like the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio a Capuana, another of the four, it had been a charitable institution for the care of orphans and abandoned children. The church of the Pietà dei Turchini, which was built at around the same time as the conservatory, stands in Via Medina in the centre of Naples, not far from the Teatro di San Carlo opera house.



Also on this day:

1607: The birth of cardinal and arts patron Antonio Barberini

1623: The birth of composer Antonio Cesti

1953: The birth of Felice Casson - politician and magistrate

2002: The death of novelist Franco Lucentini


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2 August 2022

Carlo Savina - film composer and musical director

Worked on major scores including The Godfather and Fellini’s Amarcord

Carlo Savina conducting in during his  time working in TV and radio in the 1950s
Carlo Savina conducting in during his 
time working in TV and radio in the 1950s
Musical director Carlo Savina, who arranged soundtracks written by such luminaries of the film music industry as Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota, was born on this day in 1919 in Turin.

Savina was also a prolific film composer in his own right and is credited with writing or arranging the scores of at least 200 movies in a career spanning more than 35 years.

He won a David di Donatello award for Best Music for the 1985 crime drama The Pizza Connection, directed by Damiano Damiani and starring Michele Placido, a version of which was released in the United States as The Sicilian Connection.

Yet Savina is more frequently remembered for his work with Rota on the multi-award winning soundtrack of the first film in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy in 1972 and with Federico Fellini the following year on Amarcord, the maestro’s semi-autobiographical film about growing up in a village in the Fascist Italy of the 1930s.  He worked with Fellini and Rota on many projects, including La Dolce Vita (1960), which remains their most famous collaboration.

Although the music in a film would always be attributed to the headline composer in the credits, the work done by the likes of Savina in matching their music to the scenes and in producing an edited version of the soundtrack for commercial release was invaluable.

Savina came from a musical family. His father was the first clarinet for the orchestra of the public radio broadcaster EIAR, based in their home city.

Savina, who played a wide range of instruments, is shown accompanying a vocal group on guitar
Savina, who played a wide range of instruments,
is shown accompanying a vocal group on guitar
As a child, Savina learned to play the violin and as a student attended the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin, where he studied piano, violin, composition, and conducting. He obtained further qualifications from the National Education Ministry in the 1940s.

Savina explored many avenues in music, for a while conducting small orchestras or playing soloists at dance halls in Turin. 

His early classical compositions included sonatas for clarinet and violin and a quartet for wind instruments. Savina also wrote a small number of operas, one of which was performed at the Teatro dei Rozzi in Siena.

Immediately after the Second World War, he wrote music and songs for the popular market.  In the 1950s, he began to acquire national fame through his work with the national broadcaster Rai, who entrusted him with the direction of a large string orchestra. He had a prominent role in the musical direction on the experimental programmes made for Rai’s early television output in 1953.

Savina was in his 30s before the film industry began to be his focus.  His relationship with some of the world’s most famous film music composers  began at the outset, when he composed the music to Carlo Borghesio’s 1950 comedy Il monello della strada (The Street Brat) in partnership with Rota.

Savina worked with Nino Rota on The Godfather and other titles
Savina worked with Nino Rota
on The Godfather and other titles
He worked with the great commedia all’italiana director Mario Monicelli on Totò cerca pace (Totò seeks peace) in 1954 and thereafter until the late 1960s was writing as many as a dozen soundtracks per year. His individual output, from spaghetti westerns, of which he scored more than 30, to horror films, began to lessen in the 1970s, but by then he was in demand to work with other composers.

As well as Morricone and Rota, he collaborated with Armando Trovajoli, Mario Nascimbene, Stanley Myers, Stephen Sondheim, Philippe Sarde, and Miklós Rózsa among the great big-screen music composers of his time.  

It was his relationship with Rota and Fellini that would prove the most enduring and successful, spanning almost 30 years until Rota’s death in 1979. Their last collaboration was on Fellini’s Orchestra Rehearsal, a 1978 film in which members of an orchestra go on strike against their conductor.

Savina, who wrote under various pseudonyms in his career, including Herbert Buckman, Charles Hanger and James Munshin, died in Rome in 2002 at the age of 82.

After his death, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome’s historic film school, established the Premio Carlo Savina as an annual prize for composers of film music. Winners include Morricone, Davide Cavuti and Franco Piersanti, who among other things wrote the music for the TV series based on Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano novels.

Elegant streets and a vibrant café culture are a feature of Turin
Elegant streets and a vibrant café
culture are a feature of Turin
Travel tip:

Turin, the capital city of the region of Piedmont, where Carlo Savina was born and grew up, has some fine architecture that illustrates its rich history as the home of the Savoy Kings of Italy. Piazza Castello, with the royal palace, royal library and Palazzo Madama, which used to house the Italian senate, is at the heart of ‘royal’ Turin.  An elegant, stylish and sophisticated city, Turin has much to commend it, from its many historic cafés to 12 miles of arcaded streets and some of the finest restaurants in Piedmont. In the 19th century, the city’s cafés were popular with writers, artists, philosophers, musicians and politicians among others, who would meet to discuss the affairs of the day.  The city’s duomo, the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista, as it is also known, was built between 1491 and 1498 in Piazza San Giovanni in Turin, on the site of an old Roman theatre.

The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematogrofia in Rome was established in the 1930s
The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematogrofia
in Rome was established in the 1930s
Travel tip:

The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia has its headquarters in Via Tuscolana in Rome, was established at the time when the city became the hub of the Italian film industry because of the nearby Cinecittà, a large studio complex to the south of the city, built during the Fascist era under the personal direction of Benito Mussolini and his son, Vittorio. The studios were bombed by the Allies in the Second World War but were rebuilt and used again in the 1950s for large productions, such as Ben-Hur, the 1959 epic starring Charlton Heston, the acclaimed soundtrack of which saw Carlo Savina work with the Hungarian-American composer Miklós Rózsa. These days a range of productions, from television drama to music videos, are filmed there and Cinecittà has its own dedicated Metro stop.

Also on this day:

1854: The birth of author Francis Marion Crawford

1945: The death of composer Pietro Mascagni

1980: The bombing of Bologna railway station


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6 December 2021

Piero Piccioni – film composer and lawyer

Politician’s son gave up legal practice to write movie scores

Piccioni gave up a career as a lawyer to compose film music
Piccioni gave up a career as a
lawyer to compose film music
Pianist, conductor and prolific composer Piero Piccioni was born on this day in 1921 in Turin in the northern region of Piedmont.

A self-taught musician, Piccioni became  a composer of film soundtracks, writing more than 300 scores, themes and songs for top directors such as Francesco Rosi, Luchino Visconti, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roberto Rossellini and Vittoria De Sica.

Piccioni had come into contact with the film industry during the 1950s while practising as a lawyer in Rome and working to secure movie rights for Italian distributors such as Titanus and  De Laurentiis.

His interest in music had started as a result of being taken to concerts by his father, Attilio Piccioni, who was a prominent Christian Democrat politician who served several times as deputy prime minister. 

Although Piccioni never studied music formally, he became a talented musician by teaching himself. He had listened to jazz during his childhood  and was a fan of Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. He was also influenced by 20th century classical composers and American cinematography and he started writing songs of his own.

Piccioni played the piano on radio for the first time in 1938 with his ‘013’ Big Band but did not go on air again until after the liberation of Italy in 1944. He had the distinction of being the only Italian pianist ever to play for Charlie Parker after he was called upon to substitute for the pianist Al Haig on a television programme filmed in New York in 1949.

Piccioni's musical ability was entirely self-taught
Piccioni's musical ability was
entirely self-taught
While Piccioni was still a practising lawyer, he was contacted by Michelangelo Antonioni and asked to write a score for a documentary film directed by Luigi Polidoro, one of his apprentices.

His first feature film was Il mondo le condanna in 1952, after which he gave up law to write music full time. He wrote the music for most of the films that comic actor Alberto Sordi either took part in or directed. Many of the themes he composed for Sordi went on to become popular hits.

Piccioni won many prestigious prizes for his music, including the David di Donatello Award for the 1975 film Swept Away and the Nastro d’Argento award for the 1962 film Salvatore Giuliano. He also won the Anna Magnani award in 1975, the Vittorio De Sica Award in 1979 and the Prix International Lumiere in 1991.

In 1953, Piccioni had been implicated in the Montesi scandal, which followed the discovery of a dead Italian woman on a beach near Rome. He was given an alibi for the time of death by the actress Alida Valli who said he was with her at Carlo Ponti’s villa in southern Italy. He was acquitted of any involvement in the death at a trial three years later and a journalist who had written about Piccioni recanted his allegations after legal action was taken against him.

Piccioni died in Rome in 2004 at the age of 82, leaving a widow, the former musical star Gloria Paul, and their two children, Jason and Valentina.

Turin is a city of understated elegance with a vibrant café culture
Turin is a city of understated elegance
with a vibrant café culture
Travel tip:

Turin, the capital city of the region of Piedmont, where Piero Piccioni was born, has some fine architecture that illustrates its rich history as the home of the Savoy Kings of Italy. Piazza Castello, with the royal palace, royal library and Palazzo Madama, which used to house the Italian senate, is at the heart of ‘royal’ Turin.  An elegant, stylish and sophisticated city, Turin has much to commend it, from its many historic cafés to 12 miles of arcaded streets and some of the finest restaurants in Piedmont. In the 19th century, the city’s cafés were popular with writers, artists, philosophers, musicians and politicians among others, who would meet to discuss the affairs of the day.

The 'ancient Rome' set is one of the  highlights of the Cinecittà studio complex
The 'ancient Rome' set is one of the 
highlights of the Cinecittà studio complex
Travel tip:

Rome, where Piero Piccioni lived for many years of his life, became the hub of the Italian film industry because of Cinecittà, a large studio complex to the south of the city, built during the Fascist era under the personal direction of Benito Mussolini and his son, Vittorio. The studios were bombed by the Allies in the Second World War but were rebuilt and used again in the 1950s for large productions, such as Ben Hur. These days a range of productions, from television drama to music videos, are filmed there and Cinecittà has its own dedicated Metro stop.

Also on this day:

1478: The birth of Baldassare Castiglione, courtier, diplomat and writer

1586: The birth of astronomer Niccolò Zucchi

1794: The birth of opera singer Luigi Lablache

1975: The birth of businessman Andrea Agnelli


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8 February 2021

Giuseppe Torelli – violinist and composer

Brilliant musician could both perform and write beautiful music

Torelli is ranked alongside Arcangelo Corelli
as a developer of the Baroque concerto
Talented musician Giuseppe Torelli, who played the viola and violin and was a composer during the late Baroque era, died on this day in 1709 in Bologna in Emilia-Romagna.

He is remembered for contributing to the development of the instrumental concerto and for being the most prolific Baroque composer for trumpets and he is ranked with Arcangelo Corelli as a developer of the Baroque concerto and concerto grosso.

Torelli was born in Verona in 1658. He learnt to play the violin and studied composition with Giacomo Antonio Perti.

At the age of 26 it is known that he was a member of the Accademia Filarmonica as a violinist. Two years later he was employed as a viola player at the Basilica di San Petronio in Bologna. He stayed there for about ten years until the orchestra was disbanded because of financial constraints.

His first published works were ten sonatas for violin and basso continuo and 12 concerti da camera for two violins and basso continuo.

Around 1690 Torelli began writing his first trumpet works. It is considered unusual for a strings player to compose works for the trumpet but it is thought Torelli may have been inspired by the virtuoso trumpeter Giovanni Pellegrino Brandi, who occasionally performed with the San Petronio orchestra.

In 1687 it went on record that Torelli’s music was being played at the Sanctuary Maria della Steccata in Parma in Emilia Romagna by Giuseppe Corsi da Celano, a composer and teacher.

Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, with whom Torelli collaborated
Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, with
whom Torelli collaborated
By 1698, Torelli had become maestro di concerto at the court of Georg Friedrich II, Margrave of Brandenburg Ansbach. He conducted the orchestra for Le pazzie d’amore e dell’interesse, an idea drammatica composed by the maestro di cappella, his friend Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, the composer and castrato singer 

After 1701, Torelli was known to be back in Bologna, where he is listed as a violinist in the newly reformed cappella musicale at San Petronio, directed by his former composition teacher, Perti.

Torelli and Pistocchi appeared in a number of concerts together in the early years of the 18th century. At around this time Torelli composed 12 concerti grossi con una pastorale, Op 8, which features one of his most popular pieces, the Christmas Eve concerto No 6.

Torelli died, aged 50, on 8 February 1709 in Bologna. His manuscripts were conserved in the San Petronio archives. He had composed many sonatas, concertos and symphonies, including more than 30 concertos for trumpets.

He had many pupils, the most notable being Francesco Manfredini. His brother, Felice Torelli was a painter with a good reputation in Bologna.

The unfinished facade of the Basilica di San Petronio, one of Europe's largest churches
The unfinished facade of the Basilica di San
Petronio, one of Europe's largest churches
Travel tip:

The Basilica di San Petronio, which dominates Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore, is a huge structure, 132m (144yds) long, 60m (66yds) wide and 47m (154ft) tall, which makes it the sixth largest church in Europe and is seen as a symbol of the city, even if it is not actually Bologna’s cathedral (that being the nearby Duomo di San Pietro). Indeed, despite construction starting in 1380, it was not consecrated as a church until 1954, having been built as a civic temple and not transferred from the city to the diocese until 1929.  It is notable for its unfinished facade, the red and brick marble of Domenico da Varignana’s design abandoned when it had barely reached one third of the building’s height, following the intervention of Pope Pius IV, who considered the project too expensive and ambitious and ordered that the city’s focus switch instead to the building of the Archiginnasio, the official seat of the University of Bologna.

The balcony of the Casa Giulietta, which remains one of Verona's most visited attractions
The balcony of the Casa Giulietta, which remains
one of Verona's most visited attractions
Travel tip:

Verona, where Torelli was born, is now the third largest city in the northeast of Italy, with a population across its whole urban area of more than 700,000. Famous now for its wealth of tourist attractions, of which the Roman amphitheatre known the world over as L’Arena di Verona is just one, the city was also the setting for three plays by Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew  - although it is unknown whether the English playwright ever actually set foot in the city.  Nonetheless, Casa Giulietta in Via Cappello, about five minutes’ walk from the Arena, is still promoted as the balcony where Shakespeare’s famous scene with Romeo took place.

Also on this day:

1591: The birth of painter Guercino

1751: The death of Trevi Fountain architect Nicolo Salvi

1848: Uprising in Padua

1945: The death of Olympic fencer Italo Santelli


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11 October 2016

Cesare Andrea Bixio - composer and lyricist

Pioneer of Italian film music left catalogue of classic songs


Cesare Andrea Bixio
Cesare Andrea Bixio
Cesare Andrea Bixio, the composer behind such classic Italian songs as Vivere, Mamma, La mia canzone al vento and Parlami d'amore Mariù, was born in Naples on this day in 1896. 

Bixio enjoyed many years of popularity during which his compositions were performed by some of Italy's finest voices, including Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa and Carlo Buti, and later became staples for Giuseppe Di Stefano and Luciano Pavarotti.

He was also a pioneer of film soundtrack music, having been invited to compose a score for the first Italian movie with sound, La Canzone dell'Amore, in 1930. As well as writing more than 1,000 songs in his career, Bixio penned the soundtracks for more than 60 films.

Bixio's father, Carlo, was an engineer from Genoa; his grandfather was General Nino Bixio, a prominent military figure in the drive for Italian Unification and one of the organisers of Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand.

Carlo, who died when Cesare was only six years old, married a Neapolitan, Anna Vilone, who wanted him to pursue a career in engineering, like his father. However, after developing an interest in music at an early age he had other ideas.

He wrote his first song, Suonno e Fantasia - Sound and Fantasy - when he was only 13 years old. He loved the variety shows that were popular in Naples and all over Italy as he was growing up and it was not long before he received the first payment for his work.

The movie poster for Solo per Te, starring Beniamino Gigli with music by Bixio
The movie poster for Solo per Te, starring
Beniamino Gigli and with music by Bixio
It came after he had waited outside the stage door one night for the singer Domenico 'Mimì' Maggio and told him he had written a song for him, called Canta Maggio.  Maggio liked it so much he included it in a performance, for which Bixio was paid six lire.

As important as that first financial reward was, equally so was the chance to meet some of the most influential figures in the Neapolitan music scene, such as Ernesto de Curtis, brother of Gianbattista - famous for Torna a Surriento - and Eduardo di Capua, who wrote the melody for 'O Sole Mio.

More successes followed and in 1920 Bixio set up his own publishing company, initially in Naples but soon to move to Milan, where he was able to operate from a prestigious address in Galleria del Corso.

This was to bring him real wealth when he signed a lucrative contract worth some 64,000 lire - a colossal sum at the time - to compose for the French revue star Gabrè - who was actually a Calabrian called Aurelio Cimato - at the Casino de Paris.

In turn, this brought him work at the Folies Bergère music hall and with one of the darlings of French cabaret in the 1920s, Lys Gauty.

However, it was the burgeoning movie business that enabled Bixio to create the legacy of famous songs still performed today, many of which stemmed from his partnership with the Italian lyricist, Bixio Cherubini.


Watch Andrea Bocelli sing Mamma





These included Mamma, from the 1940 film of the same name starring operatic tenor Beniamino Gigli, who also sang Nanna nanna della vita - Lullaby of life - in the 1938 production Solo per Te.

Bixio, centre, flanked by the actor Walter Chiari and the director Vittorio di Sica
Bixio, centre, flanked by the actor Walter Chiari
and  the director Vittorio di Sica
Parlami d'amore Mariù came from the 1932 movie Gli uomini, che mascalzoni! - Men, what scoundrels!- for which the lyrics were written by Ennio Neri for Vittorio di Sica, an actor and singer who would later win Academy Awards as a director.

Equally popular with contemporary singers is Bixio's Vivere, title track from the 1937 film starring Tito Schipa, another tenor from an opera background.

He continued to write for the big screen until around 1960, after which soundtracks for television became part of his repertoire.  His songs have featured in films even since his death such as Raging Bull, released in 1980, which included Vivere and Stornelli fiorentini, and two movies in 1990, The Freshman and Goodfellas, both of which featured Parlami d'amore Mariù.

Bixio, whose son Carlo Andrea Bixio was a music and television producer, died in Rome in 1978, aged 81.

The historic and beautiful Teatro Bellini in Via Vincenzi Bellini in central Naples
The historic and beautiful Teatro Bellini in Via Vincenzi
Bellini in central Naples
Travel tip:

Naples has a thriving theatre scene of which the world famous opera house Teatro san Carlo is just one part.  In the centre or close by are many more, including the elegant and historic Teatro Bellini, situated halfway between the Dante and Museo metro stations, the Teatro delle Palme in the fashionable Chiaia district, the Teatro Diana in Vomero, the Teatro Greco-Romano and the Teatro Augusteo.

Travel tip:

Bixio's Milan office in Galleria del Corso was a few steps away from Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, a porticoed street connecting Piazza Duomo and Piazza San Babila which today is one of the city's upmarket shopping areas, particularly for clothing and accessory boutiques.  Closed to traffic by day, in the evening Corso Vittorio Emanuele II is notable for its concentration of cinemas and late-night bars and remains crowded until the early hours.

(Photo of Teatro Bellini by Armando Mancini CC BY-SA 2.0)

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23 April 2016

Ruggero Leoncavallo – opera composer

Writer and musician created one of the most popular operas of all time



Photo of Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo, the composer of the opera, Pagliacci, was born on this day in 1857 in Naples.

Pagliacci - which means 'clowns' - is one of the most popular operas ever written and is still regularly performed all over the world.

Leoncavallo also wrote the song, Mattinata, often performed by Enrico Caruso and still recorded by today’s tenors.

Leoncavallo was the son of a judge and moved with his father from Naples to live in the town of Montalto Uffugo in Calabria when he was a child.

He later returned to Naples to be educated and then studied literature at the University of Bologna under the poet Giosuè Carducci.

Leoncavallo initially worked as a piano teacher in Egypt but then moved to Paris where he found work as an accompanist for artists singing in cafes.

He then moved to Milan where he taught the piano and started to compose operas.

After the success of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Leoncavallo produced his own verismo work, Pagliacci. Verismo was a post-romantic operatic tradition, often featuring true stories about the lives of poor people.


Listen to the great Enrico Caruso perform Vesti la guibba from Pagliacci




Leoncavallo claimed he had derived the plot for Pagliacci from a real-life murder trial in Montalto Uffugo, over which his father had presided.


Photo of Teatro dal Verme
The Teatro dal Verme in Milan staged the first
performance if Pagliacci in May 1892
Pagliacci was an immediate success after its premiere at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan in May 1892.

The most famous aria, Vesti la giubba, which has been translated as ‘On with the motley’, was recorded by Caruso in 1902. He recorded it again in 1904 and 1907 and it is claimed to be the first record to sell a million copies.

Leoncavallo went on to compose other operas and operettas, writing the words himself as well as creating the music.

After he wrote Mattinata, he accompanied Caruso at the piano when the tenor recorded the song in 1904.

Although Leoncavallo’s other operas are now hardly ever performed, arias from them are sometimes included in collections recorded by contemporary singers.

Leoncavallo died in 1919 in Montecatini Terme in Tuscany, where he had a villa. His funeral was attended by Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini.

The composer was buried at a cemetery near Florence but his body was later exhumed and moved by his descendants to Brissago in Switzerland, where he had also owned a residence.

Travel tip:

Teatro Dal Verme, where Pagliacci was premiered, was built in 1872 in Via San Giovanni sul Muro in north west Milan. The theatre was used for performances of plays and operas during the 19th and 20th centuries but is now mainly used for concerts, exhibitions and conferences.



Photo of Leoncavallo's villa
Leoncavallo's villa in Montecatini Terme
Travel tip:

Montecatini Terme in Tuscany, where Leoncavallo had a villa, is a spa town in the province of Pistoia, dotted with formal gardens and with a variety of architectural styles on display because of the different spa establishments. Its heyday was the early part of the 20th century, when restaurants, theatres, nightclubs and a casino were built here and many celebrities visited. As well as Leoncavallo, the town welcomed the composers, Giuseppe Verdi and Mascagni, and the tenor, Beniamino Gigli.



(Picture credits: Teatro dal Verme by MarkusMark; Leoncavallo's villa by Pivari.com; via Wikimedia Commons) 


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22 November 2015

Bernardo Pasquini - composer

Talented musician wrote music for a queen


Bernardo Pasquini was one of many composers supported by Queen Christina of Sweden
Bernardo Pasquini was one of many composers
supported by Queen Christina of Sweden
Baroque composer Bernardo Pasquini died on this day in Rome in 1710.

He is remembered as an important composer for the harpsichord and for his musical scores for operas.

Along with his fellow composers Alessandro Scarlatti and Arcangelo Corelli, Pasquini was a member of the Arcadian Academy (Accademia degli Arcadi) which was set up in Rome by one of his patrons, Queen Christina of Sweden.

Pasquini enjoyed Queen Christina’s protection while he was living in Rome and produced several operas in her honour. These were staged in Rome initially and then replayed in theatres all over Italy.

Queen Christina had abdicated from the throne of Sweden in 1654, converted to Roman Catholicism and moved to live in Rome.

While living in the Palazzo Farnese, she opened up her home for members of the Arcadian Academy to enjoy music, theatre, literature and languages with her.

She became a cultural leader and protector of many Baroque artists, composers and musicians.

The Trevi Fountain is an example of Rome's Baroque architecture
The Trevi Fountain is an example
of Rome's Baroque architecture
The Baroque period, which influenced sculpture, painting and architecture, as well as literature, dance, theatre and music, began in Rome around 1600. Rome's wealth of Baroque architecture includes the Trevi Fountain, built in 1762. It is the largest fountain in the style in the city.

Pasquini was born in what is now the municipality of Massa e Cozzile in Val di Nievole in Tuscany in 1637. He was a pupil of Marcantonio Cesti and Loreto Vittori before he went to live in Ferrara, where he was a church organist, and then moved on to Rome while he was still a young man.

He entered the service of Prince Borghese and, as a renowned virtuoso keyboard player, soon became the organist at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Pasquini was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, which is in Piazza San Lorenzo, just off Via del Corso in Rome.

The church of San Lorenzo in Lucina in Rome, where Pasquini is buried
The church of San Lorenzo in Lucina in Rome,
where Pasquini is buried
Travel tip:

You can see Pasquini’s tomb in San Lorenzo in Lucina which bears a carved portrait of him. Three years after Pasquini’s death, his nephew Felice Bernardo Ricordati and one of his pupils, Bernardo Gaffi, commissioned Pietro Francesco Papaleo to sculpt a portrait of the composer in Carrara marble.

Travel tip:

Palazzo Farnese in Piazza Farnese in the Campo De’ Fiori area of Rome is now being used as the French Embassy. Queen Christina was allowed to lodge in this important renaissance building by Pope Alexander VII while it was standing empty following the death of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese.