Tito Gobbi – baritone

Singer found fame on both stage and screen

Tito Gobbi, pictured in 1955

Opera singer Tito Gobbi was born on this day in 1913 in Bassano del Grappa in the Veneto region.

He had a career that lasted 44 years and sang more than 100 different operatic roles on stages all over the world.

Gobbi also sang in 25 films and towards the end of his career directed opera productions throughout Europe and America.

His singing talent was discovered by a family friend while he was studying law at the University of Padua, who suggested that he studied singing instead. As a result, Gobbi moved to Rome in 1932 to study under the tenor, Giulio Crimi.

At his first audition he was accompanied at the piano by Tilde De Rensis, the daughter of musicologist Raphael De Rensis. She was later to become Gobbi’s wife.

Gobbi made his debut in 1935 in Gubbio, singing the role of Count Rodolfo in Vincenzo Bellini’s La sonnambula, and then went to work for a season at La Scala in Milan as an understudy, which gained him valuable experience.

He made his first appearance on stage there as the Herald in Ildebrando Pizzetti’s Orseolo.

Listen to Tito Gobbi singing Di provenza il mar il suol from Verdi's La Traviata

In 1942 he sang the role of Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at La Scala, conducted by Tullio Serafin.

Gobbi was guided by Serafin in preparing roles, which was to be invaluable later in his career when he was cast as Scarpia, Rigoletto and Simon Boccanegra.

The movie poster for the Italian version
of the British film The Glass Mountain

He began working in films as early as 1938 when he appeared in Cilea’s L’arlesiana with Licia Albanese.

After the Second World War, Gobbi’s international career took off and he sang at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the Lyric Opera in Chicago and the San Francisco Opera house.

He made his debut at The Metropolitan Opera in New York as Scarpia in Tosca.

His screen appearances continued and he starred with Anna Magnani in a contemporary drama released in 1946, Avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma (Before Him All Rome Trembled), a story which sees a group of opera singers appearing in a production of Tosca in Rome in 1944 simultaneously taking part in Italian resistance actions against the Germans.

Gobbi's performance in 1949 in the British film, The Glass Mountain, which was set in wartime Italy, made him known to a much wider audience. The theme music, Legend of the Glass Mountain, which became a contemporary hit, was by the Italian composer Nino Rota.

Tito Gobbi pictured in London in 1973

In the 1960s, Gobbi began directing, staging Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at both Covent Garden and in Chicago.

He directed Otello in California, Chicago and Thessalonika in Greece and Gianni Schicchi by Puccini in Florence, at the Edinburgh Festival, and in Chicago, Zurich and Monaco.

Gobbi estimated that he had sung the part of Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca nearly a thousand times.

He sang it in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of the opera at Covent Garden in 1964, when Maria Callas sang the title role and Act Two was broadcast live on British television.

Gobbi and Callas had previously sung Tosca together in a 1953 recording of the Opera in Milan, when Giuseppe di Stefano sang Cavaradossi. That recording, which has been reissued on CD, is considered the finest recording of a complete opera ever made.

In retirement the singer wrote two books, Tito Gobbi: My Life  and Tito Gobbi on his World of Italian Opera. After retiring in 1979, Gobbi died in Rome in 1984 at the age of 70.

Palladio's Ponte degli Alpini in Bassano del Grappa

Travel Tip:

Bassano del Grappa, where Tito Gobbi was born, is an historic town at the foot of Monte Grappa in the Vicenza province of the Veneto, famous for inventing grappa, a spirit made from the grape skins and stalks left over from wine production, which is popular with Italians as an after dinner drink to aid digestion. A famous sight is the Ponte degli Alpini, a bridge designed by Andrea Palladio. The painter Jacopo Bassano was born in Bassano del Grappa and took his name from the town.

Travel tip:

Gubbio, where Tito Gobbi made his opera debut, is a town in the province of Perugia in Umbria, with some fine medieval architecture in the narrow streets in the centre. Gubbio is well-known for its annual foot race, Corsa dei Ceri, held on 15 May. Three teams, devoted to Sant’Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant’Antonio, run through the town and up the mountain carrying a statue of their saint mounted on a tall wooden stand. A similar event is held each year in Jessup, Pensylvania, when residents race statues of the three saints through the streets.

More reading:

Luciano Pavarotti - king of the high 'Cs'

How Tullio Serafin helped Maria Callas achieve her potential

Nino Rota - film music composer who wrote The Godfather soundtrack

(Photo of  Tito Gobbi in London by Allan Warren CC-BY SA 3.0)
(Photo of Bassano del Grappa by Zyance CC BY-SA 3.0)


Home

Tullio Serafin – opera conductor

Toscanini’s successor furthered the career of Callas

Tullio Serafin

The man who helped Maria Callas develop her singing talent, musician and conductor Tullio Serafin, was born on this day in 1878 in Rottanova near Cavarzere in the Veneto, on the Adige river just south of the Venetian Lagoon.

Serafin studied music in Milan and went on to play the viola in the orchestra at Teatro alla Scala under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.

He was later appointed assistant conductor and then took over as musical director at the theatre when Toscanini left to go to New York.

Serafin conducted at La Scala between 1909 and 1914, from 1917 to 1918 and then returned briefly at the end of the Second World War.

He became a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1924 and stayed with them for ten years before returning to Italy to become artistic director at the Teatro Reale in Rome.

During his career he helped the development of many singers, including Rosa Ponselle, Magda Olivero and Joan Sutherland.

Serafin’s most notable success was with Maria Callas, with whom he collaborated on many recordings. He is credited with helping the American-born singer achieve a major breakthrough in 1949 when he persuaded her to take over from the leading belcanto soprano Margeritha Carosio at the opening night of Bellini's I Puritani at La Fenice in Venice after Carosio was forced to withdraw through illness.

Callas protested that she was inadequately prepared but her performance received rave reviews, giving her the confidence to expand her repertoire.  Thereafter, success followed success.

The conductor was also responsible for reviving 19th century operas by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti and establishing them in the 20th century repertoire.

Serafin died in 1968 in Rome at the age of 89.

The bell tower of the Duomo and the
Palazzo Barbiani in Cavarzere

Travel tip:

Rottanova, where Serafin was born, is a small hamlet on the outskirts of Cavarzere, a comune situated about 35km south of Venice in the Veneto. Cavarzere dates back to before Roman times when it was a military outpost. It later became a refuge for people escaping from the barbarians after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Travel tip:

Teatro alla Scala, where Serafin conducted for so many years, is in Piazza della Scala in the centre of Milan across the road from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. La Scala has a fascinating museum that displays costumes and memorabilia from the history of opera. The entrance is in Largo Ghiringhelli, just off Piazza della Scala. It is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and a few days when it is closed in December. Opening hours are from 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.30pm.

HomeHome.30 to 5.30 pm.

La Scala - opera and ballet theatre

First night at the world’s most famous opera house

La Scala opera house is located in the heart of Milan

Milan’s Teatro alla Scala was officially inaugurated on this day in 1778.

Known to Italians simply as La Scala, the theatre has become the leading opera house in the world and many famous artists have appeared there.

A fire had destroyed the Teatro Regio Ducale, which had previously been the home of opera in Milan. A group of 90 wealthy patrons, the owners of private boxes in the theatre, wrote to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este asking that a new theatre be built.

The new theatre was built on the site of the former Church of Santa Maria alla Scala, which is how the theatre got its name. The church was deconsecrated and demolished to make way for the theatre. 

With the cost of the project met by the 90 patrons, who paid in advance for boxes, the new theatre was designed by neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini and at the official opening on 3 August 1778, Antonio Salieri’s opera L’Europa Riconosciuta was premiered.

As with most theatres at the time, the main floor had no seats, with audience members standing to watch the performances. This had the effect of making the theatre a meeting place, but also a venue for business dealings, and sometimes the noise generated by the traders would bring complaints from genuine opera-lovers that their enjoyment was impaired.

Oil lamps illuminate the venue at first. Mindful of the fire hazard this posed, the theatre managers always made sure that there were hundreds of buckets of water to hand in rooms adjoining the auditorium.

The world’s finest singers have appeared at La Scala during the past 200 years and the theatre has hosted the premieres of operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini.

La Scala’s original 18th century structure was renovated in 1907 and, after bomb damage during the Second World War, it had to be rebuilt and was reopened in 1946, the occasion marked with a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who was twice La Scala's principal conductor, with a soprano solo by Renata Tebaldi.

The beautiful Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Travel tip:

Teatro alla Scala is in Piazza della Scala in the centre of Milan across the road from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an elegant arcade lined with cafes, shops and restaurants which was built to link Piazza della Scala with Piazza del Duomo, Milan’s cathedral square.

Travel tip:

La Scala has a fascinating museum that displays costumes and memorabilia from the history of opera. The entrance is in Largo Ghiringhelli, just off Piazza della Scala. It is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and a few days when it is closed in December. Opening hours are from 9.00 to 12.30 and 1.30 to 5.30 pm.

(Photo of Galleria by Emily Chochkova CC BY-SA 3.0)

Home

Gaetano Donizetti - operatic genius

The day the music died

Joseph Kriehuber's 1842 portrait of
Gaetano Donizetti

A prolific composer of operas in the first half of the 19th century, Gaetano Donizetti died on this day in 1848 in Bergamo in Lombardy.

Donizetti had returned to his native city after a brilliant international career to spend his last days in the Palazzo Scotti in the Città Alta, the upper town.

By then seriously ill, he was looked after by friends in the gracious surroundings of the palazzo until his death. His tomb is in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, where it is marked by a white, marble monument.

Donizetti has since become acknowledged as the greatest composer of lyrical opera of all time. He was a major influence on Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and other composers who came after him.

Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the 19th century. Among more than 70 works, his best and most famous operas are considered to be Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale and L’elisir d’amore.

In Via Sentierone in Bergamo’s lower town there is an elaborate white marble monument to the composer next to Teatro Donizetti, which was renamed in his honour in 1897 on the centenary of his birth.

Donizetti painted as a schoolboy in
Bergamo in the early 19th century

Born in the Borgo Canale quarter of Bergamo, just outside the city walls, the youngest of three sons of the caretaker of a municipal pawnshop, he trained with the German composer Simon Mayr, the maestro di cappella at the city's cathedral. Mayr helped him win a place at the Bologna Academy at the age of 19.  He was not the most assiduous student, gaining a reputation for missing classes and getting into scrapes, but Mayr's faith in his talent did not waver and ultimately it was rewarded.

His first important success came in 1818 with Enrico di Borgogna at the Teatro San Luca, in Venice. Soon afterwards he moved to Naples, taking up residency at the Teatro San Carlo in 1822 at the age of 25. He stayed there until 1844, producing more than three quarters of his work there.  In 1830 his Anna Bolena, produced at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, carried his fame abroad and two years later came L’elisir d’amore. The year after that Lucrezia Borgia consolidated his reputation in Milan.

However, more than once he found himself at odds with the censors, and in the 1840s began to spend an increasing amount of time in Paris, where the censorship rules were less strict.

Married in 1828 to Virginia Vasseli, the sister of one of his closest friends in Rome, Donizetti's spirits suffered greatly after her death in 1837, soon after the stillbirth of a son. Indeed, none of their three children survived birth.

His own health began to decline soon after he moved to Paris and it was not only physically but mentally that he deteriorated rapidly, suffering periods of near-insanity due to the loss of his cognitive faculties. It was only because of the devotion of a nephew, Andrea, that he was able to return to Bergamo for his final days.

Donizetti's birthplace in Via Borgo Canale
is clearly marked at No 14

Travel tip:

Donizetti’s Casa Natale (birthplace), is in Via Borgo Canale just outside the walls of the upper town. It has now been declared a national monument and is open free to visitors every weekend. You can still see the well from which the family drew their water and the fireplace where meals were cooked, which would also have been their only source of heating.  To reach Donizetti’s birthplace, leave the Città Alta through Porta Sant’Alessandro and go past the station for the San Vigilio funicolare. Via Borgo Canale is the next street on the right and Casa Natale, at number 14, is in the middle of a row of characteristic, tall houses and is marked by a plaque.

Bergamo hotels by Booking.com

The bed in which Donizetti spent his final hours in Palazzo
Scotti is on display in the museum in Via Arena

Travel tip:

A museum dedicated to Donizetti’s life and career is housed in the former Palazzo Misericordia Maggiore, now a musical institute, in Via Arena in the Città Alta. There are many interesting letters, documents and original scores on display along with the bed he died in and the chair he sat in while staying in Palazzo Scotti towards the end of his life. Donizetti’s tomb can be seen in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Piazza Duomo in the Città Alta.

Also on this day:

1492: The death of Lorenzo the Magnificent 

1868: The birth of equestrian pioneer Federico Caprilli

1929: The birth of controversial historian Renzo De Felice

Home

Giovanni Battista Rubini - opera singer

Tenor was as famous in his day as Caruso

Giovanni Battista Rubini

Giovanni Battista Rubini, born on this day in 1794, was a tenor as famous in his day as Enrico Caruso would be almost a century later, his voice having contributed to the popularity of opera composers Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti.

He was the first 19th-century non-castrati singer to become a major international star after two centuries in which audiences and composers were obsessed with the castrati.  Rubini's exceptionally high voice could match the coloratura of the castrati and he effectively launched the era of the bel canto tenor, which signalled the end of the dominance of the castrati.

Rubini was just 12 when he was taken on as a violinist and chorister at the Riccardi Theatre in Bergamo, not far from his home town of Romano di Lombardia. He was 20 when he made his professional debut in Pietro Generali’s Le lagrime d’una vedova at Pavia in 1814, then sang for 10 years in Naples in the smaller, comic opera houses.

Famed for a voice capable of reaching beyond the range of conventional tenors, particularly in the higher registers, in 1825 he sang the leading roles in Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Otello, and La donna del Lago in Paris and was soon regarded as the leading tenor of his day.

After he had premiered Bellini's Bianca e Gernando in Naples the following year, Bellini began to write specifically with Rubini's voice in mind, giving him the tenor leads in Il pirata, La sonnambula and I Puritani.

Rubini was cast in I Puritani with the soprano Giulia Grisi, the baritone Antonio Tamburini and the bass Luigi Lablache. The group achieved popularity together as the “Puritani quartet.”

The four appeared together again in Donizetti's Marino Faliero during the same season, in 1835, then travelled to London with the Irish composer Michael William Balfe for a further round of operatic engagements.

Rubini premiered Donizetti's La lettera anonima, Elvida, Il giovedì grasso, Gianni di Calais. Il paria and Anna Bolena as well as Marino Faliero.

A genuine international star, Rubini alternated during his peak years between the Théâtre-Italien in Paris and His Majesty’s Theatre in the Haymarket, London. 

He toured Germany and Holland with Franz Liszt in 1843 and in the same year performed in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Czar Nicholas I appointed him Director of Singing and made him Colonel of the Imperial Music.

A gateway in Romano di Lombardia featuring the Venetian
Lion of St Mark's. (Photo: Luca Giarelli CC BY-SA 3.0)

In 1845 he retired to his birthplace, the town of Romano di Lombardia, situated about 30 miles (45km) east of Milan in the province of Bergamo, about 12 miles from the city of Bergamo, which is also the birthplace of Donizetti.

He bought a palazzo there, where he died in 1854.  He was hardly an attractive figure, short and pockmarked according to references made at times to his physical appearance. Yet his fame enabled him to conduct numerous affairs and he passed away a month short of his 60th birthday, apparently stricken with a sexually transmitted disease that robbed him of his voice and ultimately his life.

Travel tip: 

Romano di Lombardia is a small town with a population of just under 19,000 in Lombardy, in the province of Bergamo, close to the River Serio and on the railway line between Milan and Brescia. Its history dates back to Roman times and later it was ruled for many years by Venice, evidence of which still exists around the town in symbols depicting the Lion of St Mark's.  The palazzo Rubini bought on his return to Romano became a museum after his death.

The Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo is built on the site of the
Teatro Riccardi, where Rubini sang and played the violin

Travel tip:

The Teatro Riccardi in Bergamo, where Rubini became a violinist and chorister at the age of 12, was destroyed by fire towards the end of the 18th century and rebuilt in brick.  It is now known as Teatro Donizetti.

More reading:

The brilliant career of Enrico Caruso 

The humble roots of Geatano Donizetti

Home

Fire at Teatro di San Carlo

Royal theatre reopens quickly after blaze 

The damage wreaked by the 1816 fire, captured in a
painting by an unknown artist

Fire broke out during a dress rehearsal for a ballet at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on this day in 1816.

The flames spread quickly, destroying a large part of the building in less than an hour.

The external walls were the only things left standing, but on the orders of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, the prestigious theatre was rebuilt at once.

It was reconstructed following designs drawn up by architect Antonio Niccolini for a horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats. A stunning fresco was painted in the centre of the ceiling above the auditorium depicting a classical subject, Apollo presenting to Minerva the greatest poets of the world.

The rebuilding work took just ten months to complete and the theatre reopened to the public in January 1817.

Teatro di San Carlo had opened for the first time in 1737, way ahead of Teatro alla Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.

Gioachino Rossini is among the former
artistic directors at San Carlo

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

The original theatre was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano for the Bourbon King of Naples, Charles I, and took only eight months to build.

The official inauguration was on the King’s saint’s day, the festival of San Carlo, on the evening of November 4. 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 remaining opera houses in the world, if not the oldest.

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.

During the Second World War the theatre was damaged by bombs but after the liberation of Naples in 1943 it was repaired and was able to reopen.

Between 2008 and 2009 a major refurbishment was carried out but the theatre reopened again to the public in 2010.

Inside Teatro di San Carlo, looking down
from above the royal box

Travel tip:

In the magnificent auditorium, the focal point is the royal box surmounted by the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Opera enthusiasts can take a guided tour of the theatre and see the foyers, the auditorium, the boxes and the royal box. Tours run at 10.30, 11.30, 12.30, 14.30, 15.30 and 16.30 between Monday and Saturday and at 10.30, 11.30 and 12.30 on Sundays. Booking is recommended.

Naples accomodation by Booking.com

Travel Tip:

Close to Teatro di San Carlo in the centre of ‘royal’ Naples, there are many other sights, such as Galleria Umberto I, Caffè Gambrinus, the church of San Francesco di Paola and Palazzo Reale, that are all well worth visiting.


More reading:

The 1996 fire that destroyed La Fenice opera house in Venice

How Pietro Metastasio progressed from street entertainer to renowned librettist

Donizetti - the musical genius born in a darkened basement

Also on this day:

1539: The death of influential marchioness Isabella d’Este

1571: The death of painter Benvenuto Cellini

1912: The birth of poet Antonia Pozzi

1960: The birth of football referee Pierluigi Collina

(Painting: Rossini portrait by Vincenzo Camuccini, Museo del Teatro alla Scala in Milan) 

Home

Gaetano Donizetti - opera composer

Birthplace of musical genius has been declared a national monument

Gaetano Donizetti, a prolific composer of operas in the 19th century, was born on this day in 1797 in Bergamo in northern Italy.

Donizetti came into the world in the basement of a house in Borgo Canale just outside the walls of the Città Alta, Bergamo’s upper town. He was the fifth of six children born to a textile worker and his wife. 

Casa Natale is now a national monument

He once wrote about his birthplace: “…I was born underground in Borgo Canale. One descended the stairs to the basement, where no ray of sunlight had ever been seen. And like an owl I flew forth…”

Donizetti developed a love for music and, despite the poverty of his family, benefited from early tuition in Bergamo. He went on to become a brilliant composer of operas in the early part of the 19th century and is considered to have been a major influence on Verdi, Puccini and many other composers who came after him.

Experts consider some of his work, for example Lucia di Lammermoor and L’Elisir d’Amore, to be among the greatest lyrical operas of all time.

After a magnificent international career, Donizetti returned to Bergamo, where he died in 1843 in the Palazzo Scotti, which is in a street in the Città Alta since renamed Via Donizetti.

  

Travel tip:

Donizetti’s Casa Natale (birthplace), which has been declared a national monument, is open free to visitors every weekend. You can still see the well from which the family drew their water and the fireplace where meals were cooked, which would have been their only source of heating.

To reach Donizetti’s birthplace, leave the Città Alta through Porta Sant’Alessandro and go past the station for the San Vigilio funicolare. Borgo Canale is the next street on the right and Casa Natale, at number 14, is in the middle of a row of characteristic, tall houses and is marked by a plaque.

Monument to Donizetti in Bergamo's lower town

Travel tip:

A museum dedicated to Donizetti’s life and career is housed in the Palazzo Misericordia Maggiore, which is still a musical institute, in Via Arena in the Città Alta. Donizetti’s tomb is in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Piazza Duomo in the Città Alta. A monument dedicated to him was erected in the Città Bassa in Bergamo in 1897, 100 years after his birth, near the theatre that was renamed Teatro Donizetti in Via Sentierone.

Home

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 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

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

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.

More reading:

Pietro Metastasio - from street entertainer to leading librettist

Teatro di San Carlo partially destroyed by fire

Caruso still regarded by some as the greatest tenor of all time

Also on this day:

1448: The birth of Alfonso II of Naples

1575: The birth of painter Guido Reni

1964: The birth of novelist Sandrone Dazieri

1333 and 1966: Florence hit by catastrophic floods

(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)

Home