Antonio Cotogni – baritone

Singer who moved the composer Verdi to tears

Antonio Cotogni's voice was admired
by the composer Giuseppe Verdi

Antonio ‘Toto’ Cotogni, who achieved international recognition as one of the greatest male opera singers of the 19th century, was born on this day in 1831 in Rome.

Cotogni’s fine baritone voice was particularly admired by the composer Giuseppe Verdi and music journalists wrote reviews full of superlatives after his performances.

Cotogni studied music theory and singing from an early age and began singing in churches and at summer music festivals outside the city.

He made his opera debut in 1852 at Rome’s Teatro Metastasio as Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore.

After that he did not sing in public for a while, concentrating instead on building up his repertoire.

After singing in various Italian cities outside Rome he was signed up to sing at Rome’s Teatro Argentina in 1857 in Lucia di Lammermoor and Gemma di Vergy, also by Donizetti. Later that year he performed in Verdi's I due Foscari and Sanelli's Luisa Strozzi at Teatro Rossini in Turin. He met the soprano Maria Ballerini there and married her the following year.

His major breakthrough came in 1858 when he was asked to take the place of the famous baritone Felice Varesi in Nice.

Varesi’s fans felt that Cotogni, who was virtually unknown, should not have been chosen to replace the popular singer.

Cotogni in the role of Enrico in
Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

He was engaged to sing Antonio in Donizetti’s Linda di Chamonix but was greeted with noises and whistling before he had sung a word.

The audience fell silent as he sang his opening aria and gave him thunderous applause afterwards demanding an encore. His performance revealed him to be a master of his art and Antonio became one of his signature roles.

Cotogni made his debut at La Scala in Milan in 1860 and after overcoming his initial nerves, he won over the notoriously critical audience.

He appeared at the leading opera houses in Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Moscow and Saint Petersburg and became particularly popular with London audiences, performing at the Royal Opera House regularly from 1867 to 1889.

The famous baritone gave his last operatic stage performance in 1894 in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in Saint Petersburg.

Cotogni became a celebrated vocal teacher in retirement, teaching first at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and then at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

He taught dozens of celebrated singers during his retirement between 1894 and 1918, the year in which he died in Rome just before the armistice ended World War I.

Cotogni sang most of the major Verdi baritone roles and the composer himself praised the beauty and strength of his voice. Verdi heard him privately in several of the key pieces from Don Carlo and was moved to tears by his singing of Rodrigo’s death scene. Verdi had his own nickname for Cotogni, calling him mio ignoratino - my little ignoramus - which he used not in an insulting way but in teasing the singer for his unfailing modesty, humility and deference.

Cotogni was an exceptional teacher and was able to pass on to his pupils what Verdi had said to him about the arias and elements of the operas that had been changed in rehearsal.

Cotogni (second row, middle) with his class at the St Cecilia
Academy. Beniamino Gigli is on the right at the back.

Working with him was the young Luigi Ricci who would later become a vocal coach. Ricci took meticulous notes on information that Cotogni passed on to his pupils about things that had been changed in rehearsal but had never been officially recorded, as well as traditions begun by singers from the previous century.

Ricci eventually compiled a four-part collection, Variazioni-cadenze tradizioni per canto, which recorded this information for posterity.

At the age of 77 Cotogni recorded a duet with a much younger tenor for the gramophone. Although his voice was not the same as when it had moved Verdi to tears, it is a permanent reminder of the singer who had entranced audience throughout Europe for 40 years. It is also the oldest voice ever recorded for the gramophone as Cotogni had been born in 1831.

Via dei Genovesi in Trastevere

Travel tip:

Antonio Cotogni was born at number 13 Via dei Genovesi in the Trastevere district of Rome and there is a commemorative plaque on the house. Trastevere, once a working-class part of the city, is now one of Rome's most fashionable neighbourhoods, certainly among young professionals, who are attracted by its pretty cobbled streets and the wealth of inexpensive but chic restaurants.

The Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Via dei
Greci is part of the Academy

Travel tip:

The St Cecilia Academy - Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - where Cotogni taught singing, is one of the oldest musical academies in the world. It was founded in Rome by Pope Sixtus V in 1585 at the Church of Santa Maria ad Martires, better known as the Pantheon. Over the centuries, many famous composers and musicians have been members of the Academy, which lists opera singers Beniamino Gigli and Cecilia Bartoli among its alumni. Since 2005 the Academy’s headquarters have been at the Parco della Musica in Rome, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano.

More reading:

The death of Giuseppe Verdi - how Italy mourned the loss of a national icon

The brief but sparkling career of 19th century soprano Marietta Piccolomini

Antonio Scotti - the Neapolitan baritone who sang for 35 seasons at The Met

Also on this day:

1464: The death of Cosimo de' Medici, founder of a dynasty

1776: The birth of Francesca Scanagatta, the girl who pretended to be a man to join the Austrian army


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Gianandrea Noseda - conductor

Milanese musician has achieved worldwide acclaim

Gianandrea Noseda is one of the most
able conductors of his generation

Gianandrea Noseda, who is recognised as one of the leading orchestra conductors of his generation, was born on this day in 1964 in Milan.

He holds the title of Cavaliere Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for his contribution to the artistic life of Italy.

Noseda studied piano and composition in Milan and began studying conducting at the age of 27.

He made his debut as a conductor in 1994 with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. He won the Cadaques International Conducting Competition for young conductors in Spain the same year.

In 1997 he became principal guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and during his time there became fluent in Russian.

In 2002 he became principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and in this role led live performances in Manchester of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. In 2006 his title was changed to chief conductor.

Noseda has been music director at the
Teatro Regio in Turin since 2007

The London Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Noseda as its new principal guest conductor in 2016.

Noseda has been Music Director of the Teatro Regio Torino since 2007, taking their orchestra to the Edinburgh Festival in 2017. He has also conducted the orchestra of the Teatro Regio Torino for the recording of a number of opera albums, featuring celebrated singers such as Rolando Villazon.

The conductor celebrates his 54th birthday today and at the end of May he will lead the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for the first time. He will conduct the orchestra in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 5 and Mahler’s Symphony No 5.

He met his Sicilian-born wife, Lucia, at the Milan Conservatory when they were both students. They have a home on the western shore of Lake Maggiore.

The Naviglio Grande is a colourful and lively stretch of
Milan's canal system

Travel tip:

The Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, where Noseda made his debut as a conductor, was founded in 1993 and is now based at the Auditorium di Milano Fondazione Cariplo in Largo Gustav Mahler close to the city’s Navigli district.  The auditorium was inaugurated in 1999 and quickly became one of the most important cultural venues in the city.  Navigli is the name of the triangle bounded by the Naviglio Grande and the Naviglio Pavese canals in the southwestern quadrant of the city, an area that is popular with young Milanese and boasts many attractive bars and restaurants.

The modern auditorium at the Teatro Regio of today

Travel tip:

The Teatro Regio Torino, where Noseda has been musical director, is in Piazza Castello close to the Palazzo Reale in the centre of Turin. The Teatro Regio has had something of a chequered history. Inaugurated in 1740, it was closed by royal decree in 1792 then reopened with the French occupation of Turin during the early 19th century, first as the Teatro Nazionale and then the Teatro Imperiale before its original name was reinstated with the fall of Napoleon in 1814. It endured several financial crises in the late 1800s but limped into the 20th century only to be burnt down in a catastrophic fire in 1936. It remained dark for 37 years until reopening in 1973.

More reading:

How American TV made Arturo Toscanini a star

Riccardo Muti still going strong at almost 77

The conductor who helped make Maria Callas a star

Also on this day:

1857: The birth of opera composer Ruggero Leoncavallo

1939: The birth of Mafia boss Stefano Bontade


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Francesca Cuzzoni - operatic soprano

Diva who came to blows with rival on stage

Francesca Cuzzoni, depicted in an 18th century engraving
by the English artist James Caldwall

Francesca Cuzzoni, an 18th century star whose fiery temper earned her a reputation as one of opera’s great divas, was born on this day in 1696 in Parma.

Described rather unkindly by one opera historian of the era as “short and squat, with a doughy face” she was nonetheless possessed of a beautiful soprano voice, which became her passport to stardom.

However, she was also notoriously temperamental and jealous of rival singers, as was illustrated by several incidents that took place while she was in the employment of George Frideric Handel, the German composer who spent much of his working life in London.

Already established as one of the finest sopranos in Europe, Cuzzoni was hired by Handel in 1722.

Handel at that time was Master of the Orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music, the company set up by a group of English aristocrats to stage Baroque opera, partly for their own entertainment but also as a commercial enterprise.  One of his responsibilities was to engage the soloists for the company’s productions.

He ran into immediate trouble with Cuzzoni, who was due to make her debut in Handel’s own Italian language opera Ottone at the King’s Theatre in Haymarket.  On discovering that her part had been written originally with another singer in mind, one whose services the composer had been unable to secure, she is reputed to have refused to perform, coming into line only when Handel allegedly picked her up by the waist and threatened to throw her out of a window.

Cuzzoni (right) and Faustina Bordoni (left) were fierce
rivals notoriously involved in an on-stage fight

In the event, her interpretation of the role was hailed as a triumph and she soon became a star, her performances winning her an army of fans and enabling her to demand a handsome salary of £2,000 a season, which in today’s money would be the equivalent of about £250,000.

Opera’s popularity soared, despite the company jacking up ticket prices eightfold, and Handel was instructed to recruit more stars to satisfy demand.

Cuzzoni, though, was said to be furious, particularly when she learned that one of the new arrivals was Faustina Bordoni, a Venetian soprano who was much more attractive than she and who had been a rival in Italy.

Fanned by the press, their rivalry extended to the stalls and boxes, where opera-goers raucously supported their favourite and sometimes openly booed the other singer. Matters came to a head when they were cast to appear alongside one another in a performance of Giovanni Bononcini’s opera Astianatte.

Despite the presence in the audience of the Princess of Wales, rival factions took turns to jeer and catcall whenever one or the other began to sing and when the two singers appeared on the stage together a fight broke out in the stalls.

On stage, Cuzzoni is alleged to have turned on Bordoni, sparking an exchange of insults. Soon they were said to have begun pulling at each other’s hair and tearing pieces from their costumes. After they were separated, the performance was abandoned.

George Frideric Handel engaged Cuzzoni
to sing with the Royal Academy of Music

In fact, the remainder of the season was cancelled and Cuzzoni was told to leave, only to be reinstated following the direct intervention of the King. An uneasy truth allowed the next season to go ahead but the company wanted rid of Cuzzoni. Eventually it was decided that Bordoni would be offered more money, at which Cuzzoni resigned in a fit of pique and left first for Vienna and then Italy.

She returned to London in 1734, this time at the invitation of a rival company to Handel’s, although she did not make the same impact, her thunder stolen to an extent by the presence in the company of the superstar castrato, Farinelli.

Nonetheless, Cuzzoni continued to prosper until the 1740s, when the quality of her voice began to decline and her extravagant lifestyle found her increasingly in debt. At one point she was arrested in London over a debt of £30 and released from prison after the Prince of Wales paid her bail.

After a final concert in 1751, which was prefaced by a rather sad appeal for support published in her name by the General Advertiser, she returned to Italy for a final time.  She is said to have then eked out a living of sorts by making buttons. She died in virtual poverty in Bologna in 1778.

The Palazzo di Riserva in Parma, where Cuzzoni is
thought to have made her opera debut in 1714

Travel tip:

Cuzzoni, whose father was a professsional violinist,  made her stage debut in Parma in 1714, probably at the Teatro Ducale inside the Palazzo di Riserva, a neoclassical palace in what is now the Strada Giuseppe Garibaldi.  The theatre was replaced in the 19th century by the Nuovo Teatro Ducale, which was built on the site of a former monastery next to the Ducal Palace. Subsequently renamed the Teatro Regio di Parma, the house grew in prominence thanks to the fame of Giuseppe Verdi, who was born in nearby Busseto, and is nowadays regarded as one of Italy’s great opera houses, less well known but on a par with La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.

Parma's pink marble Baptistery is one of
many attractive buildings in the city

Travel tip:

A university city in the Emilia-Romagna region, with a population of almost 200,000, Parma is famous for Grana Parmigiana (Parmesan) cheese and Prosciutto di Parma ham, as well as a wealth of Romanesque architecture, including a cathedral containing acclaimed frescoes by Antonio da Correggio, and a pink marble Baptistery next door. More works by Correggio - and by Canaletto - are displayed at the Galleria Nazionale inside Palazzo della Pilotta.

More reading:

Why Farinelli, the 18th century castrato, was music's first superstar

How Francesco Gemianini, a Tuscan violinist, came to accompany Handel in playing for the English court

Pietro Metastasio, the most celebrated librettist of the 18th century

Also on this day:

1725: The birth of 18th century playboy Giacomo Casanova

1959: The birth of Olympic marathon champion Gelindo Borodin


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Giovanni Boldini – artist and portraitist

Sought-after painter who captured elegance of Belle Époque

Giovanni Baldini: an 1892 self-portrait
housed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Giovanni Boldini, whose sumptuous images of the rich and famous made him the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris during the Belle Époque era of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, was born in Ferrara on this day in 1842.

His subjects included some famous names, including the opera composer Giuseppe Verdi and the actress Sarah Bernhardt, and he had countless commissions from prominent individuals in Parisian society.

Boldini's skill was to capture his subject in soft-focus, elongating their features to accentuate beauty and creating a sense of motion in the figures so that they appeared to be both sophisticated and full of life.

He dressed his subjects in sumptuous gowns that would grace any fashion catwalk and society women in particular felt the need to confirm their status by having a Boldini portrait to show off to their friends and demanded that their wealthy husbands arrange a sitting.

Boldini came from an artistic background.  His father, Antonio, painted religious figures and scenes and had a house in Via Voltapaletto, which links Ferrara’s cathedral with the Basilica of San Francesco.  The eighth of 13 children – all boys -- Giovanni was baptised on the day of his birth in the church of Santa Maria in Vado.

Boldoni's portrait of Giuseppe Verdi is housed
in Rome's National Gallery of  Modern Art

He began filling notebooks with sketches from the age of five, even before he learned to write. Taught the rudiments of painting in his father’s workshop, he contented himself for a time copying the works of the Renaissance masters.  In 1856 at the age of 14, he produced a self-portrait of a quality that exuded a maturity of technique beyond his years.

In 1862, he moved to Florence, where he would remain for six years. His intention was to study formally at the Academy of Fine Arts, and though he enjoyed the influence of some distinguished tutors, he attended classes infrequently, preferring to immerse himself in a busy social life.

Renting an apartment in Via Lambertasca, he became a regular at the Caffè Michelangiolo in Via Cavour, the haunt of a group of realist painters known as the Macchiaioli, who were the Italian precursors to Impressionism. Their influence is seen in Boldini's early landscapes.

He enjoyed success as a portraitist for the first time when he moved to London, where he was commissioned by prominent society figures including Lady Holland and the Duchess of Westminster.  His success continued when he moved to Paris in 1872, where he mingled in the most fashionable salons and became part of a circle of artists that included Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Édouard Manet.

Boldini’s client list grew, but the invitation to paint Giuseppe Verdi in 1886 took him to a new level.  The Italian composer was the biggest celebrity of the time and Boldini’s portrait became an iconic image.

The portrait of Marthe de Florian that was
discovered in a Paris apartment in 2010

Verdi introduced Boldini to the world of opera, which led to many more commissions for portraits, both from artists and from the opera fans he met in theatres and cafes around Europe.

As well as portraits, he also painted realistic and natural landscapes, influenced by the Macchiaioli school. Only towards the end of his life did his style become more impressionistic. So financially comfortable he no longer needed to accept commissions for portraits to make a living, he began painting subjects of his own choice, including many nudes.

He surprised his friends in 1929 by getting married, ending 86 years of bachelor life. At the wedding breakfast, he told guests: "It is not my fault if I am so old, it's something which has happened to me all at once."

In the event, it was a short-lived marriage. Two years later he developed pneumonia and died in Paris. His body was returned to Italy and he is buried in his hometown of Ferrara.

Boldini’s paintings can be seen in some of the world’s finest art galleries and museums, although a great many are in private collections.  On the rare occasions they come up for sale at auction, they change hands for considerable sums.

In 2010, a Boldini portrait of his former muse, Marthe de Florian, a French actress, was discovered in an apartment near the Trinité church in Paris between the Pigalle red light district and Opera.

The apartment had been abandoned at the outbreak of the Second World War, when de Florian’s granddaughter fled to the South of France, and remained locked up and unvisited for 70 years.  

A scribbled note from Boldini found nearby, written on a calling card, confirmed the portrait’s authenticity and when it was sold at auction, with a guide price of €300,000, the hammer eventually came down at €1.2 million.

The Cattedrale di San Giorgio Martire in Ferrara

Travel tip:

Ferrara’s cathedral – the Cattedrale di San Giorgio Martire – is one of the main sights of the centre of the city, situated close to the Castello Estense and the Palazzo Comunale.  The Romanesque design of the cathedral, consecrated in 1135, features three cusps and a series of loggias, small arcades and rose windows. The interior, refurbished in Romanesque style after a fire in the 18^th century, houses a number of notable statues and paintings, including a Crucifixion in bronze by Niccolò Baroncelli and a Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence painted by Guercino.

A gathering of Macchiaioli painters at the Caffè Michelangiolo

Travel tip:

The Caffè Michelangiolo at Via Cavour 21 in Florence was at the centre of the city’s artistic community from the second half of the 19^th century until about 1920. The Macchiaioli group met there until about 1866. Today the café houses the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, and still hosts exhibitions and cultural events celebrating the historical, political and artistic themes that characterized the coffee house in its heyday.

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Enrico Caruso – opera singer

 Tenor's voice still regarded as greatest of all time 

Enrico Caruso sang in a choir while working
as an apprentice to a mechanical engineer

Operatic tenor Enrico Caruso was born on this day in 1873 in Naples.

Believed by many opera experts to be the greatest tenor of all time, Caruso had a brilliant 25-year singing career, appearing at many of the major opera houses in Europe and America.

He made more than 200 recordings of his beautiful voice, some made as early as 1902.

Caruso was born in Via San Giovanello agli Ottocalli in Naples and baptised the next day in the nearby church of San Giovanni e Paolo.

At the age of 11 he was apprenticed to a mechanical engineer and also worked alongside his father in a factory.

At the same time he was singing in his church choir and was told his voice showed enough promise for him to consider becoming a professional singer.

Until she died in 1888, he was encouraged by his mother. To earn money, he started to work as a street singer in Naples, progressing to singing Neapolitan songs as entertainment in cafes. Having decided to become an opera singer, Caruso took singing lessons, keeping up with them even during his compulsory military service.

He made his stage debut in 1895 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples in Domenico Morelli’s L’amico Francesco, having been recommended by a musician who had heard him sing.

Listen to Enrico Caruso singing La Donne e Mobile from Verdi's Rigoletto

Caruso went on to perform at other theatres throughout Italy and was given a contract to sing at the prestigious Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1900. On his debut on December 26 of that year, he sang Rodolfo from Puccini’s La Bohème, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

The following year he appeared in Monte Carlo, Warsaw, Buenos Aires and before the Tsar of Russia in St Petersburg.

Caruso took part in a grand concert at La Scala organised by Toscanini in 1901 to mark the death of Giuseppe Verdi.

Caruso in his role as the Duke in Rigoletto, in which
 he made his debut at the Met in New York in 1903

A month later he was engaged to make his first group of recordings for a gramophone company using a hotel room in Milan. The recordings quickly became bestsellers and Caruso’s fame spread.

He travelled to New York in 1903 to take up a contract with the Metroplitan Opera, making his debut in Verdi's Rigoletto in November.

A few months later Caruso began his association with the Victor Talking Machine Company.

His 1904 recording of Vesti la giubba, the moving aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci was the first recording ever to sell a million copies.

He made 863 appearances at the Met, attracting a substantial following from among New York’s Italian immigrants.

He continued to release recordings until close to his death in 1921. Caruso’s voice extended up to high D-flat in its prime and grew in power and weight as he became older. His singing can still be enjoyed by people today as his original recordings have been remastered and issued as CDs and digital downloads.

The singer’s health began to deteriorate in 1920 and he returned to Naples to recuperate. He was planning to go to a clinic in Rome in August 1921, and was staying overnight at the Albergo Vesuvio in Naples on the way, when his condition worsened and he died, aged 48.

The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, opened the Royal Basilica of San Francesco di Paola, for his funeral, which was attended by thousands of people.

The distinctive Basilica of San Francesco di Paolo, overlooks
Piazza del Plebiscito in the centre of Naples

Travel tip:

The Basilica of San Francesco di Paola is on the west side of Piazza del Plebiscito, the main square in Naples . Originally the building had been planned as a tribute to Napoleon but after the Bourbons were restored to the throne of Naples, Ferdinand I made it into a church and dedicated it to San Francesco di Paola. It is similar in design to the Pantheon in Rome with a portico resting on columns and a high dome in the middle. Caruso’s body was taken through the streets of Naples in a horse-drawn hearse and he lay in state before his funeral so that people could pay their respects.

Find a hotel in Naples with Tripadvisor

Caruso on the balcony of the Grand Hotel
Excelsior Vittoria in Sorrento

Travel tip:

Caruso loved the resort of Sorrento and his stay at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria in July 1921 is recognised by a plaque at the entrance gate to the hotel, which is just off Piazza Tasso, the main square in Sorrento. The photograph of Caruso in front of the view from the Excelsior Vittoria’s terrace was one of the last images taken of the tenor. The hotel later furnished Suite Caruso with the piano and writing desk used by the opera singer during his visit. The suite inspired the song ‘Caruso’ to be written by Italian pop singer Lucio Dalla in the late 1980s while he was staying at the Excelsior Vittoria.

Sorrento hotels from Booking.com

More reading:

How a chance opportunity set Arturo Toscanini on the path to fame

Guiseppe Verdi: Italy mourns the loss of a national symbol

Franco Corelli - the 'prince of tenors'

Also on this day:

1682: The birth of anatomist Giovanni Battista Morgagni, 'father' of pathology

1707: The birth of playwright Carlo Goldoni

2003: The death of comic actor Alberto Sordi

Selected books:

Enrico Caruso: His Life and Death, by Dorothy Caruso


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