Arturo Toscanini - conductor

Cellist who became orchestra leader by chance

Arturo Toscanini is remembered as one of the 
most influential figures in 20th century music

The brilliant conductor Arturo Toscanini was born on this day in 1867 in Oltretorrente, a working-class neighbourhood of Parma, now part of Emilia-Romagna.

Toscanini came to be recognised as one of the most influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century. An intense individual who was a perfectionist in everything he did, as well as having a brilliant ear for detail in orchestral performances, he also had the gift of being able to remember complete musical scores after only one reading. 

At various times, he was the music director at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and at the New York Philharmonic. He became particularly well known in the United States after he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. 

Toscanini had the privilege of conducting the world premieres of many of the greatest operas of his lifetime, including Pagliacci, La bohème, La fanciulla del West and Turandot, as well as Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Salome, Pelléas et Mélisande and Euryanthe. 

The son of a tailor, Toscanini developed an interest in music at an early age and won a scholarship to Parma Conservatory, where he studied the cello. 

Toscanini (right) and the composer Giacomo Puccini
enjoyed a close professional relationship

He joined the orchestra of an opera company, with whom he toured Brazil. It was there, in Rio de Janeiro, that the young Arturo picked up the conductor’s baton for the first time, although entirely through circumstance.

Prior to a presentation of Verdi’s Aida, the singers refused to work with the locally hired conductor, Leopoldo Miguez, who abruptly resigned. His replacement was subjected to booing from the audience, who were unhappy with his performance, and also resigned, leaving the orchestra without a conductor and the next performance only hours away.

Aware of his ability to remember whole scores, a member of the orchestra suggested giving the baton to Toscanini. Only 19 years old and with no conducting experience, Toscanini was reluctant at first but was eventually persuaded to accept the invitation, aware that the whole tour was at risk of being cancelled if he did not.

In the event, he led the two-and-a-half hour performance flawlessly, and entirely from memory. He found he had a natural talent for the job. The audience warmed to his charisma and intensity and applauded his musicianship. He kept the baton for another 18 operas as the tour unfolded with great success.

Toscanini became one of the
most sought-after conductors

Word spread of his ability and he soon found himself in demand. He continued to play the cello, but his talent as a conductor brought so much work that opportunities to take his seat in the orchestra became fewer and fewer.

He made his conducting debut in Italy at the Teatro Carignano in Turin in November, 1886, leading the premiere of a revised version of Alfredo Catalani’s Edmea. He soon broadened his repertoire to symphonic concerts, his reputation growing so fast that in 1898 he was named principal conductor at La Scala, at the age of just 31.

He remained at the Milan theatre, Italy’s principal opera house, for 10 years before he was lured away to America for the first time by Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the former general manager at La Scala, who had taken the same role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and persuaded Toscanini to join him there. 

Toscanini spent seven seasons at the Met, returning to Europe in 1915. He was due to leave New York on the British liner RMS Lusitania on May 7 but decided at the last moment to depart a week earlier on the Italian liner Duca degli Abruzzi. It proved a mightily fortuitous decision: the Lusitania never made it to its intended destination, sinking off the coast of Ireland after being torpedoed by a German u-boat. A total of 1,197 passengers and crew perished.

He maintained his transatlantic lifestyle, conducting around Europe and in the United States, leading the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra between 1928 and 1936. He ceased working in his native Italy, however, after falling foul of the Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini was keen to attach himself to Toscanini, whom he described as ‘the greatest conductor in the world’ and wished to promote as a symbol of Italian excellence. But Toscanini had little truck with Fascism, defying Mussolini by refusing to conduct the party’s official hymn, Giovinezza.

Toscanini's tomb at the Cimitero Monumentale
in Milan, where he was buried after his death at 89

Eventually, though, his defiance rebounded on him when he refused to lead a rendition of Giovinezza at a concert in Bologna in 1931, in spite of the presence in the audience of a leading Fascist official. Afterwards, Toscanini was set upon by Blackshirts and badly beaten. His passport was confiscated and he was put under surveillance. The passport was eventually returned following a public outcry and as Italy entered World War Two he left the country.

Prior to that, he had considered retirement. Instead, he embarked on a new chapter of his career, leading the newly-formed NBC Symphony Orchestra. When Toscanini did finally retire, in 1954, he was 87 years old.

Although he reportedly had numerous affairs, notably with the American soprano, Geraldine Farrar, Toscanini was married only once, to Carla De Martini, who was a teenager when they met. They remained together from their wedding in 1897 to her death in 1951. They had three children, a son, Walter, and daughters Wally and Wanda.

Toscanini died on January 16, 1957, having suffered a stroke on New Year's Day at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City. He was 89. His body was returned to Italy and buried at the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan. His tomb carries an epitaph based on a remark he is said to have made at the end of the 1926 premiere of Puccini's unfinished Turandot.

"Qui finisce l'opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto - Here the opera ends, because at this point the maestro died".

The house where Toscanini was
born is now a museum of his life

Travel tip:

The house in Borgo Rodolfo Tanzi, in the Oltretorrente district of Parma, where Arturo Toscanini was born, is now a museum of his life, open to the public between 10am and 6pm from Wednesday to Sunday, closing on Monday and Tuesday. A 15-minute walk from the city centre and close to the sprawling green space of the Parco Ducale, the house was one shared by the Toscaninis and three other families. His father, a tailor who fought in Garibaldi’s army in the campaign to unite Italy, used the downstairs room as a workshop. Among the exhibits on display are photographs, theatre programmes and posters, letters to and from composers with whom he worked, such as Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss, and some of the clothes he wore to conduct. There is a letter from Albert Einstein, the German physicist and noted campaigner against racism, praising Toscanini for standing up to the Fascists.

Parma's 12th century baptistery
is among the city's main sights

Travel tip:

Parma is an historic city, famous for its Prosciutto di Parma ham and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, the true ‘parmesan’. In 1545 the city was given as a duchy to the illegitimate son of Pope Paul III, Alessandro Farnese, whose descendants ruled Parma till 1731. As well as Toscanini, the city’s musical heritage includes the composer, Giuseppe Verdi, who was born near Parma at Bussetto. The city has a prestigious opera house, the Teatro Regio, and a Conservatory named in honour of Arrigo Boito, who wrote the libretti for many of Verdi’s operas.  An elegant city with an air of prosperity common to much of Emilia-Romagna, Parma’s outstanding architecture includes an 11th century Romanesque cathedral and the octagonal 12th century baptistery that adjoins it, the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, which has a beautiful late Mannerist facade and bell tower, and the Palazzo della Pilotta, which houses the Academy of Fine Arts, the Palatine Library, the National Gallery and an archaeological museum.

Also on this day:

1347: The birth of Saint Catherine of Siena

1541: The birth of Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany

1546: The birth of poet and courtesan Veronica Franco

1625: The death of poet Giambattista Marino

1927: The birth of politician Tina Anselmi

1940: The birth of record-breaking pop star Mina 

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Giovanni Capurro - poet and songwriter

Neapolitan who wrote the words to ‘O sole mio

Giovanni Capurro wrote many songs
but made little money from them

Giovanni Capurro, a poet and songwriter best known for writing the lyric of the classic Neapolitan song ‘O sole mio, was born in Naples on this day in 1859. 

The son of a professor of languages, Capurro was a cultured man who would in time be considered one of the 19th century’s finest Italian poets, yet was never well rewarded for his art. He spent much of his working life as a journalist and died poor.

Capurro grew up in the Montecalvario district of Naples, an area of the city centre that climbs up the hill of San Martino to the west of Via Toledo. Although his first love was writing, and poetry in particular, he was also a talented musician, graduating from the Naples Conservatory after studying the flute. He was also blessed with a good singing voice.

He wrote poetry in both Italian and Neapolitan dialect, both in the form of song lyrics and volumes of poetry. The celebrated actor, Raffaele Viviani, made his first appearance on the stage of an established theatre - the Teatro Perella in Basso Porto - at the age of four, in a sketch written by Capurro entitled Scugnizzo - The Street Urchin.

Capurro published more than 30 lyrics that were put to music, none more famous than ‘O sole mio, which he wrote in 1898, asking Eduardo di Capua, a Neapolitan songwriter and composer, to set it to music. Di Capua, for many credited with writing the melody alone, was later declared only to be the co-composer, after a court in Turin was satisfied that the melody had been an adaptation of one di Capua had bought from another musician, Alfredo Mazzucchi.

The song was presented at the famous Piedigrotta Festival, the music competition in the Chiaia district of Naples that was the launching pad for many famous Neapolitan songs.

The cover of the first edition of the 
sheet music of Capurro's 'O sole mio

It had already been well received when played around Naples yet the judges for the competition decided it was worth only second place behind a song called Napule Bello. However, there was such a public outcry that the decision was reversed.

Capurro’s other songs included Carduccianelle, N'atu munasterio, Napulitanata, Ammore che gira, Totonno 'e Quagliarelle, 'O scugnizzo, 'O guaglione d' 'o speziale, Lily Kangy, Chitarra mia and 'A chiantosa.

Yet he received little money for any of them. He sold the rights to ‘O sole mio, to a publishing house for a one-time fee. 

Had he any notion of how famous it would become - it has featured in the repertoire of such illustrious tenors as Luciano Pavarotti, Enrico Caruso, Andrea Bocelli and Beniamino Gigli - he would surely have negotiated a royalties deal.

As it was, he did not write with the aim of making money, merely to indulge his own fascination with the art. Early in his writing career, his poem Carduccianelle adapted to Neapolitan the evocations of Classical world employed by Nobel Prize-winning poet Giosuè Carducci a few years earlier in his Odi Barbare. Neapolitan readers regarded it more as a curiosity than as a book of true poetry.

Capurri delighted in spending his evenings in salons, where he would sing, play the piano and amuse audiences with his imitations of famous performers, but made his living as a journalist.

Beginning with the socialist periodical La Montagna, he then wrote for the Naples political newspaper Don Marzio, before joining the staff of the daily newspaper, Roma, in 1896, working initially as a reporter before becoming a theatre critic.

Married with three children, Capurro died in Naples in 1920 at the age of 61.

The upper parts of Montecalvario offer some
stunning views over the city of Naples

Travel tip:

The Montecalvario neighbourhood is the area of central Naples that includes the northern part of the Quartieri Spagnoli - the Spanish Quarter - the network of teeming streets that was built in the 16th century to house Spanish soldiers after the armies of Ferdinand II of Aragon had defeated the French to take control of the city. The main part of Montecalvario is to the west of Via Toledo, one of the city’s main shopping thoroughfares, which follows a long, straight course from Piazza Dante, through Piazza Carità before ending at Piazza Trieste e Trento, near Piazza del Plebiscito. The bustling Mercato Pignasecca offers a chance to experience shopping with the locals, while a climb up to Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the street which borders the upper part of the neighbourhood, is worth it to find a vantage point for spectacular views over the city.

The church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, which
is the origin of the annual Festa della Madonna

Travel tip:

Piedigrotta is an area that forms part of ​​the Chiaia district of Naples, close to the port at Mergellina. It takes its name from its location at the foot of a tunnel - "ai pedi grotta" - built into the  Posillipo hill in Roman times. It is best known for its annual Festa della Madonna di Piedigrotta, an occasion of fireworks and parades that has been staged every September since the 1800s. For many years, the celebrations included an annual song competition, the Neapolitan Song Festival, which showcased the city’s tradition of street musicians entertaining audiences with folk songs in Neapolitan dialect. It did much to popularise Neapolitan Songs as a genre, challenging the city’s most talented lyricists to excel. The competition launched in 1890 and became enormously successful, but was suspended in the 1960s because of repeated public order incidents as crowds got out of control. There have been a number of attempts in recent years to revive the contest but it has yet to be reinstated as an annual event.

Also on this day:

Catania celebrates the Feast of Saint Agatha

1578: The death of painter Giovanni Battista Moroni

1887: Verdi’s Otello premieres in Milan

1932: The birth of football coach Cesare Maldini

1960: Movie La dolce vita shown in public for first time

1964: The birth of footballer and coach Carolina Morace

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Fabrizio De André - singer-songwriter

‘Poet of music’ who spoke for the marginalised in society

Fabrizio De André's lyrics are studied by Italian
students as part of the school curriculum

The singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, whose songs often celebrated the lives of the marginalised in Italian society and gained him a popularity that has already outlived him by a quarter of a century, died on this day in 1999 in the Città Studi district of Milan.

De André, who was a month short of his 59th birthday, had been diagnosed with lung cancer six months earlier, having been a heavy smoker for much of his adult life. After his death at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, his body was returned to his native Genoa, where a crowd estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000 gathered for his funeral at the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Carignano.

His impact on Italian culture has been such that streets, squares and schools in many towns and cities bear his name. A three-hour tribute to him broadcast on a relatively obscure Italian TV channel to mark the 10th anniversary of his death attracted an audience of almost eight million viewers, as many as tuned in to the new series of Grande Fratello - the Italian version of Big Brother - on a mainstream channel the following evening.

Nicknamed ‘Faber’ by his close friend, the writer and comic actor Paolo Villaggio, and known as ‘the songwriter of the marginalised’ and ‘the poet of the defeated’ as well as simply the ‘poet of music’, De André had a voice of warmth and depth but it was for his lyrics that he acquired a huge following.

De André drew inspiration from
the streets of his home city

Many of his songs told stories of outcasts and rebels or tackled subjects such as prostitution and homosexuality that others regarded as off-limits in a country where the Catholic Church still loomed large over public morality. He did not shy from criticising the church itself, which he felt was riddled with hypocrisy.

His lyrics are often included in school anthologies of modern poetry and he has attained the status of cult hero among some on the Italian political left, itself increasingly marginalised by the shift towards the centre and the right.

Although sometimes spoken of as Italy’s Bob Dylan, De André’s major influences were said to be Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter also renowned for deeply meaningful lyrics, and the French singer-songwriter and poet, Georges Bressens, to whom he was introduced when his father gave him some records as a teenager. It was Bressens who inspired De André to be a pacifist and a libertarian.

He was a jazz enthusiast in his youth, singing and playing the guitar at La Borsa di Arlecchino, a café-theatre located in the basement of the Palazzo della Borsa in Genoa. Always willing to experiment, he explored many types of music in his career, as well as singing in Genoese and Neapolitan dialects in addition to Italian.

Born into a relatively prosperous family in the Pegli district of Genoa in 1940, De André’s early life was inevitably shaped by the war into which Italy was led by Benito Mussolini’s alliance with Hitler and Nazi Germany.  His father, Giuseppe, who had made his money through his purchase of a technical institute in the city, was fervently anti-Fascist, which was part of his reason for taking the family to live in a farmhouse in his native Piemonte, both to avoid the attention of the authorities and to escape Allied bombing. They would not return to Genoa until 1945. 

The writer and comic actor Paolo Villaggio was
De André's close friend and supporter

It was not long before De André began to show both musical talent and a rebellious streak, at the age of eight paying off his violin teacher to let him skip lessons. Later, he would drop out of law school after receiving royalties from a song - La canzone di Marinella (Marinella’s song) - which he sold to Mina, Italy’s all-time biggest selling female star. Its lyrics, which told the story of a young orphan forced into prostitution, provided early evidence of De André’s fascination with the low-life characters populating Genoa's back streets.

He was still a student when he made his stage debut in February 1961, singing two songs as part of a programme of music in a theatre in Genoa. The two songs - Nuvole barocche (Baroque clouds) and E fu la notte (And it was night) were the A and B sides of his debut single, released in 1961.

Although it was 1975 before he could be persuaded to appear on stage in a solo concert, his career would ultimately stretch over four decades, during which he released 14 studio albums, a number of live albums, and numerous singles.  Songs such that established his status as a songwriter and singer of note included Amico fragile, written in stream-of-consciousness style about a drunken evening with friends; Crêuza de mä, a song in Genoese dialect about the tough lives of sailors and fishermen in Genoa; and La ballata del Michè, a song based on the true story of a southern Italian emigrant to Genoa who was sentenced to 20 years in jail after killing a man who had tried to seduce his girlfriend.

Some of his songs were based on his own life experience, not least his kidnapping in 1979, along with his partner, Dori Ghezzi, by bandits in Sardinia, where they lived. They were held for four months until his father paid a ransom, said to be one billion lire. Afterwards, De André wrote Hotel Supramonte, drawing the title from the mountains where he was imprisoned, in which he likened their captivity to the feeling of confinement in love. 

De André's career spanned
almost 40 years

At the trial of the men who seized him, he chose not to condemn his captors, saying that “they were the real prisoners, not I” and blaming the organised crime bosses who made the bandits do their dirty work for them.

Although considered a subversive by the Italian police, De André was never actively involved with politics. Indeed, when the student riots were taking place in 1968, he spent his time writing an album about Jesus, portraying Christ as a revolutionary hero fighting for freedom. Songs from the album are still played in churches, despite De André's lack of faith. 

His adoption by the left as a favourite son followed Silvio Berlusconi’s election victory in 2008, when he won a third term as prime minister, following the collapse of Romano Prodi’s centre left Olive Tree coalition.

Ironically, as they tried to make ends meet during the early 1960s, De Andre and Villaggio would sometimes take work as cruise ships musicians in the backing groups supporting Berlusconi, who was then a singer.

Married twice, to Enrica Rignon, known to him as Puny, and later to Ghezzi, he left two children, a son, Cristiano, from his first marriage, and a daughter, known as Luvi. After his death, he was laid to rest in the monumental Staglieno cemetery, in the De André family chapel.

Pegli is an affluent, mainly residential suburb
but has a lively seafront promenade

Travel tip:

Pegli, where Fabrizio De André was born, is a mainly residential area of Genoa but boasts a lively seafront promenade and a number of hotels. There are good links by road, rail and boat to the central area of Genoa. The port city of Genoa, the capital of the Liguria region, has a rich history as a powerful trading centre with considerable wealth built on its shipyards and steelworks, but also boasts many fine buildings, many of which have been restored to their original splendour.  The Doge's Palace, the 16th century Royal Palace and the Romanesque-Renaissance style San Lorenzo Cathedral are just three examples.  The area around the restored harbour area offers a maze of fascinating alleys and squares, enhanced recently by the work of Genoa architect Renzo Piano, and a landmark aquarium, the largest in Italy.

The cloister at the main building of the University
of Milan, founded in 1924

Travel tip:

Città Studi, where De André was treated at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, is Milan’s university district. It developed from 1915 onwards to the northeast of the city centre, although there are other buildings around the city that are now part of the University.  The streets of the Città Studi area are notable for bars, pizza restaurants and ice cream shops. The University of Milan was founded in 1924 from the merger of two other academic institutions. By 1928, it already had the fourth-highest number of enrolled students in Italy, after Naples, Rome and Padua. Colloquially referred to as La Statale, it is today one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 60,000 students, and a permanent teaching and research staff of about 2,000.

Also on this day:

1693: Earthquake in southeastern Sicily

1944: The death of Fascist politician Galeazzo Ciano

1975: The birth of the politician Matteo Renzi

1980: The birth of the Giannini sextuplets

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Michele Novaro - composer

Patriot who wrote music for Italian national anthem

Michele Novaro was an opera
singer as well as a composer

The composer and singer Michele Novaro, who wrote the music that accompanies Goffredo Mameli’s words in Italy’s national anthem, was born on this day in 1818 in Genoa.

While not as actively involved in the Risorgimento movement as Mameli, who took part in various insurrections and died fighting alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi in the battle for a unified, independent Italy, Novaro was a patriot nonetheless.

A committed liberal in his politics, he was a supporter of the cause of independence and composed the music for several patriotic songs in addition to Mameli’s Il canto degli Italiani - The Song of the Italians - which is also known as Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) and L’inno di Mameli (Mameli’s hymn).

The oldest of five children, Novaro was born into a theatrical background. His father, Gerolamo, was a stagehand at the Teatro Carlo Felice, the Genoa opera house. His mother, Giuseppina Canzio, was the sister of a well-known painter, scenographer and impresario, Michele Canzio.

Novaro attended singing school and achieved a respectable standard as an opera singer. He was good enough to sing in the Genoese premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Gianni di Calais.

He spent three seasons in Vienna as the second resident tenor at Vienna’s Porta Carinthia theater, returning to Italy to take up a post as second tenor and choirmaster at the Teatro Regio and Teatro Carignano in Turin.

Goffredo Mameli, who was killed
fighting alongside Garibaldi

Novaro willingly gave his services in the cause of independence by writing music to patriotic songs, as well as organising fundraisers in support of Garibaldi. 

He and Mameli, who was also from Genoa, were friends and in 1847 after Mameli had written the words for the song that would earn him immortality it was Novaro he sought out to write a suitable score. 

Novaro is said to have received the text of Mameli’s poem at the Turin home of the patriotic writer, Lorenzo Valerio. He immediately sketched out a first draft of the music, which he then completed on his return to his home, staying up late into the night to perfect it.

The writer Anton Giulio Barrili, another friend of Novaro, later wrote about the birth of Il canto degli Italiani, quoting what Novaro had told him following his first sight of the song at Valerio’s home.

‘I sat at the harpsichord, with Goffredo's verses on the music stand, and I strummed, I murdered that poor instrument with my convulsed fingers, always with my eyes on the hymn, putting down melodic phrases, one on top of the other, but a thousand miles away from the idea that they could adapt to those words. 

‘I got up, dissatisfied with myself; I stayed a little longer at Valerio's house, but always with those verses before my mind's eye. I saw that there was no remedy; I took my leave, and ran home. 

‘There, without even taking off my hat, I threw myself at the piano. The tune I had strummed at Valerio's house came back to my mind: I wrote it down on a sheet of paper, the first that came to hand: in my agitation I turned the lamp over on the harpsichord, and consequently also on the poor sheet of paper: this was the original of the hymn "Fratelli d'Italia".’

Friends paid for a memorial for 
Novaro in Staglieno cemetery

Despite leaving his mark on Italian history, Novaro never achieved fame or fortune.

Such money as he did make, he ploughed into setting up a free choral school in Genoa, to which he devoted his later years.  Struggling with declining health and financial difficulties, he died in October, 1885.

His former students arranged for a funeral monument to be erected to him in his hometown in the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, next to the tomb of Giuseppe Mazzini, another major Risorgimento figure who was among his heroes.

Although Il canto degli Italiani was very popular during Italian unification and the following decades, it was not until a century later that it became Italy’s national anthem.

At the time the Kingdom of Italy came into being in 1861, the republican and Jacobin connotations of Fratelli d'Italia were difficult to reconcile with the new state's constitution as a monarchy rather than the republic that Mazzini and his supporters craved. 

The new kingdom instead adopted Marcia Reale (Royal March), the House of Savoy's official anthem, written by Napoleone Giotti and set to music in 1831 by Giuseppe Gabetti. 

Italy finally became a republic after World War Two, following a referendum that rejected the monarchy. On October 12, 1946, it chose Il canto degli Italiani as a provisional national anthem. It retained its de facto status until December 2017, when it was at last recognised as the Italian anthem by law.

The Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, where
Novaro's father worked as a stagehand

Travel tip:

The port city of Genoa (Genova), where Michele Novaro was born, is the capiital of the Liguria region. Once a powerful trading centre, the city’s wealth was built on its shipyards and steelworks, but it also boasts many fine buildings, many of which have been restored to their original splendour.  The Doge's Palace, the 16th century Royal Palace and the Romanesque-Renaissance style San Lorenzo Cathedral are just three examples.  The area around the restored harbour area offers a maze of fascinating alleys and squares, enhanced recently by the work of Genoa architect Renzo Piano, and a landmark aquarium, the largest in Italy. At the time of Novara’s birth, the City Architect was Carlo Barabino, a prominent Neoclassicist who designed the Teatro Carlo Felice Opera, the Palazzo dell'Accademia, and the facades of several other buildings. The theatre opened in 1828. 

The Palazzo Reale - Royal Palace - in Turin is
a reminder of the wealth of the Savoy family

Travel tip:

The Savoy dynasty left a significant mark on Turin, shaping its architecture, culture, and overall identity. The Royal Palace served as the opulent official residence of the Savoy kings for centuries. Its lavish interiors, including the Throne Room and the Royal Apartments, offer a glimpse into the grandeur of the dynasty. Housed within the Royal Palace, the Royal Armoury is now a museum boasting an impressive collection of weapons and armour. Also located inside the Royal Palace, the Savoy Gallery houses a remarkable collection of paintings by Italian and European masters, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Canaletto.  Beyond the city, a network of Savoy palaces, villas, and castles is scattered throughout Piemonte. The city’s Duomo - the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista - was built between 1491 and 1498 in Piazza San Giovanni. The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, where the Turin Shroud is kept, was added in 1668. Some members of the House of Savoy are buried in the Duomo while others are buried in the Basilica di Superga on the outskirts of the city.

Also on this day: 

1573: The birth of Baroque artist Giovanni Battista Crespi

1896: The birth of writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

1916: The birth of film director Dino Risi

1956: The birth of racing driver Michele Alboreto

1967: The birth of model and singer Carla Bruni

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Giuseppe Sarti – composer

Musician and teacher whose work inspired Mozart 

Giuseppe Sarti composed more than 50
operas in a career spanning half a century 

Giuseppe Sarti, who composed more than 50 operas and a large quantity of liturgical music, was baptised on this day in 1729 in Faenza, in what used to be the Papal States, but is now part of the region of Emilia-Romagna.

Also sometimes referred to as Il Domenichino, Sarti was playing the organ in Faenza by the time he was 13, but he then went to Bologna to study the organ and composition. He returned to Faenza to become organist at the cathedral and the director of the theatre there and began writing operas.

He was successful with his first opera, Pompeo in Armenia, which is believed to have been first performed in 1752. It was seen as establishing his musical capabilities while he was still in his early 20s.

After his second opera, Il re pastore, was well received in Venice in 1753, Sarti travelled to Copenhagen, where he was to spend the next 20 years. 

He worked in various jobs, including that of music director at the court of King Frederick V of Denmark, and he produced 30 operas in Italian and Danish at the Italian Opera there.

After he returned to Italy, Sarti became director of the Conservatorio dell’Ospedaletto in Venice in 1775. He moved to Milan in 1779, to become choirmaster of Milan Cathedral.

While he was there, he wrote many of his operas, which became increasingly popular, and a large amount of sacred music for the cathedral.  He also attracted many students, including the composer, Luigi Cherubini. 

Mozart (above) included an aria by
Sarti in his own opera, Don Giovanni

In 1784 he accepted an invitation to become court conductor in St Petersburg to Empress Catherine II of Russia, who became known as Catherine the Great. He took over the post in succession to the Neapolitan opera composer Giovanni Paisiello, who had served the Empress for eight years.

While he was in St Petersburg, Sarti established a music conservatory, investigated the laws of acoustics, and invented a device for calculating sound vibrations to determine pitch standards.

The Academy of Science in St Petersburg appointed Sarti as an honorary member because of his discoveries.

Among his most popular operas were Ciro riconosciuto (1754), Didone abbandonata (1762), Le gelosie villane (1776), Achille in Sciro (1779), Giulio Sabino (1781), Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode (1782), and Armida e Rinaldo (1786).

Sarti's opera, Fra I due litiganti il terzo gode, was admired by Mozart to the extent that he introduced an aria from it into the dinner scene of his opera, Don Giovanni. Mozart's opera, Le nozze di Figaro, is also thought to have been influenced by the same Sarti opera, which Mozart is believed to have heard in Vienna in 1784. 

Giuseppe Sarti died at the age of 73 in 1802 in Berlin, when he was on his way back from Russia to Italy.

Surviving manuscript copies of some of his works are now kept in an archive of musical works in the Municipal Library at Montecatini Terme in Tuscany.

Faenza's duomo, the Cattedrale di San Pietro
Apostolo, where Sarti wrote his earliest operas

Travel tip: 

Giuseppe Sarti’s baptism was registered on 1 December in Faenza and he was possibly born in the town on the same day. At that time, Faenza was part of the Papal States, an area of Italy that was under the direct rule of the Pope between 756 and 1850. It has now become part of the Emilia-Romagna region, and is about 50 kilometres south east of Bologna. The city is famous for the manufacture of a type of decorative majolica-ware known as faience. It is also home to the International Museum of Ceramics, which has examples of ceramics from ancient times, the Middle Ages and the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as displaying work by important contemporary artists. The museum is in Viale Baccarini in Faenza. For more information visit www.micfaenza.org.

Milan's imposing duomo, where Sarti
composed much of his sacred music

Travel tip:

Sarti was choirmaster at Milan Cathedral, which is also known as the Duomo of Milan, where he taught pupils, including Cherubini, and wrote many of his operas and pieces of sacred music. Milan’s duomo is the largest church in Italy and the fifth largest in the world. Construction of the impressive church began in 1386 using marble brought into the city along Milan’s Navigli canals. Although it was consecrated as a Cathedral in 1418, building work on the Duomo was not finally completed until the 19th century, when Napoleon arranged for the façade to be finished before his coronation was held there.

Also on this day:

1455: The death of sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti

1958: The birth of athlete Alberto Cova

1964: The birth of footballer Salvatore Schillaci

2003: The death of bobsleigh champion Eugenio Monti

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Giovanni Legrenzi – composer

Maestro’s Baroque music is still played today by enthusiasts

Giovanni Legrenzi came from a musical
family in Clusone, near Bergamo

Organist and composer Giovanni Legrenzi, who was influential in the development of late Baroque music in Italy, was baptised on this day in 1626 at Clusone, near Bergamo, which was at the time part of the Republic of Venice.

Legrenzi was to become one of the most prominent composers of opera, vocal, and instrumental music working in Venice in the late 17th century.

His father, Giovanni Maria Legrenzi, had been a professional violinist and composer. One of his brothers, Marco, was also a talented musician. The brothers are believed to have been taught music at home and they became used to performing in their local church.

Giovanni Legrenzi became organist at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo and was ordained as a priest in 1651. He became resident chaplain at the church, but continued to be involved in music and was given the title of first organist in 1653. The music he composed for Mass and Vespers was published in 1654.

Legrenzi is believed to have been involved in a gambling scandal and his appointment as organist was not reconfirmed the following year, but the offence was not considered to be serious and he had been reinstated by February 1655.

However, towards the end of that year, Legrenzi had resigned from his position in Bergamo and in 1656 he became maestro di cappella at the Academy of the Holy Spirit in Ferrara.

The Ospedaletto, where Legrenzi
worked during his time in Venice

The Academy was founded by a fraternity of laymen who presented services with music for members of aristocratic circles in Ferrara.

Legrenzi’s position at the Academy gave him time to compose his own music and by the early 1660s he had published eight volumes of his work and had broken into the world of opera.

He ended his association with the Academy and supported himself with the proceeds of his published music and with his income from the land he owned in his native Clusone.

By 1670, he had settled in Venice, where he took up a position as a music teacher at Santa Maria dei Derelitti, more commonly known as the Ospedaletto, where he received commissions to compose oratorios.

He was a finalist for the appointment of maestro di cappella the Basilica of San Marco in 1676, losing by one vote, but later in the year he became maestro di coro at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti.

He became vice maestro at San Marco in 1682 and, by this time, he was one of the leading opera composers of his day. Among his students were Francesco Gasparini and Tomaso Albinoni.

Legrenzi finally became maestro di cappella at San Marco in 1685 but by this time his health was beginning to fail. He died in 1690, probably due to kidney stones, which caused him a lot of pain in his last few months.

His great nephew inherited his music and his books and produced four publications of Legrenzi’s work posthumously. Some of the composer’s unpublished work still survives in manuscript form.

Legrenzi composed 19 operas between 1662 and 1685, which were very popular in their day, but only a few have survived. Early music groups still perform his instrumental music and some of his surviving operas are performed at festivals.

The frescoed exterior of the Torre dell'orologio
is one of the attractions of Clusone

Travel tip:

Clusone, a town in Val Seriana, just outside Bergamo, where Legrenzi was born, has been chosen as one of I borghi piu belli d’Italia - the most beautiful villages in Italy. It was founded around 1300 BC.  Situated about 35km (22 miles) northeast of Bergamo, it nestles on a plain against the backdrop of the Alpi Orobie - the Orobic Alps - which is an area that attracts visitors all year round. Apart from its proximity to ski resorts, Clusone is famous for the frescoes that decorate some of its most significant buildings, such as the Municipio (Town Hall), the Torre dell'orologio (Clock Tower) and the Oratorio dei Disciplini (Oratory of the Disciplines), which has a macabre offering entitled The Triumph of Death. Clusone also hosts a prestigious annual jazz festival.

The Basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore in Bergamo

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Piazza Duomo in Bergamo, where Legrenzi served as organist, dates back to the 12th century. It is one of the most prestigious buildings in Lombardy and has a richly decorated cupola from the 16th century and some fine Flemish and Florentine tapestries and works of art. At the back of the church is an elaborate white marble monument designed by Vincenzo Vela, marking the tomb of opera composer Gaetano Donizetti, who was born in Bergamo and returned to die in his native city. Nearby there is a monument to his teacher Simon Mayr, who was once maestro di cappella in the basilica. There is also an elaborately carved wooden confessional designed by Andrea Fantoni in 1704 and an altar rail with wood carvings following designs by the Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto.

Also on this day:

1612: The death of composer Giovanni Gabrieli

1861: The death of anarchist Luigi Galleani

1901: The death of politician Francesco Crispi

1943: The death of mountain photographer Vittorio Sella

1990: The birth of footballer Mario Balotelli

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Mauro Giuliani – virtuoso guitarist

Maestro who perfected his technique so that his instrument seemed to sing

Mauri Giuliani was a 19th century
pioneer of guitar music

Leading 19th century guitarist and composer Mauro Giuliani was born on this day in 1781 in Bisceglie, a small town on the Adriatic coast near Bari in Puglia.

Growing up to become an accomplished cellist, singer and composer, Giuliani toured Europe playing in concerts and he became a musical celebrity while he was living in Vienna. He was  invited to play in chamber concerts in the botanical gardens of Schönbrunn Palace - the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers - with other top musicians.

Giuliani moved to live in Barletta, also on the Adriatic coast when he was very young, where he learnt to play the cello, an instrument he never completely abandoned. But he began to devote himself to learning the six-string guitar, becoming a skilled performer on it very quickly.

Although he married Maria Guiseppe del Monaco and they had a son while he was living in Barletta, Giuliani moved abroad and settled in Vienna without his family, where he learnt the classical instrumental style and began to publish his own compositions. He went on to play in concerts all over Europe, defining a new role for the guitar in music.

He got to know Rossini and Beethoven and in 1814 he was appointed guitar virtuoso di camera to Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon’s second wife. In 1815, Giuliani appeared alongside a famous violinist and cellist in a series of concerts in the botanical gardens of Schönbrunn Palace, which were named the Dukaten Concerte, reflecting the price of the tickets, which was one ducat. He was also the official concert artist for the celebrations of the congress of Vienna in the same year.

The Schönbrunn Palace, summer residence of the
Habsburgs in Vienna, where Giuliani performed

Giuliani played the cello in the orchestra that gave the first performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. He had many of his compositions published in Vienna, which all showed a marked Italian influence, in particular, that of the music of Rossini. Giuliani also developed a teaching career while he was in the city. 

During his time in Vienna, he had a relationship with Anna Wiesenberger, with whom he had four daughters. After he left Vienna in 1819, he went on a concert tour of Bohemia and Bavaria before returning to Italy. He spent time in Venice and Trieste but finally settled in Rome.

In 1822, he brought one of his daughters, Emilia, over from Vienna to live with him, and she was educated in a nunnery in Rome. 

Giuliani travelled to Naples regularly to be with his father, who by then was seriously ill. In Naples there was a good reception for his artistry on the guitar and he was able to publish some of his compositions with Neapolitan publishers.

Giuliani's solo pieces are
still widely performed today

In 1826, he performed in Portici in Naples before Francesco I and the Bourbon court. He frequently appeared on stage playing duets with his daughter, Emilia, who had also become a skilled performer on the guitar.  

Guliani died in Naples in 1829. According to contemporary accounts, people who had heard Giuliani play the guitar were said to have found his expression and tone astonishing, and felt that he made the instrument seem to sing. Some said the sound he produced called to mind the lute players that had gone before.

Giuliani produced 150 compositions for the guitar and he also composed music for the guitar with an orchestra, and for guitar duets with a violin, or flute.

His concertos and solo pieces are still widely performed by professional guitarists today. Although, he did not publish a Method, the studies and exercises he left behind are still used in the training for a guitarist.

The bust of Giuliani
in central Bisceglie

Travel tip: 

Bisceglie, where Giuliani was born, is in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani in Puglia, in southern Italy. The city looks out over the Adriatic and lies between Trani and Molfetta. A centre for agriculture and textiles, it dates back to prehistoric times and there are Bronze Age remains to be seen.  Its name is thought likely to be a derivation from the Latin word vigilae, meaning watchtowers. It was awarded Blue Flag beach certification in 2001 for high environmental and quality standards. An historic old city and a pleasant harbour area have made it a destination for tourists. There is a bronze bust of Mauro Giuliani, in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. There is also a small museum celebrating his life and achievements in Via Cardinale Dell'Olio.

The Colossus
of Barletta

Travel tip:

Barletta, where Giuliani grew up and learnt to play the cello, is a city with around 95,000 inhabitants on the Adriatic coast to the north of Trani. The area includes part of the battlefield of Cannae, an important archaeological site famous for the battle in 216 BC between the Romans and the Carthaginians, won by Hannibal. Barletta is home to the Colossus of Barletta, a bronze statue representing a Roman Emperor - thought to be Theodosius II - which stands at about 4m (13 feet) tall and is the largest surviving statue from the late Roman Empire.  According to folklore, the statue - known as Eraclio - once saved the city from a Saracen attack by convincing the Saracens that Barletta’s inhabitants were giants.  Barletta was recognised as Città d’Arte of Puglia in 2005 because of its beautiful architecture. 

Also on this day:

1835: The birth of Nobel Prize-winning poet Giosuè Carducci

1915: The birth of tenor Mario Del Monaco

1922: The birth of actor and director Adolfo Celi

1939: The birth of singer Peppino di Capri

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Francesco Morlacchi - composer

Umbrian popularised Italian opera in Dresden

Francesco Morlacchi's work in Dresden
furthered the popularity of Italian opera

The composer Francesco Morlacchi, who spent much of his career working for the Saxon court in Dresden and helped popularise Italian opera not only in Germany but further afield, was born on this day in 1784 in Perugia.

Morlacchi composed more than 20 operas, the most successful of which is Tebaldo e Isolina, a romantic melodrama around a love affair between members of rival families, which had its premiere in Venice in 1822.

A contemporary of Gioachino Rossini, Morlacchi had the opportunity in the same year to succeed Rossini as the maestro di cappella of the royal theatres in Naples, including the Teatro di San Carlo opera house. However, he chose to remain in Dresden.

Morlacchi was born into a family of musicians. His father, Alessandro, was a violinist at Perugia’s Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, where his maternal great-uncle, Giovanni Mazzetti, was the organist.

He began composing at a young age, studying first under Mazzetti and later with the cathedral’s maestro di cappella, the Neapolitan Luigi Caruso. He furthered his education in Loreto in Marche with Niccolò Zingarelli, another Neapolitan. Eventually, he secured a place at the school of Stanislao Mattei in Bologna, where he met Rossini.

Morlacchi’s first significant success was the drama Corradino, which was staged at the Teatro Imperiale in Parma during the 1808 carnival. 

This success led to commissions from opera houses in Rome and Milan and it was another drama, Le Danaidi, which was performed at the Teatro Argentina in Rome in 1810 that attracted the attention of a music periodical in Leipzig.

A photograph of the original score of Tebaldo
e Isolina, published by Ricordi in Milan in 1822

The composer was encouraged by a singer of his acquaintance, the contralto Marietta Marcolini, to go to Dresden, where he was appointed deputy Kapellmeister in 1810. Following the success of his Raoul de Crequi at the court theatre in 1811, he was appointed music director for life.

His new duties slowed down his opera production to a degree. He was also expected to prepare much sacred music and occasional cantatas for ceremonial occasions. He was also faced with trying simultaneously to satisfy the conflicting desires of the court and those of the paying public. He was often given a hard time by the critics, who took the opportunity to attack the court’s favouring of the traditional over the innovations being introduced in German opera. 

His work in Dresden between 1816 and 1817 exemplified this in a series of operas written in the 18th century comic-style, including a Barber of Seville (1816) based on the old text set to music by Giovanni Paisiello in 1782. This contrasted sharply with Rossini’s Barber of Seville, which also debuted in 1816, in which the music was set to a more casual and progressive text by Cesare Sterbini.

Morlacchi’s personal circumstances changed in 1816 when his wife, Anna Fabrizi, whom he had married in Perugia in 1805 and who moved with him to Dresden in 1810, decided she was tired of life in Germany and returned home.  Morlacchi established a new relationship with a woman called Augusta Bauer, with whom he is thought to have had four children in addition to the son he fathered with Anna. 

Morlacchi worked on several operas with the
acclaimed 19th century librettist Felice Romani

Alongside his work for the court in Dresden, Morlacchi toured with his operatic works, including Boadicea at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (1818), Gianni di Parigi and Donna Aurora at Teatro alla Scala in Milan (1818 and 1821).

For Teatro La Fenice in Venice, he wrote Tebaldo and Isolina (1822), Ilda d'Avenel (1824) and I Saraceni in Sicilia(1828), as well as Colombo for the inaugural season of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa (1828). 

The libretti for I Saraceni in Sicilia and Colombo were among several written for him by Felice Romani, a poet and scholar of literature and mythology who wrote for Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini and was considered to be a librettist comparable with Pietro Metastasio and Arrigo Boito.

The opera that enjoyed the most lasting success was Tebaldo e Isolina, appreciated by the public for the libretto by Gaetano Rossi and the masterful interpretation by the singers, in particular the tenor Gaetano Crivelli and the castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti. Over the next 10 years, the opera was performed in around 40 cities in Italy and abroad.

Morlacchi’s health declined in his later years but he continued to travel and was in Naples in 1839. By 1841 he was seriously ill but attempted to journey to Italy again, apparently wishing to see his wife again in Perugia. However, the journey proved too taxing and he died while staying in a hotel in Innsbruck in October, at the age of 57. 

He was interred in Innsbruck but in January 1842, a funeral was held in Perugia cathedral that included an address by Antonio Mezzanotte, the Perugian friend to whom the composer left all his music. 

In 1874, Perugia’s Verzaro theatre was renamed after him. In 1951 the remains were moved from Innsbruck to the cathedral of Perugia.

The Fontana Maggiore sits in front of Perugia's
cathedral in Piazza IV Novembre

Travel tip:

Perugia, where Francesco Morlacchi was born and where his remains are buried in the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, is an ancient city that sits on a high hilltop midway between Rome and Florence. In Etruscan times it was one of the most powerful cities of the period.  The capital of the Umbria region, It is also a university town with a long history, the University of Perugia having been founded in 1308.  The presence of the University for Foreigners and a number of smaller colleges gives Perugia a student population of more than 40,000.  The centre of the city, Piazza IV Novembre, which is where the cathedral is situated, has a mediaeval fountain, the Fontana Maggiore, which was sculpted by Nicolo and Giovanni Pisano.  The city’s imposing Basilica di San Domenico, built in the early 14th century also to designs by Giovanni Pisano, is the largest church in Umbria, with a distinctive 60m (197ft) bell tower and a 17th-century interior, designed by Carlo Maderno, lit by enormous stained-glass windows. The basilica contains the tomb of Pope Benedict XI, who died from poisoning in 1304.  The Teatro Morlacchi is about 300m from the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo in Piazza Francesco Morlacchi.

With a history of catastrophic fires, Venice's
Teatro La Fenice is aptly named

Travel tip:

Teatro La Fenice in Venice, for which Morlacchi wrote his most successful opera, Tebaldo and Isolina, 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:

1497: The murder of Giovanni Borgia

1730: The birth of composer Antonio Sacchini

1800: The Battle of Marengo

1837: The death of poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi

1968: The death of Nobel Prize-winning poet Salvatore Quasimodo

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