Giuseppe Borgatti - tenor

Beautiful voice brings fame for former bricklayer

Borgatti was an illiterate bricklayer
before his vocal talent was spotted

Opera singer Giuseppe Borgatti, who became known as Italy’s greatest Wagnerian tenor, was born on this day in 1871 in Cento in the province of Ferrara.

Borgatti began his working life as a bricklayer and stone cutter, until a wealthy patron discovered that he had an outstanding voice and arranged for him to have music lessons. 

He went on to sing leading roles at Teatro alla Scala in Milan for a period of 20 years and he was the first Italian tenor to be invited to sing at the annual Wagner festival held in Bayreuth in Germany.

After being born into a poor family, Borgatti had grown up to be illiterate, but when his singing talent was discovered, a local aristocrat paid for him to have professional singing lessons and to acquire some basic education.

When Borgatti was in his early twenties, he made his debut at Castelfranco Veneto, singing the title role in Faust by Charles Gounod. After performing at some Italian opera houses, he was given the chance to sing the role of Chevalier des Grieux in Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in a production in Venice. 

Later in the year, he appeared at Teatro del Verme in Milan as Lohengrin, which was his first Wagnerian role.

Borgatti’s big breakthrough came when he sang the title role in Andrea Chénier on the night of the premiere of the opera at La Scala in Milan. The composer of the opera, Umberto Giordano, had worked with the tenor Alfonso Garulli to create the role of Andrea Chénier, but Garulli became ill at the eleventh hour and his place on the first night in 1896 had to be taken by the young tenor Borgatti.

On the night of the premiere, many members of the audience in Milan were moved by the emotional intensity of Giordano’s music sung by Borgatti. 

The opera was a big success and his triumph in the role escalated him into the top tier of Italian opera singers. 

Borgatti continued to appear in Italian operas, but also worked closely with La Scala’s principal conductor, Arturo Toscanini to try to master the main tenor parts in the Richard Wagner repertoire. He also travelled to Spain, Russia, and South America with other Italian opera stars to perform. 

Borgatti on stage at as Siegfried in the
third opera of Wagner's The Ring Cycle

In 1901 he took part in a grand concert at La Scala, held to mark the death of Giuseppe Verdi, in which the rising young star Enrico Caruso also appeared. 

Borgatti was honoured by being the first Italian tenor asked to sing at the Bayreuth festival in Germany in 1904, after which Cosima Wagner, the composer’s widow, praised his voice.

When he was at the height of his career in 2007 and his voice was at its peak, Borgatti began losing his sight due to glaucoma. After another seven years, he had to retire from the operatic stage, even though his voice was still excellent.

He continued to give concerts and the theatre in his home town of Cento was named in his honour in 1924. Eventually he lost his sight in both eyes and, in 1928, he gave his last public performance in Bologna.

After retiring, he taught singing in Milan. His best known pupils were the English Lyric tenor, Heddle Nash, and the German baritone, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender.

Borgatti married one of his singing teachers, Elena Cuccoli, and they had a daughter, Renata Borgatti, who became a concert pianist.

Borgatti died in 1850 when he was 79 at Reno di Leggiuno, a resort he had moved to near Lago Maggiore. He left fewer than 20 recordings, which were all sung in Italian, of extracts from works by Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini. Borgatti had been La Scala’s original Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca in 1900 and among the recordings he left behind is the aria E lucevan le stelle, from Tosca.

Cento's impressive Rocca, the 14th century castle
originally built by the Bishop of Bologna

Travel tip:

Cento, where Giuseppe Borgatti was born, is a town in the province of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna. It grew from being a little fishing village to become an established farming town and, in 1502, Pope Alexander VI took Cento away from the dominion of the Bishop of Bologna and made it part of the dowry for his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, when she was betrothed to Duke Alfonso I d’Este. Cento was returned to the Papal States in 1598.The town’s 19th century theatre was named the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Borgatti in honour of the famous tenor.  Known sometimes as "Little Bologna" for its arcaded streets and colourful buildings, it is famous as the birthplace of the Baroque painter Guercino, for its historic 14th-century Rocca fortress, and its world-renowned carnival.  Some of Guercino’s works can be seen in the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà, which houses the Civic Gallery, as well as in the Basilica Collegiata San Biagio, the Church of the Rosary and, in the frazione of Corporeno, the 14th-century church of San Giorgio.  The Rocca, a massive square castle with square towers, was built in 1378 by the Bishop of Bologna and enlarged by Giulio della Rovere, the future pope Julius II, in 1460.

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The Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, built into
the rock face, is accessible only by boat or on foot

Travel tip:

Giuseppe Borgatti went to live at Reno di Leggiuno, a resort at Lago Maggiore in the province of Varese, when he retired and he died there in 1850. Reno di Leggiuno is a picturesque  hamlet on the Lombardy shore of the lake. The area is famous for the Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, a Roman Catholic monastery perched on a rocky ridge overlooking the lake, which dates back possibly to the 12th century. It is thought to have been founded by a hermit, Alberto Besozzi. Though still in use as a monastery, it serves mainly as a tourist attraction and pilgrimage site. It can be reached by boat or on foot by climbing down a winding stairway and was declared a national monument in 1914. Reno di Leggiuno, which has a marina and a number of hotels, is a tranquil, authentic location featuring a scenic sand-and-pebble beach, lakefront dining, and panoramic views of the Borromean Islands. It is the birthplace of the footballer Luigi ‘Gigi’ Riva, while the actor and playwright Dario Fo, was born in nearby Leggiuno Sangiano. Reno di Leggiuno is about 25km (15 miles) northwest of the city of Varese.

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More reading:

The opera that propelled Umberto Giordano into the front rank of composers

How the great conductor Toscanini became an orchestra leader by chance

The painter Guercino, 17th century master who is Cento’s most famous son

Also on this day:

1542: The death of playwright Angelo Bealco

1826: The birth of inventor Innocenzo Manzetti

1861: Kingdom of Italy proclaimed 

1925: The birth of actor Gabriele Ferzetti

1939: The birth of football coach Giovanni Trapattoni

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Verdi’s Macbeth premieres in Florence

Shakespeare adaptation marked change in composer’s style

The poster advertising the first
performance of the opera

Giuseppe Verdi’s operatic interpretation of the Shakespeare play Macbeth was performed for the first time on this day in 1847.

The premiere took place at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, where the composer, already gaining fame at 33 years old but with his most successful years still to come, was under contract to the impresario Alessandro Lanari.

After his success with Nabucco, his third opera, which featured the great chorus, Va, pensiero, in 1842, Verdi rapidly found himself in demand. Macbeth would be his tenth opera, his eighth in just five years. Lanari, confident that anything bearing the up-and-coming maestro’s name would sell tickets, was happy to leave the choice of work to Verdi himself, and so did not give him a particular brief.

The theatre was known for its refined acoustics and had a reputation for supporting innovative work and Verdi, who already felt his artistic freedom was being compromised by a need to produce commercially viable output, saw an opportunity to shake off at least some constraints.

Having revered the English dramatist William Shakespeare from an early age, Verdi chose Macbeth for a number of reasons. First, he felt the nature of the play would allow him to focus on the drama of the story, rather than adhering strictly to bel canto convention, which demanded a structure built around vocal highlights, sometimes at the expense of realism and depth.

The play had been in Verdi’s mind for some time. What convinced him that the moment to work with it had arrived was the availability of Felice Varesi, a baritone renowned for his dramatic intensity, to cast in the title role.

He faced some challenges in bringing the project to fruition in the way he intended. There were disagreements with his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, over how to convey the tone Verdi desired. A number of times, the composer asked his friend, Andrea Maffei, another librettist, to provide input as well, even rewriting parts of Piave's libretto.

His leading lady, the soprano Marianna Barbieri-Nini, who had worked with him on his sixth opera, I due Foscari, had to be coached not to infuse her performance with the vocal polish usually required. Keen to emphasise character. Verdi demanded that her Lady Macbeth be “ugly and evil.”

When Verdi’s Macbeth was unveiled, audiences were sceptical about the lack of a central romance and some critics were unsettled by its darkness. Structured in four acts, with the emphasis on Lady Macbeth’s ruthless ambition, Macbeth’s psychological unravelling and the three witches - represented in Verdi’s interpretation by three choral groups - as a driving force of fate, it was nonetheless deemed a success, if not the crowd-pleasing blockbuster Lanari might have been hoping for.

Felice Varesi, the first to
sing the title role

The Florentine audience, who were seen as traditionally more restrained, say, than those in Milan, respected it as a considered, serious and innovative work, if a little unusual. It toured Italy, reportedly being performed at 21 venues around the country, before making its United States debut in New York in 1850, and its United Kingdom debut in Manchester in 1860, although it was never seen as a runaway hit.

The composer himself was said to regard it as his greatest achievement to that point. Later he would talk about it in terms of marking the start of his move away from what he spoke of as his “galley years” as a composer, when he likened himself to a “galley slave”, endlessly under pressure in terms of workload, deadlines, and artistic constraints, as if chained to an oar.

Indeed, Macbeth is now seen as a landmark moment in Verdi’s career, signalling a transition towards the artistic depth that would set him apart as the greatest composer of Italy’s operatic history, placing him above even Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossini as titans of the genre.

By the time he produced the substantially revised version of Macbeth he presented in Paris in 1865, the version generally performed today, he had written Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera and La forza del destino, transforming his reputation from that of rising star to a creator of genuine masterpieces.

Verdi’s reverence towards Shakespeare never diminished, even though he would not return to the English playwright until the end of his career, signing off with Otello in 1887 and Falstaff, adapted from The Merry Wives of Windsor, in 1893.

It is thought this was down to a number of factors, among them the conventions of Italian opera in the 19th century, with star singers expecting showcase roles and impresarios wanting traditional theatre-filling melodrama. 

Verdi also had to feel artistically confident that he was able to do a Shakespeare play full justice and be supported by a librettist who could do likewise. Until his collaboration with Arrigo Boito, who worked with him on Otello and Falstaff, such a librettist never appeared.

The Teatro della Pergola, the historic
theatre in the centre of Florence

Travel tip:

Florence’s Teatro della Pergola, where Verdi’s Macbeth was performed before an audience for the first time, was inaugurated in December 1656. It is one of Italy’s oldest and most historically significant theatres, celebrated as the first substantial example of what came to be known as an Italian‑style theatre, with tiers of private boxes, a shift away from the traditional design based on a semi-circle of decreasing steps. It is said to have taken its name from the grape pergola that used to stand nearby. Built under the patronage of Cardinal Giancarlo de’ Medici, it was designed by the architect Ferdinando Tacca, quickly becoming a centre of Florentine cultural life. It was officially opened during the carnival of 1657, with the world premiere of the comic opera Il podestà di Colognole by Jacopo Melani. The genre of melodrama, which became the fundamental currency of opera in Italy, is said to have been born at the Teatro della Pergola, which hosted the premieres of two operas by Gaetano Donizetti,  Parisina d'Este and Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, in 1833 and 1834.  The Pergola also appears as a footnote in another famous story, it being the theatre at which Antonio Meucci, the Italian said to have been the real inventor of the telephone, was working as a stage technician when he constructed a prototype acoustic telephone to communicate between the stage and the theatre’s control room.  Located on Via della Pergola, the theatre is a short walk from Piazza del Duomo, and close to landmarks such as the Palazzo Bargello and the Basilica di Santa Croce. 

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The Baratta Salsamenteria Storica in Busseto, which
celebrates the career of a reputed former customer

Travel tip:

Giuseppe Verdi came from Busseto, a town in Emilia-Romagna about 45km (27 miles) from Parma, 35km (21 miles) from Piacenza and 25km (15 miles) from Cremona. The area has plenty to offer Verdi fans, who can visit the house where he was born, in 1813, in the village of Le Roncole, and the churches of Santa Maria degli Angeli and San Michele Arcangelo, where he played the organ. Visitors can also admire the Palazzo Orlandi, a beautiful house on Via Roma that Verdi bought in 1845, which he shared with his future wife, the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, from 1849 to 1851. Verdi is said to have composed Luisa Miller, Stiffelio, Rigoletto and Il trovatore while living there. Look out also for the Rocca dei Marchesi Pallavicino, on Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, which houses the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi. In 1913, Arturo Toscanini conducted a performance of Falstaff there in celebration of the centenary of Verdi's birth and to raise funds for what is now a large monument of the seated composer located in the piazza. Visitors to the small town, which has a population of around 6,700 residents, are often drawn to the Baratta Salsamenteria Storica, a tavern and salumeria on Via Roma where Verdi was once reputed to be a regular customer. The tavern specialises in charcuterie boards loaded with local hams, salami and cheeses, which customers eat with chunks of country bread, washed down with red lambrusco wine, traditionally drunk from a bowl rather than a glass.

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More reading:

Giuseppina Strepponi, the soprano who inspired Verdi and Donizetti

How the premiere of Otello, Verdi’s penultimate opera, prompted 20 curtain calls

The Verdi chorus that, for many Italians, became the country’s national anthem

Also on this day:

1655: The birth of painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi

1835: The birth of astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli

1820: The birth of Victor Emmanuel II, first king of the unified Italy

1844: The birth of Umberto I, second king of the unified Italy

1972: The shocking death of publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli

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Antonio Buzzolla - composer, choirmaster and conductor

Output included operas, religious music and Venetian dialect songs

An illustration of Antonio Buzzolla, thought
to show him at the age of 25 in 1840

Antonio Buzzolla, a composer who was at various times a musician, conductor and choirmaster, was born on this day in 1815 in Adria, a town in the southern part of the Veneto region, situated between the mouths of the Po and Adige rivers.

Buzzolla, who was once a student of the opera composer Gaetano Donizetti, composed five operas of his own, as well as producing a substantial catalogue of religious music while serving as maestro di cappella at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice.

Yet during his life he was best known for composing ariette and canzonette - brief songs of a melodic, playful or sometimes sentimental nature - written in Venetian dialect. These songs became popular in the city, both for the light-hearted entertainment they provided and for the contribution they made to Venice’s musical identity.

It was a sign of the respect in which Buzzolla was held among his peers that he was invited by Giuseppe Verdi to contribute to a requiem mass he was organising for his fellow opera giant Gioachino Rossini following the latter’s death in 1869.

Buzzolla was born into a musical family. His father, Angelo Buzzolla, was maestro di cappella - choirmaster - at what was then Adria's cathedral. Angelo, who was also an accomplished violinist, provided his son with a well-rounded musical education that saw him become proficient on a range of instruments, including violin, flute, organ, piano and piccolo, by the age of 16. 

At this point, he left Adria to live in Venice, a city rich in opportunities to further his career. He had not been studying there long when he was invited to play in the orchestra at the Gran Teatro La Fenice, the city’s principal opera house, at first as a flautist before being promoted to second violin.

At the same time, he began to try his hand at composition, leading him to write his first opera, Il Ferramondo, which premiered at the Teatro Gallo, formerly the Teatro San Benedetto, in Venice in December, 1836, and was also performed in Trieste and Mantua.

The reception for Il Ferramondo was positive enough to persuade Buzzolla to go to Naples to study composition at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Maiella. His teachers included Donizetti and, later, Saverio Mercadante. His output there included a cantata for the Neapolitan court and vocal pieces performed at the Teatro San Carlo. 

Teatro La Fenice in Venice, where 
Buzzolla was an orchestra member

On returning to Venice, Teatro La Fenice premiered both of Buzzolla’s second and third operas, Mastini I della Scala in 1841 and Gli avventurieri the following year, which also saw his first works of sacred music performed. 

With his reputation now extending beyond Italy, Buzzolla took up a position as director of Italian Opera at the Berlin court of Frederick William IV of Prussia, to whose children he became tutor. From Berlin he toured Russia, Poland and France before being appointed director of the Théâtre de la comédie italienne in Paris, in 1846.

He returned to Venice again in 1848, directing two more operas, Amleto and Elisabetta di Valois, at Teatro la Fenice. He also conducted his own Requiem for four voices and large orchestra at the Basilica di San Marco.

In 1848, Venice briefly became an independent state following the uprising against the occupying army of Austria, and Buzzolla demonstrated his commitment to the cause by co-directing a patriotic concert at La Fenice in November of that year, featuring excerpts from Verdi's Macbeth and Attila alongside works by Rossini and Donizetti. 

Buzzolla’s operas were respected by his fellow composers and well received by audiences, yet his output was small. It was dwarfed, in fact, by his catalogue of short songs, which were mostly performed in Venice’s salons or at domestic gatherings in middle-class homes.

Written in the tradition of bel canto opera, which emphasises the beauty of the voice, these lyrical pieces had light-hearted themes based on everyday life in Venice, highlighting romance and nature in particular.

Buzzolla’s Canzonette Veneziane, a collection of 12 light-hearted songs in Venetian dialect, was published by Ricordi in 1852.

After the successful staging of Elisabetta di Valois in 1850, Buzzolla announced it would be his last opera. Where other composers of the mid-19th century, such as Giovanni Pacini and Errico Petrella, relentlessly exploited the popularity of opera by composing literally dozens of them, Buzzolla was less commercially driven and decided to devote himself to sacred music, the culmination of which was his appointment in 1855 as maestro of the Cappella Marciana, the choral and instrumental ensemble that provides musical service at Basilica di San Marco.

He held the prestigious position until his death in 1871, after which his body was interred in a tomb on the Isola di San Michele, the island in the Venetian Lagoon that houses the city’s main cemetery.

Adria in the Veneto, once a thriving seaport on
the Adriatic coast, is now several miles inland

Travel tip:

Adria, where Antonio Buzzolla was born and grew up, is a town in the Veneto about 23km (14 miles) east of Rovigo and just over 60km (36 miles) south of Venice. It is situated between the lower courses of the Adige and Po rivers. Today it lies inland, but in antiquity it was a major port on the Adriatic Sea, so influential that the sea itself took its name from the town. It thrived in particular during the Etruscan and Greek civilisations but fell into decline during the Roman era as the Po and Adige progressively silted up, pushing the coastline further east and robbing Adria of its direct maritime access. Over time it was absorbed into the territories of Ravenna and Venice before coming under French and Austrian rule. After incorporation in the new Kingdom of Italy in 1867, the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought land reclamation, new road networks and agricultural expansion. The Adria of today, with a population of around 19,500, is a relatively modern town with an economy based on agriculture, commerce, and light manufacturing. As a town boasting one of the longest continuous settlements in the whole of Italy, going back perhaps to the 12th century BC, it is home to the huge collection of relics preserved at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria. The Conservatorio Statale di Musica Antonio Buzzolla was established in Adria in 1975, and named in his honour. 

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The cemetery island of San Michele, with the
neighbouring island of Burano in the distance

Travel Tip:

The Isola di San Michele, where Buzzolla was buried, has been the home of Venice’s principal cemetery since the early 19th century. Situated between Venice and the island of Murano, it had previously been home to a Camaldolese monastery, built in the 13th century, and the Chiesa di San Michele in Isola, which was designed by the architect Mauro Codussi and built in 1469 as the first Renaissance church in Venice. The island was also used as a prison at one time. In 1807, when Venice was occupied by the French under Napoleon, the neighbouring island of San Cristoforo was designated as the city’s cemetery, only for it to become clear after only a few years that it was not big enough. In 1835, work began to fill in the narrow canal between the two islands to create one much larger island. Annibale Forcellini, an architect and engineer, was given the task of designing the cemetery complex, which retains the Chiesa di San Michele near the entrance and includes a domed chapel built in memory of the ancient Chiesa di San Cristoforo, which had been demolished during the construction of the original cemetery. As well as housing the remains of ordinary Venetian citizens, the cemetery has a sufficient number of illustrious occupants to have become a tourist attraction. In addition to Buzzolla, the remains of the poet Ezra Pound, the entrepreneur and Venice Film Festival founder Giuseppe Volpi, the psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, the writers Carlo and Gasparo Gozzi, the football manager Helenio Herrera, the avant-garde composer Luigi Nono, and others, are buried there.

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More reading:

How the overlooked work of Giovanni Pacini has enjoyed a revival

Nabucco - the Verdi opera that became a symbol of the Risorgimento

The Venetian lawyer who led fight to drive out the Austrians

Also on this day:

1603: The birth of Sicilian painter and architect Pietro Novelli

1886: The birth of football manager Vittorio Pozzo

1939: The election of wartime pontiff Pope Pius XII

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Pietro Gnocchi – composer

Influential musician was inspired by geography

Pietro Gnocchi studied
music in Venice

Baroque composer and writer Pietro Gnocchi, who is remembered for the unusual titles he gave to his music, was born on this day in 1689 in Alfianello in the province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy.

As well as writing a large quantity of sacred music and being choirmaster at Brescia Cathedral, Gnocchi, who has come to be regarded as a polymath because of his wide knowledge, wrote about history, geography, and archaeology. His works included a treatise on memorial tablets in the Brescia region, and a 25-volume history of ancient Greek colonies.

Gnocchi was the second of four sons born into a middle class family and he grew up to study music and to train as a priest. He then went on to study music in Venice and later travelled to Hungary, Vienna, and Munich.

After returning to Brescia, he was appointed as maestro di cappella at the cathedral now known as Brescia's Duomo Vecchio in 1723. Ten years later he applied to be the organist there, but was unsuccessful. He also worked at an orphanage, Orfanelle della Pietà, where it is thought he may have been a music instructor.

Although Gnocchi’s music was never published, it still exists in manuscript form and is regularly performed today. His choral music, which reveals the influence of his early training in Venice, included more than 60 masses, with surprising titles, such as Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. He also composed Requiems, sets of Vespers, various settings of the Magnificat and settings of the Miserere, as well as hymns and motets.

One of his settings for the Magnificat is entitled ‘Il Capa di Buona Speranza’, The Cape of Good Hope, reflecting his interest in geography.

Gnocchi also wrote some secular music, which included concertos and sonatas for stringed instruments, and some songs.

Most of his music manuscripts are now stored in the archives of Brescia Cathedral and the Church of Madonna delle Grazie in Brescia.

In 1762, Gnocchi successfully reapplied for his old position as maestro di cappella at Brescia Cathedral, as well as for the position of organist. He was to hold both these appointments until his death at the age of 86 in 1775 in Brescia, where according to his wishes, he was buried in the Church of San Giorgio. 

Brescia's Duomo Vecchio, also known as the 
Rotonda, where Gnocchi was maestro di cappella

His treatise on memorial tablets in and around Brescia, and his history of ancient Greek colonies, were bought by Prince Faustino Lechi of Brescia, who was a student of Gnocchi, and later became his friend and patron. Many of Gnocchi’s manuscripts are still preserved in the Bibliotheca Civica Queriniana di Brescia.

Gnocchi influenced Italian music through teaching other musicians in Brescia and passing on Venetian traditions to them. The pupils he mentored adopted his musical style and went on to occupy key ecclesiastical roles themselves, continuing to evoke the atmosphere of choral music, as it was performed in St Mark’s Basilica, throughout Lombardy.

Scholarly interest in Gnocchi’s music has grown in the 20th and early 21st centuries and studies have been written comparing Gnocchi’s sonatas and concertos with those of Vivaldi, noting the shared Venetian traits as well as the differences.

Ensembles specialising in Baroque music have played Gnocchi’s sonatas using period instruments and released recordings of his works, which have also enabled contemporary listeners to make comparison with the music of Vivaldi. A CD of sacred music written by Gnocchi for the churches of Brescia, performed by the Coro Claudio Monteverdi, is currently available. 

Brescia is a mix of Renaissance architecture
and ruins from its Roman past

Travel tip:

Brescia, the birthplace of Pietro Gnocchi, is a town of great artistic and architectural importance but, although it is the second city in Lombardy after Milan, and has Roman remains and well-preserved Renaissance buildings, it is not well-known to tourists.  Brescia became a Roman colony before the birth of Christ and you can still see remains from the forum, theatre, and a temple. The town was fought over by different rulers in the middle ages but came under the protection of Venice in the 15th century. There is a distinct Venetian influence in the architecture of the Piazza della Loggia, an elegant square in the centre of the town, which has a clock tower remarkably similar to the one in Saint Mark’s square in Venice. The Santa Giulia Museo della Città covers more than 3000 years of Brescia’s history, housed within the Benedictine Nunnery of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia in Via Musei. The nunnery was built over a Roman residential quarter, but some of the houses, with their original mosaics and frescoes, have now been excavated and can be seen while looking round the museum.

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Brescia's Cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova,
known also as the Duomo Nuovo

Travel tip:

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Brescia, known as the Duomo Nuovo (new cathedral) stands next to the Duomo Vecchio (old cathedral) in Piazza Paolo VI in the centre of the city. The unusually shaped Duomo Vecchio, also known as la Rotonda, is open to the public.  Designed by architect Giovanbattista Lantana, who took over the commission after it was originally given to Andrea Palladio, the Duomo Nuovo, which has a Baroque facade in Botticino marble, was built on the remains of the old basilica of San Pietro de Dom starting from 1604. Financial constraints caused the construction of the new cathedral repeatedly to be delayed. It was not completed until 1825, with the addition of Luigi Cagnola’s dome, at 80 metres (262ft) the third tallest in Italy.  The present dome was rebuilt after destruction during the Second World War. The interior contains a monument to the Brescian Pope Paul VI, found on the left transept. The circular Duomo Vecchio, on which construction began in 1100 and where Gnocchi was maestro di cappella, is regarded as a Romanesque triumph.  Brescia was named as a Capital of Culture, along with the nearby city of Bergamo, by the Italian Government as a symbol of the hope and rebirth following the devastating effects on both cities caused by the volume of death during the Covid 19 pandemic. 

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More reading:

How Brescia businessman Giovanni Treccani used his wealth to encourage learning and culture 

Alessandro Bonvicino, the Brescia painter acclaimed for outstanding altarpieces 

Success and sadness in the life of Antonio Vivaldi

Also on this day:

1935: The birth of soprano Mirella Freni

1950: The birth of fashion designer Franco Moschino

1964: Italy's appeal for help with Leaning Tower

1973: The birth of singer and actress Chiara Iezzi

1978: The birth of dancer Simone di Pasquale

(Brescia photographs by Wolfgang Moroder via Wiki Commons)

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Ferdinando Fontana – journalist and playwright

Prolific writer produced the words for Puccini’s early operas 

Ferdinando Fontana (left), with Puccini
in a photograph taken in around 1885

The dramatist Ferdinando Fontana, who is remembered chiefly for being the writer of the libretti for the first two operas written by Giacomo Puccini, was born on this day in 1850 in Milan.

He became a journalist as a young man to help provide for his younger sisters, and while he was working for the newspaper Corriere di Milano he wrote two plays in Milanese dialect which were both successes.

Through his interest in the Scapigliatura artistic movement, Fontana became a versatile writer. The word scapigliato means ‘unkempt’ or ‘dishevelled’ and the movement was the equivalent of the French Bohemian idea. Fontana also produced poems, travel books, and articles for the Milanese daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

After being introduced by the composer Amilcare Ponchielli to the young Giacomo Puccini, he agreed to write the libretti for his early operas Le Villi and Edgar.

Fontana had been forced to abandon his studies after the death of his mother and had to go to work to keep himself and his sisters. After having a series of menial jobs, he got a job as a proof reader for Corriere di Milano, where he first became involved with journalism and literature.

He travelled from New York to San Francisco with a journalist colleague and while he was in America he met the editor of an Italian language newspaper, to which he later contributed features.

Fontana wrote a libretto for an opera, Odio, that was being planned by Ponchielli but never actually composed, after which he wrote two libretti for the composer Alberto Franchetti.

Puccini was studying under Ponchielli at the Milan Conservatory at the time and the composer invited the young Puccini to stay at his villa, where he introduced him to Ferdinando Fontana.

The music and libretto for Le Villi,
Puccini's debut operatic work

The writer’s first libretto for Puccini was for Le Villi, Puccini’s first stage work, which was a big success after its premiere at Teatro Dal Verme in Milan in 1884.

Fontana went on to have a prolific writing output, and an article in 1886 in La Stampa recorded that at that time, the music for 13 libretti by Fontana were in the process of being composed as operas by 12 different composers.

It was while staying in an hotel in Caprino Bergamasco run by a fellow librettist that Fontana wrote the libretto for Puccini’s opera Edgar, which premiered in 1889. 

This, unfortunately, was not as successful as Le Villi. Puccini made several revisions but could not redeem the opera, which he eventually effectively disowned, although he blamed himself as much as Fontana.

The publisher Guilio Ricordi, who had commissioned a second opera from Puccini as a result of the success of his first, came under pressure to drop him after the disappointing reception for Edgar, which might have spelled the end of Puccini’s career. Happily, Ricordi stuck with him and was rewarded with Manon Lescaut, for which the libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, which proved to be one of his most popular and enduring works. 

Fontana also translated foreign libretti for performances in Italy, including Franz Lehar’s Die lustige Witwe - The Merry Widow. 

Fontana was a committed socialist and took part in the demonstrations in Milan in 1889, which led to the massacre of protestors by troops led by General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris.

The massacre was part of a crackdown on Milanese citizens protesting about rising food prices, particularly bread, which had become so expensive due to wheat shortages that it was unaffordable for many families.  Official government figures put the number of deaths at 80, although some estimates claimed up to 400 people may have been killed.

During the repressions that followed the massacres, Fontana fled to Switzerland where he settled in Montagnola, a small town near Lugano. He was supported by local Liberal radicals, but as his health deteriorated, he reduced his literary output.  He died in Lugano in 1919 at the age of 69.

Corriere della Sera's headquarters in Via Solferini,
its Milan offices since the early 20th century

Travel tip:

Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s main daily newspapers with a circulation of around 250,000, has had its headquarters in the same buildings In Milan since the beginning of the 20th century, and therefore it is popularly known as "the Via Solferino newspaper", after the street where it is still located, which connects Porta Garibaldi with the Brera district, about 1.5km (1 mile) north of the city’s cathedral and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. When the newspaper was founded in 1876, it was produced in a building directly facing the Galleria. Its earliest editorial offices operated right beside the Galleria’s Piazza della Scala entrance. This proximity meant that the newspaper grew up literally on the edge of Milan’s most symbolic civic space, and the two became intertwined in the city’s cultural identity. As the name indicates, it was originally an evening paper. During the Fascist regime in Italy, it broadly supported Mussolini but tried to distance itself from the deposed dictator after World War Two, for a while going under the title of Il Nuovo Corriere della Sera, a name that it kept until 1959. Nowadays, its political agenda could be described as centre-right. 

The Chiesa di San Biagio in Caprino Bergamasco,
the town where Fontana wrote his libretto for Edgar

Travel tip:

Caprino Bergamasco, where Fontana was based when he wrote the libretto for Edgar, is a quiet hill town at the southern edge of the province of Bergamo in Lombardy, made up of clusters of old stone houses against a backdrop of of gentle slopes and cultivated fields, described as a town in which life moves at a measured pace, anchored by the rhythms of agriculture. The town has viewpoints that look towards the Adda valley on one side and the first foothills of the Bergamasque Alps on the other. It is the home of the Collegio Convitto Celana, an historic seminary that has long been associated with religious education and cultural life in the area. The parish church, the Chiesa di San Biagio, has some attractive frescoes and traditional Lombard religious architecture.  Nearby attractions include the Paderno d’Adda Iron Bridge - an engineering landmark spanning the Adda River, and Montevecchia - a hilltop village and nature reserve offering panoramic views and hiking trails.

More reading:

How Puccini took the baton from Giuseppe Verdi as Italy’s most celebrated composer

Giulio Ricordi, the music publisher who took the credit for ‘discovering’ Puccini

How Milan’s bread riots led to the assassination of Umberto I

Also on this day:

228: The death of Saint Martina of Rome

1629: The death of architect Carlo Maderno

1640: The death of Saint Hyacintha Mariscotti

1721: The birth of Venetian painter Bernardo Bellotto

1935: The birth of actress Elsa Martinelli

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Pina Carmirelli - violinist

Virtuoso trusted with 17th century masterpiece

Pina Carmirelli quickly established herself as
one of Italy's most talented violinists

Pina Carmirelli, who became one of Italy’s most gifted violinists of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1914 in Varzi, a town in the province of Pavia in Lombardy about 90km (45 miles) south of Milan.

Carmirelli enjoyed a brilliant career as a soloist and as a member of various chamber groups, the most notable of which was the Boccherini Quintet, which she co-founded with her husband, cellist Arturo Bonucci, in order to revive interest in the music of the 18th century cellist, Luigi Boccherini.

She was held in such high regard that the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where she taught for many years, allowed her use of one of the prized possessions of their Museum, a 1690 violin that was one of a set of five instruments the great luthier Antonio Stradivari built for Ferdinando de’ Medici, the Grand Prince of Tuscany.

Carmirelli played the precious instrument, known as the 'Tuscan, Medici' in numerous recitals and concert performances between 1962 and 1977, as well as in some recordings, notably those with the Boccherini Quintet.

As a child, Pina Carmirelli is thought to have been inspired to follow a career in music by her grandfather, the conductor and composer Carlo Podesta. She began studying music and performing as a concert pianist at a very young age. 

She also had a music-loving uncle in Cremona, which - thanks to the Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri families and others - is steeped in the traditions of violin-making. Carmirelli visited the historic city throughout her childhood and it became something of a spiritual home. 

Later, as a student of Teresina Tua and Michelangelo Abbado, she graduated from the Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan in violin in 1930, and in composition five years later.

Carmirelli with the Boccherini Quintet soon after it
was formed. Arturo Bonucci is on the right, seated

She was awarded the Stradivari Prize in 1937 and the Paganini Prize in 1940, which cemented her status as one of the most gifted young violinists in Italy. 

Carmirelli’s distinguished career was notable for her deep affinity for Classical and early Romantic music. Along with her husband, who was 20 years her senior, she formed the Boccherini Quintet in 1950, followed by the Carmirelli Quartet in 1954, also featuring Bonucci.

She also became first violin of I Musici, the chamber orchestra from Rome, formed in 1952, which became well known for their interpretations of Baroque and other works, particularly those of Antonio Vivaldi and Tomaso Albinoni.

The orchestra consisted of 12 musicians, most of whom were students of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. They were so successful that their recordings of Vivaldi’s most famous work, his collection of violin concerti known as The Four Seasons, sold more than 25 million copies.

Bonucci, who she met in 1938 and soon married, was a decorated pilot as well as a musician, but also a committed opponent of the Fascist regime, a stance shared by Carmirelli. 

In later years, Carmirelli played often at
the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont

They collaborated in the revival of Luigi Boccherini’s music after Carmirelli, on tour in Paris, discovered by chance in the library of the Paris Conservatory a complete collection of Boccherini’s works for strings, which had been long forgotten. Carmirelli persuaded the Italian consulate to buy them on her behalf before she and Arturo painstakingly worked through 147 string quintets for two cellos and over 84 string quartets, forming their Boccherini Quintet in order to do them justice in front of an audience.

While Carmirelli’s career was rooted in Italy, she also performed extensively abroad, including in the United States. Her American engagements included chamber tours, guest appearances with orchestras, and collaborations that helped introduce European chamber traditions to US audiences.

For example, she became a regular at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, which she visited for the first time in 1964, not long after the death of Arturo, for whom she was still in mourning. She admitted that the sense of community at the festival allowed her to set aside some of her sadness and feel part of a family again, sharing her knowledge and experience with countless musicians in the years that followed.

Carmirelli, who had by then enjoyed a 50-year association with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, died in 1993 in a town today known as Capena, in northern Lazio, some 35km (21 miles) north of Rome. She had reached the age of 79.

Varzi, the Lombardy village that was Pina Carmirelli's
birthplace, has a well-preserved medieval centre

Travel tip:

Varzi, where Pina Carmirelli was born, designated by the Associazione I Borghi più belli d’Italia as one of Italy’s most beautiful villages, is the gateway to the Upper Oltrepò region, an unspoiled area of the Apennines located at the southern tip of Lombardy, close to the borders with Piedmont to the west, Emilia-Romagna to the east and Liguria to the south. It is characterised by medieval architecture largely unchanged for centuries. Historical attractions include the 13th century Malaspina Castle and Witches’ Tower, the 18th century Palazzo Tamburelli, the 16th century Chiesa di San Germano and the Oratories of the Bianchi and the Rossi, built in the 17th century in different architectural styles, one late Renaissance, the other Baroque. Remnants of the medieval walls are visible in the towers of Porta Soprana and Porta Sottana. Varzi is famed for its Salame di Varzi DOP, which supposedly owes its flavour to being cured by the breezes from the Ligurian Sea. A crucial stop along the Via del Sale trade route, which connects the Po Valley with the Ligurian coast, Varzi enjoyed great prosperity from the 13th century onwards under the Malaspina family, who built many of the buildings that distinguish the village today.

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The inner courtyard of the Conservatorio di Santa
Cecilia, where Carmirelli taught for many years

Travel tip:

The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, was established in 1565. It was founded in Rome by Pope Sixtus V at the Church of Santa Maria ad Martires, better known as the Pantheon. Over the centuries, many famous composers and musicians have been members, among them in recent times the opera singers Beniamino Gigli and Cecilia Bartoli. Since 2005 the Academy’s headquarters have been at the Parco della Musica in Rome, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, in Viale Pietro de Coubertin in the Flaminio district, close to the location of the 1960 Summer Olympic Games. Previously, the Accademia was based at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, which dates back to 1875. Entrances can still be seen in Via dei Greci and Via Vittoria, not far from the Spanish Steps in central Rome.  The museum housing the 1690 Tuscan, Medici violin and the other instruments that comprised the Medici Quintet is located in the Parco della Musica complex. In the exhibition gallery some 130 instruments are on display and about 50 luthiery tools in an open-air laboratory where the museum luthiers work.

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More reading:

Why Luigi Boccherini spent his last years in Madrid

Niccolò Paganini, the violinist whose extraordinary talent aroused bizarre suspicions

The 17th century luthier whose instruments are still seen as the best in the world

Also on this day:

1752: The death of composer and pianist Muzio Clemente

1881: The birth of heiress and muse Luisa Casati

1921: The birth of sculptor and trophy-maker Silvio Gazzaniga

1928: The birth of controversial politician Salvatore Lima

1980: The death of car designer Giovanni Michelotti

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Adolfo Fumagalli - pianist and composer

‘Virtuoso of the left hand’ had brief but influential career

Adolfo Fumagalli was hailed as a 'first-rate'
pianist by Hungarian great Franz Liszt

The pianist and composer Adolfo Fumagalli, who is chiefly remembered for his extraordinary ability to play complicated pieces with only his left hand, was born on this day in 1828 in Inzago, a small town about 28km (17 miles) east of Milan.

Born into a family rich in musical talent, Fumagalli became known at a young age for his technical prowess and expressive style, a dazzling performer playing in the conventional two-handed fashion.

He studied piano at the Milan Conservatory from the age of nine to 19. It is noted that, as a 12 or 13-year-old, his performance playing variations on a march from Gioachino Rossini 's opera L'assedio di Corinto in the Conservatory hall created excitement.

Fumagalli made his public debut in Milan in 1848, at the age of 20. His talent was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim and he was soon captivating audiences across Europe at recitals in Turin, Paris, Belgium and Denmark. A letter written in 1853 by the great Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, described Fumagalli as a 'first-rate' pianist.

His switch to playing with one hand came not out of necessity, as was the case, for example, with the Austrian-born virtuoso Paul Wittgenstein after losing his right arm during World War One, but as part of a Romantic-era tradition among pianists to dazzle audiences with feats of technical brilliance.

Fumagalli saw playing with his left hand only as a daring artistic challenge to push the boundaries of what could be achieved with a single hand on the keyboard.

He composed pieces of his own but it was for his adaptation - for the left-hand only - of existing pieces that he became widely known and admired.

Of these so-called fantasie - fantasies - perhaps his most famous work, the “Grande Fantaisie sur Robert le Diable” by Meyerbeer, became a benchmark of virtuosity. 

Fumagalli in caricature, smoking
a cigar while playing left-handed

There is a caricature drawing of Fumagalli standing beside a piano, playing with his left hand while holding a cigar in his right hand, which might leave the impression that he was merely a novelty act, rather than a serious performer. 

In fact, apart from showcasing his technical ingenuity and staggering dexterity, he left an important legacy, having demonstrated for the benefit of aspiring pianists with injuries or other limitations that their handicaps could be overcome.

Other notable pieces in Fumagalli’s repertoire included operatic fantasies on Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Giuseppe Verdi’s I Puritani, which critics applauded for his imaginative reworking and interpretive depth. 

Fumagalli, whose brothers Carlo, Disma, Polibio, and Luca also became accomplished musicians and composers, would almost certainly have enjoyed a long career playing before audiences around the world had he been blessed with better health. 

However, after returning to Italy in 1854 following a period on tour, he developed tuberculosis and his health began to falter markedly. He continued to perform but on May 3, 1856, just two days after he had given a concert in Florence, he died.

He was just 27 years old and his death shocked the musical world, cutting short a career that many believed was on the cusp of greatness. 

Much of Fumagalli’s work has been lost but some pieces exist. Ferruccio Busoni, an Italian pianist popular in Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, included some of Fumagalli’s works in his active repertoire.

More recently, the Milanese pianist Adalberto Maria Riva has revived interest in Fumagalli’s music through both recordings and performances.

The sumptuous Villa Rey is one of several villas
lining the banks of the Martesana Canal in Inzago 

Travel tip:

With a population of around 11,000 today, Inzago is perhaps three times the size it was at the time of Adolfo Fumagalli’s birth, when it was a small town halfway between Milan and Bergamo surrounded by farmland. Today it is part of the Milan metropolitan area, although some 28km (11 miles) from the centre of the Lombardy capital. Its farming roots are still strong and a cattle fair is held in the town every Monday.  The town is divided in two by the Martesana Canal, which has a number of elegant villas – once the summer residences of noble Milanese families – along its banks. Many of these have returned to their former splendour in recent decades thanks to some private individuals who have renovated them. Among the most notable are Villa Aitelli, Villa Magistretti, Villa Rey and Villa Facheris. 

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The historic Milan Conservatory boasts an impressive
roll call of celebrated former pupils 

Travel tip:

The Milan Conservatory - also known as Conservatorio di musica “Giuseppe Verdi” di Milano - was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year with premises in the cloisters of the Baroque church of Santa Maria della Passione in Via Conservatorio. Though Verdi famously failed his entrance exam here in 1832, the conservatory was later named in his honour, reflecting his towering influence on Italian music. By the 19th century, the conservatory had become a hub for public performances and contemporary music programs, embracing both tradition and innovation. More recently, it has become the first Italian conservatory to offer education across all musical languages, from classical to jazz and experimental forms.  The largest institute of musical education in Italy, its alumni as well as Adolfo Fumagalli include Giacomo Puccini, Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito, Pietro Mascagni, Riccardo Muti and Ludovico Einaudi.

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More reading:

The 19th century violin virtuoso considered to be Paganini’s successor

Giuseppe Verdi, the composer who became a national symbol

The Italian jazz pianist who learned at the feet of American greats

Also on this day:

1882: The birth of Futurist painter Umberto Boccioni

1956: The birth of Carlo Urbani, the microbiologist who identified SARS virus

2012: The death of three-times Giro d’Italia champion Fiorenzo Magni 

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