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. 

Stay in Adria with Expedia

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.

Find accommodation in Venice with Hotels.com

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

Home

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.

Stay in Brescia with Hotels.com

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. 

Let Expedia guide you to find accommodation in Brescia

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)

Home

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

Home

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.

Stay near Varzi with Hotels.com

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.

Find Rome hotels with Expedia

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

Home

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. 

Stay in Inzago with Expedia

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.

Find accommodation in Milan with Hotels.com

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 

Home

Bernardo Pisano – musician and priest

First composer to have collection of his music printed

A page from an early printed collection
of music by Bernardo Pisano

Bernardo Pisano, who is believed to have been the first composer of the Italian madrigal, was born on this day in 1490 in Florence.

Pisano - sometimes known as Pagoli - was so important in musical circles during his lifetime that he is also thought to have been the first composer anywhere in the world to have a printed collection of secular music devoted entirely to himself.

Although he was born in Florence, it is supposed that, because he used the name Pisano, he must have also spent some time living in Pisa. 

As a young man, he sang and studied music at the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence. In 1512, he became maestro di cappella there in addition to supervising the choristers and singing in the chapels himself. 

As a favourite of the Medici family, he was appointed to sing in the papal chapel in Rome in 1514 after Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope Leo X. While there, he also taught Francesco Corteccia, an organist and composer for Cosimo I de’ Medici.

Pisano stayed in Rome for the rest of his life, singing in the papal chapel choir, and he acquired ecclesiastical benefices from the Medici at the cathedrals of Seville and Lerida in Spain.

However, he made the mistake of returning to Florence in 1529 during the three-year period of republican government of the city. He was seized and imprisoned because he was known to have close connections to the Medici family. While he was being kept prisoner, he was accused of being a papal spy and tortured.

After the siege of Florence in 1529, the city was recaptured by papal troops and the Medici were returned to power there. Pisano was released and was able to go back to live in Rome.

Raphael's portrait of Pope Leo X, who
was Pisano's friend and patron

Pisano had written sacred music during his time as maestro di cappella at the Church of the Annunziata. But he was later to be more influential as a composer of secular music and he was believed to be history's first madrigalist.

Madrigals were sung during the 15th and 16th centuries by groups of between two and eight voices. In 1520, a Venetian printer published ‘Musica di Messer Bernardo Pisano sopra del canzone del Petrarca’. While the pieces in the collection were not actually called madrigals, they contained features that have been recognised in retrospect as being distinctive of the madrigal genre. 

The collection was made up of verses by the poet Petrarch set to music by Pisano. He was influenced by the literary theories of the poet and scholar Pietro Bembo, who was a secretary to Pope Leo X and later became a Cardinal appointed by Pope Paul III.

This publication was also the first known collection of secular music by a single composer to be printed. 

Later composers who became masters of the madrigal genre are known to have been aware of this work by Pisano and to have copied some of his stylistic traits from it.

In 1546, Pope Paul III appointed Pisano as maestro di cappella of his private chapel. Among the singers in his group was a Franco/Flemish musician, Jacques Arcadelt, who was later to become famous as a madrigal composer. 

Bernardo Pisano died in 1548 in Rome. He is buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva next to the two Medici popes who had been his friends and patrons.

 Giovanni Battista Caccini's Renaissance-style
facade of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata

Travel tip:

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, where Bernardo Pisano was maestro di cappella, is a minor Catholic basilica near the centre of Florence. The church was founded in 1250 by the seven original members of the Servite order and is located in Piazza Santissima Annunziata. In 1252 a friar was commissioned to produce a painting of the Annunciation for the church. He was said to have despaired about being able to do justice to the face of the Virgin and eventually fell asleep while working on it, but when he woke again the painting had been miraculously completed. He attributed this to the work of an angel. The painting has since attracted many pilgrims to visit it, including Pope Alexander VI, who gave a silver effigy to the church. It has since become the tradition for brides in Florence to visit the church to leave their bouquets there.

Stay in Florence with Expedia

The Gothic interior of the Basilica di Santa Maria
sopra Minerva in Rome, where Pisano is buried

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where Bernardo Pisano is buried, is in Piazza della Minerva in Rome. The name of the church is derived from the fact that the original structure was built directly over the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, that had been wrongly ascribed to the Greek/Roman goddess Minerva. It is located to the east of the Pantheon in the Pigna rione of Rome in the ancient district known as Campus Martius. Dominican friars began building the present Gothic church structure in 1280, modelling it on Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In 1431 the church and adjacent convent was the site of a papal conclave, when 14 Cardinals sitting in the sacristy elected Pope Eugenius IV. After his death, a second conclave was held there in 1447 when 18 Cardinals elected Pope Nicholas V. The church houses a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, Cristo della Minerva, representing the figure of Christ carrying the cross, which is located to the left of the main altar.

Book a Rome hotel with Hotels.com

More reading:

How the madrigal genre influenced the composer Monteverdi 

The madrigal writer also known for a brutal murder

The Medici musician who invented the madrigal comedy

Also on this day:

1492: The death of Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca

1812: The death of Ascanio Sobrero, the chemist who discovered nitroglycerine

1935: The birth of tenor Luciano Pavarotti

2006: The death of film director Gillo Pontecorvo

Home

Lucia Valentini Terrani - opera singer

Colaratura mezzo-soprano noted for velvety softness of agile voice

Lucia Valentini Terrani in 1982: The singer had a
powerful stage presence as well as a brilliant voice 

The opera singer Lucia Valentini Terrani, who became one of Italy’s most captivating mezzo-sopranos, blessed with an agile, velvety voice and magnetic stage presence, was born on this day in 1946 in Padua, in the Veneto region.

Equally at home in contralto roles, she was among the most notable interpreters of the 18th and 19th century bel canto repertoire and was a major influence on the way the Gaetano Rossini repertoire evolved over the last three decades of the 20th century.

After her debut in 1969 and breakthrough in 1973, Valentini Terrani sang at most of the world’s major opera houses, in South America and Russia as well as Europe and the United States.

Little is known about her early life in Padua before she attended the city’s Cesare Pollini Music Conservatory. From there she moved to the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, where she was a student under the former soprano Iris Adami Corradetti.

There, she laid the foundations for her career. At that point, she performed as Lucia Valentini, making her debut in 1969 in Brescia as Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, a role that would become her signature. 

With its demanding coloratura and nuanced comedy elements, La Cenerentola showcased Valentini’s vocal brilliance but also her theatrical finesse. 

Following her triumph in the International Competition for New Rossini Voices organised by the broadcaster Rai in 1972, her big breakthrough came in 1973, again in La Cenerentola, this time at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Stepping in for Teresa Berganza, one of the most popular and admired mezzo-sopranos of the modern era, Valentini reprised the Angelina role to great acclaim. The performance effectively launched her international career.

Alberto Terrani said he was "spellbound
by the beauty of her face" when they met

It was around this time that she met Alberto Terrani, an actor, at a party in Padua. He described being “spellbound by the beauty of her face” and “enraptured by her voice when she started to sing.”

They fell in love and were married in 1973, at which point he gave up his own career to become her manager and she added his name to hers

Valentini Terrani’s artistry was deeply entwined with Rossini’s music. She mastered both his comic heroines and his more florid, serious roles, such as Arsace in Semiramide, Tancredi, and Malcolm in La donna del lago. 

The last three were so-called “trouser roles”, in which a male character is sung by a female singer. Valentini Terrani’s versatile, expressive and richly coloured voice allowed her to perform such roles with convincing masculinity and emotional depth. 

Yet her repertoire was not limited to Rossini and his genre. She also ventured into baroque opera, portraying Medea in Cavalli’s Giasone, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina, as well as dramatic and lyrical roles such as Eboli in Don Carlos, Carmen, Charlotte in Werther, and Quickly in Falstaff. 

Her international engagements took her to the Metropolitan Opera (debuting in 1975 as Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri), Covent Garden, Paris, Moscow, Buenos Aires, and beyond. 

Valentini Terrani's career was cut short
after she was diagnosed with leukemia

On her visits to Moscow, she embraced Russian opera, performing with distinction in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. 

Valentini Terrani’s career was cut short when she was diagnosed with leukemia in 1996. Encouraged by her friend and fellow opera singer José Carreras, who had recovered from the disease, she travelled to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, where he had been treated successfully. Sadly, though, she died there in 1998 aged just 51, following complications from a bone marrow transplant.

Her legacy endures not only in recordings and memories but also in Padua, where a square near the Teatro Verdi bears her name.  There is also a small hotel in Padua, supported by charity, to accommodate hospital visitors and patients in need of repeated treatment, named the Casa di Accoglienza Lucia Valentini Terrani.

It was inspired by an act of generosity by the singer shortly before she died in Seattle, when she was so dismayed to find that the relatives of fellow patients were sleeping in their cars because accommodation was so expensive that she asked her husband to pay for their hotel rooms.

The Basilica di Sant'Antonio,
with its Byzantine domes

Travel tip:

Lucia Valentini Terrani’s home city of Padua, in Veneto, has a population of around 217,000. It is rich in history, art and architectural treasures. The biggest attractions for visitors include the Scrovegni Chapel, a medieval gem that houses a fresco cycle by Giotto often cited as the dawn of Renaissance painting; the Basilica of Saint’Antonio, notable for its Byzantine-style domes, that houses the relics of St. Anthony and features masterpieces by Donatello; the Palazzo della Ragione, once the seat of Padua’s medieval government and today a civic building with a bustling food market on the ground floor, the elegant Piazza dei Signori, with its beautiful Renaissance clock tower; and Prato della Valle, a vast oval space, built on the site of a former Roman amphitheatre and one of Europe’s largest public squares, which features statues of historic figures around a central island. 

Find a hotel in Padua

Brescia's Roman heritage is visible in the ruins
of the Tempio Capitolino in Piazza del Foro

Travel tip:

Brescia, where Valentini Terrani made her public debut, is a city in Lombardy midway between Bergamo and Verona often described as an underrated cultural gem, a mix of Roman and medieval heritage. The Santa Giulia Museum, housed in a former monastery and a UNESCO World Heritage, showcases Roman villas, medieval frescoes, and treasures such as the Desiderius Cross, while Brescia’s ancient heart includes the Capitolium Temple and Forum and other Roman remains that date back to 73AD. Perched on the Colle Cidneo, with panoramic views over the city, is the well-preserved Castello di Brescia.  In the centre of the city, the Piazza della Loggia is a Renaissance square with an astronomical clock and elegant arcades, while the Piazza Paolo VI is home to two cathedrals - the Duomo Vecchio and the Duomo Nuovo, bringing together Romanesque and Baroque styles side by side.  

Search for accommodation in Brescia

Also on this day:

1875: The birth of flautist Leonardo De Lorenzo

1941: The birth of artist and designer Ugo Nespolo

1967: The birth of Tiziana ‘Tosca’ Donati

1991: The Mafia murder of Palermo businessman Libero Grassi

Home

Gianna Nannini – singer and songwriter

Performer’s interests inspired her ideas for songs

Gianna Nannini on stage at the Kia Metropol
Arena in Nuremburg as part of a 2024 tour

One of Italy’s best-known pop singers and composers, Gianna Nannini, was born on this day in 1954 in Siena in Tuscany. She has composed and recorded many hit songs and has sung duets with well-known artists, ranging from Andrea Bocelli to Sting.

Her composition, Fotoromanzo, peaked at number one for four consecutive weeks in the Italian singles chart. It won musical awards and has since been covered by many other artists and has featured in the soundtrack of a film. Another of her songs, Bello e impossibile, was a hit both in Italy and across Europe.

The daughter of a confectionery manufacturer, Nannini studied the piano in Lucca and then went to the University of Milan to read composition and philosophy. She made her first album, Gianna Nannini, which achieved wide success, in 1976, and she has since produced 30 albums of songs.

Her intellectual interests have led to her becoming involved in some unusual artistic projects, such as when she composed the music for the film A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Gabriele Salvatores, in which she also played the part of Titania.

In the 1990s, Nannini composed the music for two short operas, and she worked with the director Michelangelo Antonioni on a video clip that was filmed to go with Fotoromanzo.