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

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Bruno Bartoletti – operatic conductor

Florentine maestro conquered hearts in Chicago

Bruno Bartoletti spent more than 50 years at Lyric
Opera Chicago as conductor and artistic director  

Internationally acclaimed operatic conductor Bruno Bartoletti, who conducted and served as an artistic director at Lyric Opera Chicago for more than 50 years, was born on this day in 1926 in Sesto Fiorentino in Tuscany.

Bartoletti is recognised as having shaped the excellent reputation of Lyric Opera Chicago for staging great productions of Italian opera masterpieces, as well as modern works. He also directed Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and was principal conductor at the Danish Royal Opera.

His father, Umberto, was a blacksmith who played the clarinet in a band, and as a young boy Bruno Bartoletti played the piccolo. One of his teachers recognised his musical talent, and her husband, who was the sculptor Antonio Berti, recommended him to the Cherubini conservatory, where he studied the flute and the piano.

Bartoletti went on to play in the orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and then became a pianist on the staff of Teatro Comunale in Florence.

He assisted conductors such as Artur Rodzinski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Vittorio Gui and Tullio Serafin, who was the one who encouraged Bartoletti to study conducting.

Bartoletti made his professional debut as
a conductor in Florence in 1953

In 1953, Bartoletti made his professional conducting debut at Teatro Comunale in Florence with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto.

Bartoletti made his debut as a conductor in the United States in 1956 with Lyric Opera Chicago when he conducted Verdi’s Il trovatore, after Tullio Serafin had been taken ill. He had been recommended to the theatre by the Italian baritone, Tito Gobbi. 

He subsequently became principal conductor of the Royal Danish Opera between 1957 and 1960.

From 1956 until 2007, Bartoletti conducted 600 performances of 55 different operas for Lyric Opera of Chicago. He became their principal conductor in 1964 and continued in that role until his retirement in 1999. 

He also became co-artistic director at Lyric Opera and was later named sole artistic director. He worked with many famous opera singers, including Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Tebaldi. 

His final appearance at Lyric Opera was in 2007 when he conducted Verdi’s La traviata.

Bartoletti died the day before
his 87th birthday in 2013

After his retirement, Bartoletti was given the title of artistic director emeritus by Lyric Opera for the rest of his life.

Bartoletti was awarded the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana by the Italian Government, and he was made a member of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest and most prestigious musical institutions in the world. In his later years, he taught at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Bartoletti conducted his final opera, Manon Lescaut, in 2011.

With his wife, Rosanna, he had two daughters and five grandchildren.  He died in Florence the day before his 87th birthday in 2013.

He has been acknowledged as a superb interpreter of 19th century and early 20th century Italian opera, but Bartoletti also embraced modern music and Slavic works, such as Bedrich Smetana’s Bartered Bride and Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, during his career, although he is said to have rarely conducted symphonies.

Sesto Fiorentino's historic Palazzo Pretorio was
built at the end of the 15th century

Travel tip:

Bartoletti’s home town, Sesto Fiorentino, known locally as simply Sesto, is a town within the metropolitan area of Florence in Tuscany, situated about 12km (7.5 miles) to the northwest. With a population of around 49,000. It is famous above all for its tradition of ceramics. Once an ancient Etruscan settlement, it began to flourish at the time of ancient Romans, thanks to its position along the Via Cassia. Today, there are more than 100 pottery producers in Sesto Fiorentino, the first having been founded there in 1735 by Marquis Carlo Ginori. Now under the name Richard-Ginori, the company is still located in Sesto, which also hosts a state school for teaching pottery, L'Istituto Statale d'Arte. Notable buildings in Sesto Fiorentino include the beautiful Romanesque parish church of San Martino and the Palazzo Pretorio, built at the end of the 15th century as the seat of the podestà, the local representative of Florentine authority. The 15th century façade is still decorated with the coats of arms of the families who exercised power over the town between the 15th and 16th centuries.

The new Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
has been the home of the festival since 2014

Travel tip:

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual festival in Florence that has been held since 1933. It was started by Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano, a politician and entrepreneur who also founded the AC Fiorentina football club, in conjunction with the conductor Vittorio Gui and another politician, Carlo Delcroix, who was its first president. It usually takes place from the end of April to the beginning of July and includes operas, concerts, ballets and prose performances. It has its origins in the ancient tradition of the musical festivals of May, called maggiolate. Originally, the festival was staged at the Teatro Comunale in Corso Italia, on the edge of the city’s historic centre, about 1.5km (1 mile) from the Ponte Vecchio along the Arno river.  Since 2014, the festival has had its own base at the new Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, situated less than a kilometre away on land opposite the public park known as Le Cascine. Designed by Paolo Desideri, it was inaugurated in 2011 with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Zubin Mehta. The square in front of the theatre is named Piazza Vittorio Gui in honour of the festival’s founder.

Also on this day:

1465: The birth of statesman and political adviser Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara

1918: The death of opera composer and librettist Arrigo Boito

1940: Italy enters World War Two

1959: The birth of football manager Carlo Ancelotti

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Anna Caterina Antonacci – soprano

Acclaimed performer has perfected her portrayal of Rossini heroines

Anna Caterina Antonacci's vocal 
skills were largely self-taught

Italian opera singer Anna Caterina Antonacci, who is considered one of the finest sopranos of her generation, was born on this day in 1961 in Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna.

Particularly known for her roles in Rossini’s operas, Antonacci has been awarded many prizes and honours during her career. In 2021, she was elected as one of the ‘Accademici Effettivi’, by the panellists of the General Assembly of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest, and most prestigious, musical institutions in the world.

After studying in Bologna, Antonacci entered the chorus at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in 1981. She made her solo debut in 1984 in Pistoia as the Contessa di Ceprano, in Rigoletto, by Giuseppe Verdi. In 1986, in Arezzo in Tuscany, she sang the role of Rosina, the heroine of Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera The Barber of Seville.

Eight years later, she made her debut at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in London as Elcia in Mosè in Egitto, another opera by Rossini. In 2006, Antonacci appeared at the Royal Opera House again, this time singing with the German-Austrian tenor, Jonas Kaufman.

Among her many operatic performances, the majority have been as a mezzo-soprano playing Rossini heroines, such as Dorliska in Torvaldo e Dorliska, Ninetta in La gazza ladra, Semiramide in Semiramide, Ermione in Ermione, Elisabetta in Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, Elena in La donna del lago, Zelmira in Zelmira, Elcia in Mosè in Egitto, Anaï in Moïse and Angelina in La Cenerentola.  

She has also appeared in La Voix Humaine, a one act opera for a soprano and orchestra, composed by Francis Poulenc, at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 2013.

Anna Caterina Antonacci (right, foot on stool) in
a scene from Bizet's Carmen on stage in Paris

The soprano was married to the Italian water polo player, Luca Giustolisi, who won a bronze medal in the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta in the USA, and they had a son, Gillo.

Sadly, Antonacci was widowed in 2023 after Luca Giustolisi died of cancer at the age of 53, and she went to live in Paris. She has been recognised by the French Government with the award of the Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Legion d’honneur, the highest national distinction anyone can receive in France.

She has won many prizes and awards during her career and has produced some acclaimed recordings of her operatic roles.

This summer (2025), Antonacci will be performing at Teatro Fenice in Venice, in the role of Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. 

She is now based at Verbier in Switzerland. 

The Castello Estense in Ferrara sits at
the heart of the historic city

Travel tip:

Ferrara, where Anna Caterina Antonacci was born, is a city in Emilia-Romagna, about 50 kilometres to the north east of Bologna. It was ruled by the Este family between 1240 and 1598 and they built an enormous castle for themselves to live in and to impress their guests. Building work on the magnificent, moated castle, which is in the centre of the city, began in 1385 and it was added to and improved by successive rulers of Ferrara until the end of the Este line. Parts of Ferrara have remained untouched in modern times and you can still see the narrow, mediæval streets to the west and south of the city centre, between the main thoroughfares of Via Ripa Grande and Via Garibaldi, which were part of the original core of the city in the middle ages. The impressive Este Castle was eventually purchased for 70,000 lire by the province of Ferrara in 1874, to be used as the headquarters of the Prefecture. Today, it is still  the highlight of the city for tourists to visit.

Pistoia's duomo, originally built in the
10th century, has a Romanesque facade

 

Travel tip:

Pistoia, where Anna Antonacci made her solo debut, is a pretty, mediæval walled city in Tuscany to the north west of Florence. The city developed a reputation for intrigue in the 13th century and assassinations in the narrow alleyways were common, using a tiny dagger called the pistole, which was made by the city’s ironworkers, who also specialised in manufacturing surgical instruments. The Cathedral of Saint Zeno, or the Duomo of Pistoia, is in the Piazza del Duomo in the centre of the city. Originally built in the 10th century, the cathedral has a façade in Romanesque style. Set around the Piazza del Duomo are the octagonal Battistero di San Giovanni in Corte, and the Palazzo dei Vescovi, an 11th-century palace. The palace was bought and restored by the Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia, a regional bank, in the late 20th century and it now houses a museum complex. 

Also on this day:

1498: The birth of condottiero Giovanni dalle Bande Nere

1521: The birth of architect Francesco Laparelli

1622: The birth of mathematician and scientist Vincenzo Viviani

1801: The birth of philosopher and politician Vincenzo Gioberti 

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Arturo Toscanini - conductor

Cellist who became orchestra leader by chance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Toscanini became one of the
most sought-after conductors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel tip:

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

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

Travel tip:

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

Also on this day:

1347: The birth of Saint Catherine of Siena

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

1546: The birth of poet and courtesan Veronica Franco

1625: The death of poet Giambattista Marino

1927: The birth of politician Tina Anselmi

1940: The birth of record-breaking pop star Mina 

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Giuseppe Sarti – composer

Musician and teacher whose work inspired Mozart 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel tip: 

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

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

Travel tip:

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

Also on this day:

1455: The death of sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti

1958: The birth of athlete Alberto Cova

1964: The birth of footballer Salvatore Schillaci

2003: The death of bobsleigh champion Eugenio Monti

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Giovanni Legrenzi – composer

Maestro’s Baroque music is still played today by enthusiasts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Ospedaletto, where Legrenzi
worked during his time in Venice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel tip:

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

The Basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore in Bergamo

Travel tip:

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

Also on this day:

1612: The death of composer Giovanni Gabrieli

1861: The death of anarchist Luigi Galleani

1901: The death of politician Francesco Crispi

1943: The death of mountain photographer Vittorio Sella

1990: The birth of footballer Mario Balotelli

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Francesco Morlacchi - composer

Umbrian popularised Italian opera in Dresden

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel tip:

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

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

Travel tip:

Teatro La Fenice in Venice, for which Morlacchi wrote his most successful opera, Tebaldo and Isolina, has had a fascinating history. The theatre, in Campo San Fantin, which is not far from Piazza San Marco, was named La Fenice, the Phoenix, when it was originally built in the 1790s, to reflect the fact it was helping an opera company rise from the ashes after its previous theatre had burnt down. But in 1836, La Fenice itself was destroyed by fire, although it was quickly rebuilt. Then in 1996, when the theatre burnt down again, arson was suspected, leading to a long criminal investigation. La Fenice had to be rebuilt once more at a cost of more than 90 million euros and was not able to reopen for performances until 2003.

Also on this day:

1497: The murder of Giovanni Borgia

1730: The birth of composer Antonio Sacchini

1800: The Battle of Marengo

1837: The death of poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi

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

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The night Maria Callas made an audience weep

La Scala witnesses a stunning performance

Maria Callas's interpretation of Violetta was
seen as the finest performance of her stage career

Maria Callas gave a stunning performance that has gone down in history as her greatest ever portrayal of Violetta in La traviata on this day in 1955 at Teatro alla Scala opera house in Milan.

After the opening night of the production on May 28, it was reported in the press that Callas had driven the audience into a frenzy with her wonderful singing and powerful acting as she played the part of Giuseppe Verdi’s doomed heroine, who was a beautiful courtesan.

The character of Violetta is considered by opera experts to be one of the three finest roles ever portrayed by Callas and it is ranked alongside her performances in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma and Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.  

The staging by director Luchino Visconti for the 1955 production of La traviata provided the perfect setting for Callas with its ornate décor and costumes.

The conductor, Carlo Maria Giulini, later confessed that he had wept in the orchestra pit as she had sung.

At the end members of the audience cried out Callas’s name, sobbed uncontrollably and showered the stage with red roses, which the tearful singer picked up as she took a solo bow.

Callas shone in Visconti's lavish
Belle Époque stage settings

This gesture proved too much for tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, who felt she was monopolising the attention of the audience. He stormed off the stage at the end of the performance and left the show for good that night.

Callas had moved the audience to tears in the scene where Violetta agrees to renounce Alfredo, the man she loves, to avoid spoiling the wedding prospects of his sister.

Sadly, Callas had only a few years of her career left ahead of her. After she left her husband for shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1959, she hardly ever performed on stage again. Onassis subsequently left her to marry Jackie Kennedy and Callas died in 1977, aged just 53. 

Thankfully, her performance on that memorable night was recorded and the complete May 28 production can still be listened to on CD, MP3 and streaming platforms.

Verdi’s opera La traviata had premiered at La Fenice opera house in Venice about 100 years earlier. It was based on the 1852 novel by Alexander Dumas, La dame aux camelias.

La traviata means ‘fallen woman’ and refers to the main character, Violetta, who is a courtesan. The opera featured some of the most challenging and revered music in the entire soprano repertoire.

Milan's Teatro alla Scala, opened in 1778, is the
most famous opera house in the world

Travel tip:

Teatro alla Scala in Milan is Italy’s most famous opera house and Maria Callas made her debut there in 1950 as Aida.  The theatre, known to Italians simply as La Scala, is the leading opera house in the world. It opened in 1778 after fire had destroyed the Teatro Regio Ducale, which had previously been the home of opera in Milan. A new theatre for the city was built on the site of the former Church of Santa Maria alla Scala, which is how the theatre got its name. It was designed by neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini. The world’s finest singers have appeared at La Scala during the last 240 years and the theatre has hosted the premieres of operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Puccini. La Scala’s original 18th century structure was renovated in 1907 and, after bomb damage during World War II, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1946.

The mediaeval Rocca Scaligera castle is the
dominant feature of the Sirmione skyline

Travel tip:

Maria Callas spent some happy years living in Sirmione, a resort on Lake Garda in Italy, after she married her first husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, an Italian businessman.  Villa Callas, which is still privately owned today, looks the same as it did when it was first purchased by Meneghini in the 1950s as a holiday home for the couple. There is a plaque outside the villa recording the dates when Maria Callas lived there. Sirmione, the historic centre of which is on a peninsula that divides the southern part of Lake Garda, is known for its thermal baths and Rocca Scaligera, a mediaeval castle overlooking the lake. Visitors can look round a museum dedicated to the life and performances of Maria Callas. At the the tip of the peninsula is the archaeological site of Grotte di Catullo, which encompasses a Roman villa, a museum and olive trees. 

Also on this day:

1369: The bith of condottiero Muzio Attendolo Sforza

1606: Caravaggio attacks and kills a man in Rome

1692: The birth of opera composer Geminiano Giacomelli

1839: The birth of author and journalist Luigi Capuana

1987: The birth of cricketer Leandro Jayarajah

1999: Da Vinci’s Last Supper goes back on display in Milan after 20 years of restoration

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