Faustina Bordoni - mezzo-soprano

Brilliant career overshadowed by infamous on-stage fight

A portrait of Faustina Bordoni by the
Venetian painter Rosalba Carriera

Faustina Bordoni, a feted mezzo-soprano ranked as one of the finest opera singers of the 18th century, was born on this day in 1697 in Venice.

Such was her popularity that when she joined her husband, the German composer Johann Adolf Hasse, in the employment of the Court of Saxony, where Hasse was maestro di cappella, her salary was double his.

Yet for all her acting talent and vocal brilliance, Bordoni is more often remembered as one half of the so-called ‘rival queens’ engaged by George Frideric Handel to join the company of the booming Royal Academy of Music in London in the 1720s, where she and the Italian soprano Francesca Cuzzoni allegedly came to blows on stage.

Born into a respected Venetian family, Bordoni’s musical talent was nurtured by the composers Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello and by her singing teacher, Michelangelo Gasparini. 

She made her debut in Venice at the age of 19 in Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's Ariodante. The quality of her voice excited the critics, while audiences were instantly charmed by her youthful beauty and stage presence.

Fame came quickly. As well as continuing to perform in her home city, where she performed for composers such as Tomaso Albinoni and Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, Bordoni sang in venues across Italy and in both Vienna and Munich. Her fans began to refer to her simply as ‘Faustina’.

Bordoni's singing rival,
Francesca Cuzzoni

Her rivalry with Cuzzoni, a soprano from Parma of approximately the same age, probably began in Venice, although it was not until Bordoni arrived in London in 1726 that it came to a head in dramatic fashion.

Cuzzoni had been in London since 1722, establishing herself as one of the stars of the Royal Academy alongside the celebrated castrato, Senesino. Already known for a fiery temper, she had once allegedly refused to perform a role when she discovered Handel had initially written it for someone else.

When Handel, under pressure from the theatre management to engage more singers so they could meet a growing demand for performances as opera’s popularity soared, announced that Bordoni would be joining them in London, Cuzzoni was said to be furious.

After Bordoni’s debut alongside Cuzzoni in Handel’s Alessandro, London opera fans began to divide into factions who favoured Faustina and others who preferred Cuzzoni.

Watching opera in the 1700s was very different from today. Although theatres had wealthy patrons, they also provided entertainment for the masses and audiences did not necessarily conduct themselves with decorum, even to the extent of booing a singer considered a rival to their favourite. 

Johann Adolf Hesse, to whom
Bordoni was married in 1730

The Cuzzoni-Bordoni rivalry came to a head when they were cast to appear alongside one another in a performance of Giovanni Bononcini’s opera Astianatte at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, in June 1727.

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

Although accounts in the newspapers were almost certainly exaggerated for dramatic effect, Cuzzoni was reported to have turned on Bordoni, sparking an exchange of insults. Soon they were said to have begun pulling at each other’s hair and tearing pieces from their costumes. After they were separated, the performance was abandoned.

Bordoni left England the following year after the Royal Academy was forced into closure with unsustainable debts, driven partly by the high salaries commanded by the singers.  She married Hasse in 1730 and they remained with the Saxon Court in Dresden for 30 years, enjoying the status of a celebrity couple. Bordoni sang in 15 operas written by her husband, as well as continuing to travel regularly to the major opera houses of Italy.

She and Hasse left Dresden for Vienna in 1763 and ultimately to Venice in 1773. Bordoni is said to have continued to sing into her 70s before settling into a comfortable retirement. She died in Venice in 1781 at the age of 84.

Teatro La Fenice opened
its doors in 1792

Travel tip:

Opera was so popular in Venice in the 18th century that the city boasted no fewer than seven opera houses. The biggest of these, the Teatro San Benedetto in San Marco, was destroyed in a fire in 1771. Rebuilt, it became the object of a legal dispute involving the Venier family, who owned part of the land on which the theatre was built. The Venier family won the case and the company running the theatre had to sell up. On a different site, they built another opera house and called in Teatro La Fenice - the Phoenix Theatre - to symbolise its rise from the flames. Work was completed in April 1792 and the new opera house inaugurated on 16 May with a performance of I giochi di Agrigento by Giovanni Paisiello, to a libretto by Alessandro Pepoli.

Travel tip:

Faustina Bordoni and her husband Johann Adolf Hasse are buried within the Church of San Marcuola in the Cannaregio district of Venice, overlooking the Grand Canal, opposite the Fontego dei Turchi, between Santa Lucia railway station and the Rialto.  The church is actually dedicated to Saints Ermagora and Fortunato. The name San Marcuola is thought to be rooted in Venetian dialect. The church is thought to have been built originally in the 12th century. It was restructured in the 18th century by Giorgio Massari in accordance with plans drawn up by Antonio Gaspari, but the façade remained unfinished.  The interior is notable for a Last Supper by Jacopo Tintoretto, thought to be one of the Venetian painter’s earliest works.  

Also on this day:

1282: Sicily rises up against the French

1815: The Proclamation that began the Risorgimento movement

1892: The birth of Futurist painter and graphic artist Fortunato Depero

1905: The birth of urban engineer and architect Ignazio Gardella

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Orazio Vecchi – composer

Late Renaissance church musician wrote madrigal comedies to entertain audiences

Vecchi mixed sacred music with
pieces written for entertainment

Orazio Vecchi, who is regarded as a pioneer of dramatic music because of his innovative madrigal comedies, died on this day in 1605 in the city of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region.

His most famous composition, L’Amfiparnaso, was always intended as music for entertainment. It was a set of 15 pieces that were dramatic in nature, although they were not meant for the stage.

Vecchi is known to have been baptised in December 1550 in Modena. He was educated  at a Benedictine monastery and took holy orders.

He knew composers of the Venetian school, such as Giovanni Gabrieli, and he composed himself in the form of sacred music, such as masses and motets, as well as canzonette and madrigals for entertainment.

Vecchi served as maestro di cappella at the cathedral of Salò and as choirmaster at the cathedral of Reggio Emilia. He then became a canon at Correggio, where he was able to compose prolific amounts of music during his time there, before moving back to Modena, where he served as a priest and also had charge of the choir.

A woodcut of an actor delivering the prologue of
Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso in Venice in 1597

In 1594 his madrigal comedy, L’Amfiparnaso, was premiered at Modena and it was published in an illustrated edition in 1597. In the same year, Vecchi visited Venice where he published a collection of canzonette. During his life, he published four volumes of sacred music and 13 volumes of canzonette, madrigals and madrigal comedies.

Duke Cesare d’Este appointed Vecchi his maestro di corte at the ducal court in Modena in 1598. The composer was put in charge of music at the court as well as the musical education of the Duke’s children. He accompanied the Duke to Rome and Florence in 1600 and while they were in Florence, Vecchi heard Jacopo Peri’s opera, Euridice. Vecchi died in Modena in 1605.

Vecchi has become renowned for his idea of grouping madrigals together in a new form called the madrigal comedy. This was light, popular, dramatic entertainment, which some regard as one of the precursors to opera. It included music of many types and even used burlesque and dramatic dialogue. There was no scenery and the audience would have been friends of the singers, so it cannot be considered as an early form of opera.

However, the sense of drama and contrast displayed in Vecchi’s work has caused experts to say that he led the way with dramatic music, even though they believe L’Amfiparnaso stands apart from the path that opera was to eventually take.

The Palazzo dei Principi in Corregio, which is
today home to a museum of archaeology and art

Travel tip:

Correggio, where Orazio Vecchi served as a canon and wrote much of his music, is a town in the Emilia-Romagna region. The Renaissance painter Antonio Allegri, who was known as Il Correggio, was born there in 1489. One of the main sights in Correggio is the elegant Palazzo dei Principi in Corso Cavour. In 1659 Correggio was annexed to the Duchy of Modena. The present Duke of Modena, Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este, is the current holder of the title of Prince of Correggio.

The Ducal Palace in Modena, which was built 
for Francesco I d'Este in the 17th century

Travel tip:

Modena, where Orazio Vecchi was born and died, is a city on the south side of the Po Valley in Emilia-Romagna. It is known for its car industry, as Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati have all been located there. The city is also well known for producing balsamic vinegar. Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Mirella Freni were both born in Modena. One of the main sights in the city is the huge, baroque Ducal Palace, which was begun by Francesco I on the site of a former castle in 1635, after Vecchi’s death. His architect, Luigi Bartolomeo Avanzini, created a home for him that few European princes could match at the time. The palace is now home to the Italian national military academy. 

Also on this day:

1461: The birth of cardinal and art collector Domenico Grimani

1743: The birth of cellist Luigi Boccherini

1953: The birth of actor and director Massimo Troisi

1977: The birth of operatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo

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Ennio Porrino - composer

Premature death robbed Italian music of great talent

Ennio Porrino is seen by some as
one of the greats of Italian opera

The composer Ennio Porrino, best known for his symphonic poem, Sardegna, and his opera, I Shardana, was born on this day in 1910 in Cagliari.

Porrino was critically acclaimed, his operas earning comparisons with the great Giacomo Puccini, although to some his reputation has been tarnished by his association with Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime. He was only 49 when he died in Rome.

His 1941 opera, Gli Orazi, has been interpreted as a ‘hymn to fascism’ by some critics, while his piece, The March of the Volunteer, was used by Mussolini’s short-lived Italian Social Republic as its anthem.

Little is known of Porrino’s early years. It is thought that his family moved to Rome when he was a small child and most accounts of his life begin with his studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, which he attended from the age of 17 and where he graduated in 1932.

He also studied with the composer Ottorino Respighi, who was keen to see his potential realised.  Respighi would be a significant influence on Porrino’s own work.

Porrino was not slow to make an impact in Roman musical circles. In 1931 he won an opera competition organised by the Giornale d'Italia newspaper. Two years later, his overture for orchestra, Tartarin de Tarascon, won the Accademia di Santa Cecilia’s own competition for the 25th anniversary concerts at the Teatro Augusteo, where it premiered under the baton of Bernardino Molinari. 

Porrino studied under the violinist and
composer Ottorino Respighi (above)

Molinari was the conductor in January of the following year when Porrino’s  symphonic poem Sardegna was performed for the first time. A tribute to a homeland Porrino was yet to understand and appreciate, Sardegna was based largely on the nostalgic tales passed to him by his Sardinian mother. The piece was widely appreciated and performed numerous times in Italy and abroad, as well as being included in the Italian music section of the 1935 Hamburg International Festival. 

Like Respighi, who died in 1936, Porrino championed an Italian national music movement faithful to its classical roots. He openly opposed modernist composers such as Alfredo Casella.

However, some academics argue that there was a dark side to Porrino’s enthusiasm for traditional Italian music, citing an article he wrote for an antisemitic journal, La difesa della razza - The Defence of Race - in 1938.

Under the title, La musica nella tradizione della nostra razza - Music in the tradition of our race - Porrino argued that Italian music was a fundamental component of Italian culture and national pride, but that it had been corrupted by internationalism, which was generally recognised as code for Judaism. 

His opposition to Casella, it has been suggested, might have had as much to do with the latter’s opposition to Mussolini’s despised race laws as his music. Casella also happened to be married to a French woman from a Jewish family.

Porrino was also excited by Mussolini’s dream of restoring Rome to its former grandeur as the heart of his Fascist empire and his promotion of what he saw as the masculine, dynamic values of so-called romanità (Roman-ness).

Gli Orazi told the story of the feud between the
Orazi and Curiazi families in 7th century Rome

In was in this context, perhaps, that Porrino wrote Gli Orazi, which is the story of a conflict between the Roman family of Horatius (Orazio) and that of Curiatius (Curiazio), from Alba Longa, just to the south of Rome, when the two cities are at war during the seventh century.

The one-act opera concludes with a victory for the Orazi in this feud and a celebration of Rome’s defeat of Alba in the war.  Porrino collaborated with the librettist Claudio Guastalla on Gli Orazi, as he had in completing Respighi’s unfinished opera, Lucrezia, after Respighi’s death. Guastalla, though he regarded himself unequivocally as Italian, was the son of Jewish parents and his name ultimately disappeared from the credits.

Nonetheless, Gli Orazi was staged with great success at La Scala in Milan in February 1941.  

After the fall of Mussolini and the defeat of the Fascists, the immediate post-war years saw Porrino devote more time to academic work than to composing. He was appointed professor of composition at the Rome Conservatory, and became a full member of both the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Luigi Cherubini Academy in Florence.

In 1946 he was appointed substitute librarian in the Library of the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples, where he also taught composition.  Later, he became director of the Pierluigi da Palestrina Conservatory of Cagliari, and conducted orchestral and choral performances in Naples and Venice.

Sardinia is dotted with the remains of nuraghe,
conical stone towers as old as the Shardana

He returned to opera composition triumphantly with I Shardana, a 1959 work set among the warrior race that spent much of its time defending Sardinia from foreign invaders during the Bronze Age.

Inspired by what Porrino had learned about his homeland after returning as an adult, the opera is regarded as one of the most important in Italy post 1945 and confirmed Porrino’s reputation, according to some critics, as the greatest Italian musician since Puccini.

It came as a profound shock, then, just a few months after I Shardana’s premiere at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, when it was reported in September 1959 that Porrino had died, following a sudden illness. He had been in Venice only a few days earlier, when his work La bambola malata, described as a pantomime, had been performed at the Venice International Festival of Contemporary Music.  

He left a widow, Malgari, a painter and theatrical designer, and a daughter, Stefania, born in 1957, who became a playwright and stage director in adulthood.

An orchestral performance inside the modern
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome

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 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.

A view from the sea similar to that which the
writer D H Lawrence might have experienced

Travel tip:

Cagliari, where Porrino was born, is Sardinia's capital, an industrial centre and one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean. Yet it is also a city of considerable beauty and history, most poetically described by the novelist DH Lawrence when he visited in the 1920s. As he approached from the sea, Lawrence set his eyes on the confusion of domes, palaces and ornamental facades which, he noted, seemed to be piled on top of one another. He compared it to Jerusalem, describing it as 'strange and rather wonderful, not a bit like Italy.’  What he saw was Cagliari’s charming historic centre, known as Castello, inside which the city’s university, cathedral and several museums and palaces - plus many bars and restaurants - are squeezed into a network of narrow alleys.

Also on this day:

1526: The birth of mathematician Rafael Bombelli

1920: The birth of film director Federico Fellini

1950: The birth of magazine editor Franca Sozzani

1987: The birth of motorcycle racer Marco Simoncelli

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La cambiale di matrimonio - opera

Rossini’s first professional work premieres in Venice

The title page of the libretto
for the opera, by Gaetano Rossi

La cambiale di matrimonio - the first opera by Gioachino Rossini to be performed before a paying audience - premiered at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice on this day in 1810.

Although the Pesaro-born composer, who would go on to write 39 operas including Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola (Cinderella), had tried his hand at the genre earlier, La cambiale di matrimonio was the first to be staged in public.

Rossini had written the one-act farce - translated in English as The Bill of Marriage or The Marriage Contract - in the space of just a few days while he was an 18-year-old student at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna.

Based on a play of the same name by Camillo Federici, an 18th century dramatist from Piedmont, La cambiale di matrimonio revolves around the attempts by a London merchant, Tobias Mill, to marry off his daughter, Fanny, to a somewhat mature Canadian businessman by the name of Slook.

Mill makes this arrangement, which is designed primarily for his own financial gain, without knowing that Fanny has a lover, Edward Milfort, whose existence she has kept secret from her father on account of his lowly financial status.

The action takes place in the drawing room of the Mill house, where Edward and Fanny are together at just the moment Slook arrives.

La cambiale di matrimonio had a brief run, lasting just 13 performances, but the presence of a well-regarded mezzo-soprano, Rosa Morandi, in the role of Fanny attracted attention and the two baritones cast as Mill and Crook are said to have played to the gallery as the composer intended.

The young Rossini wrote a series of
farces for the Teatro San Moisè

Rossini himself was pleased enough with one aria, performed by Morandi, that he used it as the basis for a duet between Figaro and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, which premiered in 1816, by which time the composer was enjoying enormous fame and the wealth that came with it.

The Teatro San Moisè, meanwhile, invited the young Rossini to compose more works along the same lines. He obliged by delivering three more farces, L'inganno felice (The Fortunate Deception), La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) and Il signor Bruschino.

Active from 1620 to 1818, the Teatro San Moisè, which could be found near the start of the Grand Canal and just a few steps from Piazza San Marco, was a small theatre but an influential one.

Its first opera production was Claudio Monteverdi's L'Arianna in 1640, while in the 18th century the music of the Baroque composers Francesco Gasparini, Antonio Vivaldi and Tomaso Albinoni was frequently performed there. 

When the Neapolitan opera buffa genre arrived in Venice in the 1740s, San Moisè became something of a showcase for the genre, staging works by Baldassare Galuppi, who formed a partnership with the brilliant playwright and librettist, Carlo Goldoni.

The theatre closed in 1818 and was later revived as a puppet theatre and a cinema but the building was demolished in the 20th century.

The church of San Moisè contains works
by Tintoretto and Palma il Giovane

Travel tip:

The church of San Moisè, from which the theatre took its name, can be found just 124m (135 yards) from Piazza San Marco in Campo San Moisè, flanked on one side by the modern, five-star Hotel Bauer and on the other by the Venice stores of Versace and Prada. Built originally in the eighth century, the church’s elaborately decorated Baroque facade was added in the late 17th century to a design by the Padua architect Alessandro Tremignon. The interior is dominated by Heinrich Meyring's huge altarpiece, depicting Moses at Mount Sinai receiving the Tablets. The Old Testament prophets were considered by the Venetians as saints. Also inside are a Washing of the Feet by Tintoretto and a Last Supper by Palma il Giovane.

The Ducal Palace in Pesaro was commissioned
by ruler Alessandro Sforza in the 15th century

Travel tip:

Pesaro, while a major centre for tourism due to its location on the Adriatic coast, is also a former mediaeval city of some standing, ruled by Giovanni Sforza between 1483 and 1510. It had a 15th century Ducal Palace, commissioned by Alessandro Sforza, one of Giovanni’s ancestors, and an imposing castle, the Rocca Costanza, built by Costanza I Sforza, the condottiero who was Alessandro’s son. Today, it is known as the city of music. Each summer, in honour of Gioachino Rossini, born in 1792, it hosts the Rossini Opera Festival, and the town is home to the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Gioachino Rossini, which was founded from a legacy left by the composer.

Also on this day:

1560: The birth of painter Annibale Carracci

1801: The birth of composer Vincenzo Bellini

1908: The birth of politician Giovanni Leone

1918: The Villa Giusti Armistice

1931: The birth of actress Monica Vitti

Home

Leonardo Leo - composer

Baroque musician known for his sense of humour

Leonardo Leo wrote or contributed to
more than 70 operas, mainly comic

A prolific composer of comic operas, Leonardo Leo was born on this day in 1694 in San Vito degli Schiavoni (now known as San Vito dei Normanni) in Apulia.

His most famous comic opera was Amor vuol sofferenza - Love requires suffering - which he produced in 1739. It later became better known as La finta frascatana, and received a lot of praise, but Leo was equally admired for his serious operas and sacred music. He has been credited with forming the Neapolitan style of opera composition.

He was enrolled as a young boy as a student at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples and was a pupil first of Francesco Provenzale and later of Nicola Fago. It has been speculated that he may have been taught by Alessandro Scarlatti, but it has since been proved by music historians that he could not possibly have studied with the composer, although he was obviously influenced by his compositions.

Leo’s earliest known work was a sacred drama, L’infidelta abbattuta, which was performed by his fellow students in 1712, while he was still a teenager.

His first opera, Pisistrato, was produced at the court theatre in Naples in 1714 and was much admired.

As an adult Leo held various posts at the royal chapel in Naples while continuing to write for the stage and teach at the conservatory.

Leo was a major influence in the 
development of opera's Neapolitan school 

In 1722 he added comic scenes to Francesco Gasparini’s Bajazet for a performance in Naples. He then started to compose his own comic operas in Neapolitan dialect, such as La ’mpeca scoperta in 1723 and L’Alidoro in 1740.

His most famous serious operas were Demofoonte (1735), Famace (1737) and L’Olimpiade (1737). With L’Olimpiade he became the first composer to introduce the chorus into Neapolitan opera.

Handel was so impressed with Leo’s opera, Catone in Utica, that he used some of the music from it in a performance at the King’s Theatre in London in 1732.

Leo died of a stroke in 1744 while he was composing new arias for a revival of his acclaimed opera, La finta frascatana.

Experts believe Leo was the first composer of the Neapolitan School to achieve a complete mastery over modern harmonic counterpart and agree that in his comic operas he reveals a keen sense of humour. He was to be one of the last major Italian Baroque composers and was well regarded as a teacher, with Niccolò Piccinni and Niccolò Jommelli among his students.

Leo wrote or contributed to about 70 operas, as well as composing oratorios, masses and instrumental works, some of which are still performed and are available on contemporary recordings. His Miserere (🎵Listen 🎵) for double choir and orchestra is regarded as his signature piece.

The Corso Leonardo Leo in San Vito dei Normanni
is typical of the town's quaint narrow streets

Travel tip:

San Vito dei Normanni, where Leonardo Leo was born, is a town with a population of around 20,000, situated about 24km (15 miles) west of Brindisi in the area of Puglia known as Salento. An attractive town of narrow streets lined with baroque-style churches and palaces and numerous restaurants and bars, it was formerly known as San Vito degli Schiavoni on account of a large number of Slavs - Schiavoni in Italian - who settled in the area after migrating from Dalmatia, on the opposite side of the Adriatic, to escape persecution by the Saracens in the 10th century. The town’s history, though, dates back much further, with archaeological remains discovered that show the area was inhabited during the Bronze Age. Things to see include the medieval Castello di Dentice Frasso, sometimes known as the Castello di San Vito, which overlooks the main piazza, and the beautiful Baroque church of San Giovanni Evangelista, built in soft Lecce stone.

Inside the Church of the Pietà dei Turchini, which
dates back to the time of the conservatory

Travel tip:

Founded in 1583, the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini, where Leonardo Leo was a pupil, was the longest running of four Naples conservatories that were ultimately incorporated into the Real Collegio di Musica, which became the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella. Like the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio a Capuana, another of the four, it had been a charitable institution for the care of orphans and abandoned children. The church of the Pietà dei Turchini, which was built at around the same time as the conservatory, stands in Via Medina in the centre of Naples, not far from the Teatro di San Carlo opera house.

Also on this day:

1607: The birth of cardinal and arts patron Antonio Barberini

1623: The birth of composer Antonio Cesti

1953: The birth of Felice Casson - politician and magistrate

2002: The death of novelist Franco Lucentini

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Salvatore Fisichella - operatic tenor

Singer was called the most outstanding interpreter of Bellini of his day

Salvatore Fisichella began
singing as a small child 

Opera singer Salvatore Fisichella, who won international acclaim for his interpretations of the leading roles in Bellini’s operas, was born on this day in 1943 in Catania in Sicily.

Recognised for the ease and vocal brilliance of his singing, Fisichella has specialised in performing in bel canto operas, especially those of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini.

He began singing when he was a small child at family parties. He was taught music at the local seminary and from the age of ten sang solos during church services.

After leaving the seminary, Fisichella attended a secondary school that had a science-based curriculum and then studied to become a surveyor.

Once he had qualified as a surveyor, he had little time for singing, but one day he was invited to the wedding of one of his clients. Fisichella had drawn up the plans for the couple’s new home, but on the day of the wedding he found himself filling in for the tenor, who had been scheduled to perform but whose arrival was delayed. 

Fisichella's operatic 
debut came in 1971

The bride, who had specifically requested Ave Maria, was so upset she threatened to postpone the wedding, however Fisichella saved the day by offering to sing in his place. To everyone’s amazement, he sang the part of the tenor perfectly to great acclaim and was even praised by the tenor himself, who had arrived just in time to hear him.

His interest reawakened, Fisichella began working under Maria Gentile, a soprano from Catania who had become a singing teacher. He listened to the singing of Mario del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi and Gianni Raimondi and occasionally took part in small concerts. His breakthrough came when he won a prestigious singing competition in Spoleto.

In 1971, he was engaged by the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma for two performances of Rigoletto and seven performances of I puritani with Mirella Freni . A year later he  was back at the theatre again to appear with Mirella Freni in Gounoud’s Faust. In 1973 he made his debut at the Teatro Bellini in his home town of Catania in La bohème.

Fisichella subsequently performed all over the world in the top theatres and concert halls and enjoyed enthusiastic receptions and glowing reviews.

Fisichella once received a 
22-minute standing ovation

In Pesaro in 1975 he became one of the few tenors to rise to the challenge of Rossini’s Messa di Gloria, a score avoided by many bel canto tenors. In 1985, Theatre magazine said he was ‘a tenor to rival Domingo and Pavarotti’. The following year he performed for the first time at the Met in New York alongside Joan Sutherland and was a resounding success.

In 1992 in Paris, he received a 22-minute standing ovation following his performance at the Concerto Belliniano at the Champs Élysées opera house. The French press declared him the most outstanding interpreter of Bellini of his day. In 1994 he was awarded the Bellini D’Oro prize by the Sicilian Tourist Authority. Fisichella continued to perform on the international stage well into this millennium and now passes on his technique and experience by giving masterclasses to up and coming young tenors.

Fisichella lives in Sant’ Agata li Battiati near Catania with his wife, Fiorella, He has a son, Filippo and daughter Lucia Martina (Lulu), who also enjoys singing.

Salvatore Fisichella celebrates his 79th birthday today.

Catania sits in the shadow of Mount Etna,
the still-active volcano

Travel tip:

Salvatore Fisichella’s home city of Catania is one of the ten biggest cities in Italy, and the seventh largest metropolitan area in the country, with a population including the environs of 1.12 million. Located on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, it has twice been destroyed by earthquakes, in 1169 and 1693. With Mount Etna looming in the background, it can be compared in some respects with Naples, which sits in the shadow of Vesuvius, in that it lives with the constant threat of a natural catastrophe and as such it has always been a city for living life to the full. In the Renaissance, it was one of Italy's most important cultural, artistic and political centres and enjoys a rich cultural legacy today, with numerous museums and churches, theatres and parks and many restaurants.  

The beautiful Basilica
della Collegiata

Travel tip:

Catania is notable for its Baroque city centre, which is a UNESCO heritage site, but also has some outstanding classical buildings, ancient remains buried over the centuries.  Greek and Roman cities built on the site of the present city disappeared under layers of lava from Etna's eruptions but parts of them have been unearthed, including an impressive Greek-Roman theatre.  Among the many fine examples of the Sicilian Baroque style, which is typical of the island, including the beautiful Basilica della Collegiata, with its six stone columns and the concave curve of its façade. A prominent architect was Vincenzo Sinatra, a pupil of Rosario Gagliardi, who had been influenced by Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s work in Rome. 

Also on this day:

1567: The baptism of composer Claudio Monteverdi

1902: The birth of band leader Pippo Barzizza

1936: The birth of actress Anna Maria Alberghetti

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Leo Nucci – operatic baritone

Singer renowned for his interpretation of Rigoletto

Leo Nucci's voice has maintained
its power even in his 70s

One of the most famous baritones in the world, Leo Nucci, was born on this day in 1942 in Castiglione dei Pepoli, a small town south of Bologna and, since making his stage debut in 1967, has been delighting opera audiences for more than 50 years.

The singer has performed his signature role of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto more than 500 times all over the world. He had planned to retire in 2020, but changed his mind during the first Covid-19 lockdown when the area around his home near the city of Lodi was declared a red zone and subject to the toughest restrictions imposed by the Italian government.

He has said that he lost colleagues and friends to Covid and had the opportunity for reflection while he remained at his home, listening to the sounds of nature, broken only by the sirens of hundreds of ambulances taking victims of the virus to hospital. It was then he realised he ought to move forward in his career and play his role as a singer fully in order to be useful to others.

At the start of his career, Nucci studied with Giuseppe Marchese and won several singing competitions. He first appeared on stage in Spoleto as Figaro in Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. He then joined the chorus of La Scala in Milan. He made his solo debut there in 1975 when he again played Figaro.

He quickly became an international star and made his debut at London’s Royal Opera House in 1978 as Miller in Verdi's Luisa Miller. He played Renato/Ankerstrom in Un ballo in maschera, also by Verdi, at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1980. He then played the same role at the Paris Opera in 1981.

Nucci in his signature role, Rigoletto, which
he has performed more than 500 times

During his career he has appeared with such stars as Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland and Placido Domingo. In 2019, Nucci sang during the celebrations for the Verdi anniversary Verdi in Parma. Long associated with Verdi's baritone roles, Nucci’s singing and acting abilities have been displayed most notably in the roles of Rigoletto, Macbeth, the Count di Luna in Il trovatore, Iago in Otello and Falstaff.

He is married to the soprano Adriano Anelli, with whom he has a daughter. They first met in La Scala’s restaurant and, three and a half years after they were married, they appeared in Rigoletto together.

After lockdown restrictions were lifted in Italy, Nucci returned to the stage at the age of 78 in Verdi's La traviata, which was performed at La Scala and at the Arena di Verona.

He has been a trombone player for many years but more recently has learnt to play the cello. He has also embarked on directing the staging of operas, drawing on his years of performing experience.

The Palazzo Pepoli in Castiglione dei Pepoli
dates back to the late 15th century

Travel tip:

Castiglione dei Pepoli, Nucci's place of birth, can be found about 55km (34 miles) south of Bologna in Emilia Romagna, at the foot of Monte Gatta, in the Bolognese Apennines, on the border with Tuscany. It enjoys spectacular views over the valley of Brasimone. The small town takes its name from the noble Pepoli family of Bologna. At the centre, a small medieval square features the ancient Palazzo Pepoli, built towards the end of the 15th century, which is now the municipal administration headquarters. On the opposite side of the square stands a beautiful clock tower built in 1724.  According to legend, the nearby Santuario della Madonna di Bocca di Rio was built in the place where, in 1480, two shepherds had an apparition of the Virgin who asked them to erect in that forest a temple in her honour. The sanctuary has become a destination for pilgrimages from all over Italy.

Piazza della Vittoria in the centre of Lodi is
rated one of Italy's most beautiful squares

Travel tip:

Lodi, the city in the area where Nucci made his home, is in Lombardy, about 45km (28 miles) southeast of Milan and on the right bank of the River Adda. The main square, Piazza della Vittoria, has been listed by the Touring Club of Italy as among the most beautiful squares in Italy and it has porticoes on all four sides. Nearby Piazza Broletto has a 14th century marble baptismal font from Verona. Notable buildings include the 12th-century Romanesque cathedral, the 15th century church of the Incoronata. Lodi is an important agricultural and industrial centre noted for cheese, ceramics, wrought iron, and wool products. Historically, it is famous for being the scene of the first major battle led by the young Napoleon Bonaparte, who defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Lodi in 1796.  

Also on this day:

1118: The death of Adelaide del Vasto, Countess of Sicily

1839: The birth of politician Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudini

1858: The birth of gold prospector Felice Pedroni

1881: The birth of artist and illustrator Fortunino Matania

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Renata Scotto - soprano and opera director

Singer who stood in for Callas became an international star

After making her debut in 1952, Scotto had
established herself as a star within five years

Opera singer Renata Scotto, who was one of the leading sopranos in the world at the height of her career, was born on this day in 1934 in Savona in Liguria.

Admired for her musicality and acting ability, Scotto was one of the most popular singers during the bel canto revival of the 1960s, performing throughout Italy, and in the UK, America, Russia, Japan, Spain, France and Germany.

She sang opposite great tenors such as Mario del Monaco, Alfredo Kraus and Luciano Pavarotti.

Scotto made her stage debut on Christmas Eve 1952 at the age of 18 as Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, singing to a sold-out house in Savona, her home town. The next day she made her official debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan as Violetta. Shortly afterwards, she performed in Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in Savona.

In 1953 she appeared at Teatro alla Scala in Milan as Walter in Alfredo Catalani's La Wally alongside Renata Tebaldi and Mario del Monaco and, on the opening night, was called back for 15 curtain calls.

At the Edinburgh Festival in 1957 she stood in for Maria Callas, who had refused to appear saying she was ill, as Amina in La Scala’s production of Vincenzo Bellini’s La sonnambula. The performance was a great success and Scotto, at the age of 23, had become an international opera star.

Scotto also achieved much
success as a director 

In 1961 she performed the role of Amina again ,appearing with the tenor Alfredo Kraus at La Fenice in Venice.

For more than 40 years, Scotto performed more than 45 different roles in operas written by Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Ponchielli and many more composers.

In 1960, she married Lorenzo Anselmi, who was the first violinist at La Scala. They had two children and eventually the family made their home in America,  where Scotto had great success at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.  Lorenzo died in 2021 at the age of 87, by which time they had moved back to Italy, returning to Savona.

Since the 1990s, Scotto has been a stage director with many credits to her name. She won an Emmy Award for her telecast of La traviata at New York City Opera in 1995. In 2009, she won an Anton Coppola Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Renata Scotto celebrates her 88th birthday today.

Savona, a centre for shipbuilding, used to have
many iron works and foundaries

Travel tip:

Liguria’s third largest city after Genoa and La Spezia, Savona used to be one of the biggest centres of the Italian iron industry, the iron works and foundries providing materials for shipbuilding and railways among other things. It also has a busy port but as well as industrial areas the city has a charming medieval centre containing architectural gems such as the Baroque Cattedrale di Nostra Signora Assunta - behind which is Italy’s other Sistine Chapel, like the Rome version erected by Pope Sixtus IV - and the Fortezza del Priamar, built by the Genoese in 1542 after their conquest of the city and later used a prison. The popes Sixtus IV and Julius II were born in the city and it was there in 1830 that the revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini was imprisoned.   Food specialities include gnocchi with nettles, bardenulla (white polenta flavoured with leek and mushrooms) and tagliatelle with mushrooms.

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The Teatro Nuovo in Milan is part
of a modern shopping complex

Travel tip:

The Teatro Nuovo theatre in Milan, where Scotto made her official debut in Verdi’s La traviata in 1952, is located on the Piazza San Babila in the lower level of the Palazzo del Toro. It was designed by architect Emilio Lancia and was the project of the impresario Remigio Paone. It was inaugurated in December 1938 with a performance of Eduardo De Filippo's comedy Ditegli sempre di sì. Piazza San Babila is characterised by the presence of a fountain built in 1997 by the architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni in conjunction with the Ente Fiera Milano.

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More reading:

Powerful voice made Mario del Monaco the perfect Otello

A star who prospered despite Madama Butterfly debut flop

The tragedy of Alfredo Catalani's early death

Also on this day:

1607: The debut of Monteverdi’s first opera, L’Orfeo

1896: The birth of restaurateur Cesare ‘Caesar’ Cardini

1934: The birth of politician Bettino Craxi

1990: The death of former president Sandro Pertini

(Picture credits: Savona by Andrea Ridács via Pixabay)

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Baldassare Galuppi – opera composer

Musician from Burano had a talent for comic opera

Galuppi became a major figure
in the evolution of comic opera

The prolific Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi, who worked alongside the playwright Carlo Goldoni, died on this day in 1785 in Venice.

At the height of his career, Galuppi achieved international success, working at different times in Vienna, London and Saint Petersburg, but his main base was Venice, where he held a succession of prestigious posts during his life.

Galuppi was born on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon and was sometimes referred to as Il Buranello, a signature he used on his music manuscripts. His father was a barber who also played the violin in an orchestra, and is believed to have been his first music teacher.

At the age of 15, Galuppi wrote his first opera, which was performed at Chioggia and Vicenza. He then became harpsichordist at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.

In the early part of his career, Galuppi was successful in the opera seria genre, but after 1749 many of his operas were comic collaborations with the Venetian dramatist Carlo Goldoni. The most popular of his comic operas was his 1754 composition Il filosofo di campagna – The Country Philosopher.

He was one of the earliest opera composers to use the ensemble finale, in which all the characters appear together in a musical ensemble that carries the action forward to the end of the act. He was regarded as the father of comic opera - opera buffa - by the next generation of composers.

Carlo Goldoni, with whom
Galuppi worked successfully

Galuppi belonged to a group of composers, including Johann Adolph Hasse, Giovanni Battista Sammartini and C P E Bach, whose works all displayed a style of music that developed in Europe after the late Baroque era.

The composer held important positions with charitable and religious organisations in Venice and for these posts he composed a lot of sacred music. His most prestigious appointment was as maestro di cappella at the Doge’s chapel in St Mark’s Basilica. He was also a virtuoso performer and composer of music for keyboard instruments.

In 1741, Galuppi was invited to work in London, where he spent 18 months supervising productions for the Italian opera company at the King’s Theatre. At least four of the operas the company performed had been composed by Galuppi.

On his return to Venice, Galuppi continued to compose for the opera houses, often in partnership with the librettist Pietro Metastasio. He wrote his first comic opera, La forza d’amore in 1745.

He was invited to the court of Maria Theresa in Vienna in 1748, where he composed the music for Metastasio’s libretto Artaserse. He compressed four arias at the end of the first act into a single dramatic ensemble piece, which was seen as a breakthrough that strengthened the relationship of the music to the drama, although Metastasio was reported to have been unimpressed.

The King's Theatre in London's Haymarket,
where Galuppi worked for 18 months

When Galuppi returned to writing comic opera in 1749, he collaborated with Goldoni, who was fortunately happy for his libretti to be subservient to the music. Their joint works became very popular and by the 1750s Galuppi was judged by a music critic to be the most popular composer anywhere.

In 1794, he was summoned to be court composer to Catherine the Great to Saint Petersburg, where he composed both operas and sacred music and gave harpsichord recitals.

On his return to Venice, he continued to be a prolific composer of both operas and sacred music.  His last opera was La serva per amore which premiered in October 1773. In 1782, he conducted concerts to mark the visit to Venice of Pope Pius VI. His last known completed work was the 1784 Christmas mass for St Mark’s.

After Galuppi’s death, his body was buried in the church of San Vitale. The actors from the Teatro San Benedetto sang in a requiem mass for him at the church of Santo Stefano, which was paid for by local professional musicians.

Napoleon’s invasion of Venice in 1795 resulted in Galuppi’s manuscripts being either destroyed, lost or scattered around Europe.

Robert Browning wrote a poem, A Toccata of Galuppi’s, about the composer and his work, but it was not until the end of the 20th century that Galuppi’s compositions were revived in live performances and recordings.

The statue of Galuppi
in Piazza Galuppi

Travel tip:

Burano, where Baldassare Galuppi was born, is an island at the northern end of the Venetian lagoon and is known for its lace work and brightly coloured fishermen’s houses. More than 2,700 people live there and virtually all of the island has been built on, with very little green space. The island can be reached in about 45 minutes from St Mark’s Square in Venice by vaporetto. There is a statue of Galuppi in Piazza Galuppi, the main square. Burano’s church of San Martino has a leaning campanile and a painting of the Crucifixion by Giambattista Tiepolo.

Travel tip:

Baldassare Galuppi was buried in the former church of San Vitale (known as San Vidal) in Venice, although there is no gravestone for the composer there. The church has a 29 metre (94 feet) bell tower, or campanile, which was part of the original 1084 design, although it was rebuilt along with the church after a fire in 1105. The church is at one end of the Campo Santo Stefano and is now used as an event and concert hall.

Also on this day:

106BC: The birth of Cicero, Roman politician and philosopher

1698: The birth of poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio

1920: The birth of singer-songwriter Renato Carosone

1929: The birth of film director Sergio Leone

1952: The birth of politician Gianfranco Fini

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