Alessandro Manzoni – novelist

Writer who produced the greatest novel in Italian literature

A lithograph of the writer Alessandro Manzoni

Italy’s most famous novelist, Alessandro Manzoni, was born on this day in 1785 in Milan.

Manzoni was the author of I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), the first novel to be written in modern Italian, a language that could be understood by everyone.

The novel caused a sensation when it was first published in 1825. It looked at Italian history through the eyes of the ordinary citizen and sparked pro-unification feelings in many Italians who read it, becoming a symbol of the Risorgimento movement.

I promessi sposi is now considered to be the most important novel in Italian literature and is still required reading for many Italian schoolchildren.

Manzoni spent a lot of his childhood in Lecco, on Lago di Lecco, where his father’s family originated, and he chose to set his great work there.

Lago di Lecco is an arm of Lago di Como and is surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery that is so stunning it is said to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci for settings for his paintings.

More than two centuries later, fans of Manzoni’s novel continue to visit Lecco to see the places he described and the buildings featured in the book that remain.

The excellent Trattoria Vecchia Pescarenico
in the fisherman's quarter in Lecco that
featured in Manzoni's I promessi sposi

When visiting Lecco it is well worth taking the time to visit the historic fishermen’s quarter of Pescarenico, which was immortalised in I promessi sposi. It was the setting for Padre Cristoforo’s convent in the book and it was also from Pescarenico’s shore that one of the main characters, Lucia, set off in a boat to escape the clutches of the evil Don Rodrigo.

The village grew from a cluster of fishermen’s homes at the side of Lago di Lecco and an inn became established there in the 19th century.

Now named Trattoria Vecchia Pescarenico, the inn is at number eight in Via Pescarenico, a small street leading down to the side of the lake. Today it is an excellent restaurant specialising in seafood.

I promessi sposi created expressions and sayings that are still commonly used in Italian today, the most famous being: “Questo matrimonio non s’ha da fare…” (This marriage is not to be performed.)

This famous quote from the novel is still regularly used by Italians, in an ironic manner, when they are talking about weddings.

Manzoni died at the age of 88 after having had a fall on the steps of the church of San Fedele in Milan. There is now a statue of Manzoni in Piazza San Fedele.

Travel tip:

When you arrive in Lecco, it is a short walk from the railway station to the side of the lake. If you visit the Ufficio Informazione Turistiche (Tourist Information Office) in Via Sauro, just before you reach the lake, the staff will give you a free map of Lecco with places mentioned in the novel marked on it, such as Lucia’s house, Don Rodrigo’s castle and the famous marriage church. For more information about Lecco visit www.turismo.provincia.lecco.it.

  

The Casa Manzoni in Milan, where the author
lived until his death in 1873

Travel tip:

You can visit Casa Manzoni in Via Morone in Milan, where the author lived until his death in 1873 after his fall on the steps of the San Fedele church. The house is now used as the Centre for Manzoni Studies. The novelist’s tomb is in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan. 

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Also on this day:

1274: The death of philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas

1481: The birth of architect and painter Baldassare Peruzzi

1678: The birth of architect Filippo Juvara

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La traviata - the world's favourite opera

Verdi's masterpiece performed for the first time

The poster advertising the first performance of Verdi's
famous opera at Teatro La Fenice in Venice

Giuseppe Verdi's opera, La traviata, was performed in front of a paying audience for the first time on this day in 1853.

The premiere took place at Teatro La Fenice, the opera house in Venice with which Verdi had a long relationship, one that saw him establish his fame as a composer.  La traviata would ultimately cement his reputation as a master of opera after the success of Rigoletto and Il trovatore.

La traviata has become the world's favourite opera, inasmuch as no work has been performed more often, yet the reception for the opening performance was mixed, to say the least.

Reportedly there was applause and cheering at the end of the first act but a much changed atmosphere in the theatre in the second act, during which some members of the audience jeered.  Their displeasure was said to be aimed in part at the two male principals, the baritone Felice Varesi and the tenor Lodovico Graziani, neither of whom was at his best.  There was also criticism of the soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, the first to be given the role of Violetta, the opera's heroine.

Although an acclaimed singer, Salvini-Donatelli was 38 years old and somewhat overweight, whereas Verdi's character was both young and slight and, of course, would ultimately die from consumption.  Verdi had tried in vain to persuade the manager at La Fenice to re-cast the role with a younger singer.  He had also been overruled over his wish to give the opera a modern setting, in which he had the support of the librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, because the management insisted that the story be set in the past, in around 1700.

Dismayed, Verdi condemned the premiere as a failure, making it clear that he blamed the choice of singers.  Impresarios from other cities were eager to put on their own productions but Verdi was reluctant to allow the opera to be staged anywhere if he could not be given assurances over the casting.

In the end, more than a year after its debut, he allowed the opera to be performed again at Teatro San Benedetto, also in Venice, with the much younger Maria Spezia-Aldighieri in the role of Violetta. This time it was a huge success.

La traviata -- generally translated as 'the fallen woman' -- is the story of the ailing courtesan Violetta, who initially resists but then falls for a young admirer, Alfredo, for whom she gives up her party life in Paris to settle in the countryside.

Their blissful relationship is shattered, however, when Violetta is persuaded by Alfredo's father to turn away from his son for the sake of his daughter, whose own engagement is threatened because of the family's links with a courtesan.

Plácido Domingo, who has sung both
tenor and baritone roles in La traviata
Photo: Rmm413 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Unaware of the truth, Alfredo suspects Violetta's former lover, Baron Douphal, of being behind her change of heart, and confronts the two at a party in Paris.  Ultimately, having got the better of the Baron at the gaming table, Alfredo insults Violetta by throwing his winnings at her feet as payment for her services.

They are reconciled only when Violetta falls gravely ill with tuberculosis, or consumption as it was then called, and Alfredo's father tells him the truth just in time for him to arrive at her bedside and ask for forgiveness moments before she dies in his arms.

Verdi based the story of that of a real Parisian courtesan, Marie Duplessis, who similarly died from consumption but was immortalised by Alexandre Dumas fils, the French writer and dramatist, in his novel, La Dame aux Camélias, based on the relationship he had with Duplessis.

A huge success after it was published just eight months after her death, the novel was turned into a stage drama by Dumas and Verdi is said to have seen it while staying in Paris with his lover, the singer Giuseppina Strepponi.

As well as being performed at opera houses around the world, La traviata has twice been made into a film, notably by Franco Zeffirelli in 1982, when Plácido Domingo starred as Alfredo opposite the Canadian soprano, Teresa Stratas.  Domingo, then only 41, has in more recent years taken the role of Alfredo's father, Giorgio, which is normally assigned to a baritone.

A lavish new production, directed by the American film director Sofia Coppola with the support of the fashion designer, Valentino, is to be staged at the Opera of Rome in May of this year.

The Teatro San Benedetto, which is nowadays a cinema,
was Venice's major opera venue before La Fenice

Travel tip:

The Teatro San Benedetto, which was situated just 200 metres away from La Fenice's location in the San Marco district of Venice, predates La Fenice and itself staged the premieres of more than 140 operas but after a legal battle in the late 18th century forced a change of ownership the theatre declined in importance.  Its name changed to Teatro Venier, Teatro Gallo and finally Teatro Rossini, in honour of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini but as La Fenice flourished it never regained its position as Venice's major opera venue.  In the 1930s it was remodelled as a cinema and although the original building was demolished in 1951 the theatre was reconstructed on the same site in Salita del Teatro and now forms part of the Multisala Rossini, which is Venice's largest cinema.

The statue of Verdi in Busseto
Photo: Viva-Verdi (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Travel tip:

Giuseppe Verdi was born at Le Roncole, a village in the Parma province of Emilia-Romagna in 1813 and moved in 1824 to the nearby town of Busseto, which stages an annual opera competition, Voci Verdiane (Verdian Voices), and has a number of monuments to the composer, including the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi.  The Casa Barezzi, close to Busseto's main square, was the home of Antonio Barezzi, Verdi's first patron.  Since 2001 it has housed a permanent exhibition of objects and documents relating to Verdi, including his first portrait and a number of letters.  For more information, visit www.museocasabarezzi.it

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More reading:

Verdi - Italy's mourning for the death of a national symbol

Rigoletto's debut at La Fenice

How rival fans wrecked the premiere of Rossini's Barber of Seville

Also on this day:

1483: The birth of historian Francesco Guicciardini

1933: The birth of Augusto Odone, inventor of 'Lorenzo's oil'

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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo – artist

 Painter’s decorative work can be seen all over Venice

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: self-portrait

Painter and print maker Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was born on this day in 1696 in Venice.

Also sometimes known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, his output was prolific and he enjoyed success not only in Italy, but in Germany and Spain as well.

Highly regarded right from the beginning of his career, he has been described by experts as the greatest decorative artist of 18th century Europe. Although much of his work was painted directly on to the walls and ceilings of churches and palaces in his native Venice, many of Tiepolo’s paintings on canvas are now in art galleries all over the world.

Tiepolo was the youngest child of a Venetian shipping merchant who died a year after his birth leaving his mother to struggle to bring up her six children alone.

In 1710 he became a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini, a successful established painter, but Tiepolo quickly developed a style of his own.

His earliest known works are depictions of the apostles, which form part of the decoration of the interior of the Church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti at Ospedaletto in Venice , painted in 1717.

The Church of Santa Maria dei
Derelitti in Venice, where can be
found Tiepolo's earliest work

Tiepolo was commissioned to produce portraits for the Doge and he started painting frescoes directly on to the walls of churches in 1717.

In 1719 Tiepolo married Maria Cecilia Guardi, the sister of painters Francesco Guardi and Giovanni Antonio Guardi and they had nine children. Two of his sons, Domenico and Lorenzo, eventually painted with him as assistants.

Tiepolo was commissioned to produce paintings for many churches in Venice but also for the interiors of palaces in Milan and for the Colleoni Chapel in Bergamo.

At the request of a German prince, Tiepolo travelled to Wurzburg in 1750 to produce ceiling paintings for his palace.

He returned to Venice where he continued to produce paintings for churches and palaces until in 1761 he was invited to Madrid by King Charles III to create a ceiling fresco for the throne room of the Royal Palace. He fulfilled other commissions in Madrid, although he had to put up with jealousy from the other artists working for the king at the time. Tiepolo died in Madrid in 1770.

The meeting of Anthony and
Cleopatra, depicted by Tiepolo,
can be found in Palazzo Labia

Travel tip:

Palazzo Labia in Fondamenta Labia in Venice has frescoes in the ballroom depicting the life of Cleopatra, painted by Tiepolo between 1745 and 1750. The prestigious palace is on the wide Cannaregio Canal , close to its junction with the Grand Canal , but the entrance to it is off Campo San Geremia. The palace sometimes holds free classical concerts in the magnificently decorated ballroom, or visitors can arrange to see the frescoes by appointment.

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Travel tip:

The Church of the Gesuati in Fondamenta delle Zattere in Venice has a ceiling frescoed by Tiepolo with scenes from The Life of St Dominic. The impressive work of art, painted between 1737 and 1739, demonstrates the artist’s amazing mastery of light and colour.

More reading:

Francesco Guardi, one of the last great artists of the Venetian school

Titian, the old master of Venice who set new standards

The boundless energy of Tintoretto

Also on this day:

1827: The death of scientist Alessandro Volta

1834: The birth of 19th century opera star Marietta Piccolomini

1922: The birth of writer and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini

Selected books:

Tiepolo, by Renzo Villa Giovanni

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Antonio Vivaldi – Baroque composer

The success and the sadness in the life of musical priest 

A portrait of Antonio Vivaldi painted by an
anonymous artist in around 1723

Violinist, teacher, composer and cleric Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on this day in Venice in 1678.

Widely recognised as one of the greatest Baroque composers, he had an enormous influence on music throughout Europe during his own lifetime.

His best-known work is a series of beautiful violin concertos called The Four Seasons.

Vivaldi was a prolific composer who enjoyed a lot of success when his career was at its height.

As well as instrumental concertos he composed many sacred choral works and more than 40 operas.

Vivaldi’s father taught him to play the violin when he was very young and he became a brilliant performer. At the age of 15 he began studying to be a priest and he was ordained at the age of 25. He soon became nicknamed ‘Il Prete Rosso’, the red priest, because of his red hair.

He became master of violin at the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage in Venice, and composed most of his works while working there during the next 30 years.

The orphaned girls received a musical education and the most talented pupils stayed on to become members of the Ospedale’s orchestra or choir. Vivaldi wrote concertos, cantatas and sacred vocal music for them to perform.

Listen to Vivaldi's 'Summer' concerto from The Four Seasons, performed by the Italian chamber orchestra I Musici

His first opera was produced in Vicenza in 1713 and he was invited to Mantua to be director of music for the city’s governor in 1718.

At the height of his career, Vivaldi received commissions from European nobility and royalty. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI he moved to Vienna with the intention of staging some of his operas there. But Charles VI died shortly after his arrival, leaving the composer with no income or royal protection.

Vivaldi became impoverished and died in 1741 following an infection. He was given the equivalent of a pauper’s funeral in Vienna.

The Church of La Pietà. Photo:
Didier Descouens (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Travel tip:

Vivaldi was baptised by the midwife immediately after his birth at his family’s home in the Castello district of Venice. His official church baptism took place two months later at the simple Gothic-style Church of San Giovanni Battista in Bragora in Campo Bandiera e Moro in Castello.

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Travel tip:

The Church of La Pietà, or Santa Maria della Visitazione, on Riva degli Schiavoni facing the lagoon, dates back to the 15th century. It started its life as a foundling home for orphans. From 1703 till 1740 Vivaldi directed the Pietà’s musical groups and composed music for the orchestra and choir. The church is now a regular venue for concerts featuring Vivaldi’s music. 

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More reading:

How Giovanni Gabrieli inspired the spread of the Baroque music style

Tomaso Albinoni, Venetian who composed a famously haunting adagio

Francesco Gasparini, the musical director who took Vivaldi on at the Ospedale della Pietà

Also on this day:

1848: The first Italian Constitution is agreed

1943: The birth of singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla

Selected books:

The Vivaldi Compendium, by Michael Talbot

Vivaldi: Red Priest of Venice, by Susan Adams


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