Ruggero Raimondi - opera star

Singer overcame shyness to become a great bass-baritone

Ruggero Raimondi 

The bass-baritone singer Ruggero Raimondi, who would become famous for his performances in the operas of Verdi, Rossini, Puccini and Mozart, was born on this day in Bologna in 1941.

Blessed with a mature voice at an early age, he was soon encouraged to pursue a career in opera and enrolled at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan at the age of only 16, later continuing his studies in Rome at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

He won a national competition for young singers in Spoleto and made his debut in the same Umbrian city in 1964 in the role of Colline in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème in 1964. Soon afterwards, he appeared in the leading role of Procida in Verdi’s I vespri siciliani at the Rome Opera House.

Raimondi was also studying accountancy, wary that his ambitions in opera might not materialise.  But then came an audition at La Fenice opera house in Venice, after which Raimondi was offered a five-year contract.

Naturally shy, he struggled with the acting element to operas but was able to conquer his inhibitions with the help of acting lessons and work with a vocal coach who taught him interpretation.

Raimondi added acting skills to his singing 

His reputation grew rapidly and within a short span of years he had performed at many of the world's leading opera venues. He made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1968 as Timur in Puccini’s Turandot and sang what would become one of his most popular roles as Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Glyndebourne Festival the following year.

Debuts followed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1970), the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (1972), the Paris Opera (1975) and the Salzburg Festival (1980).

His earlier nerves a thing of the past, Raimondi developed a commanding presence on stage that was noted by film-makers and on-screen roles in Don Giovanni, Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini's Tosca came his way.

His career thrived in the 1980s and 90s, when his many triumphs included playing the notorious chief of police Baron Scarpia in a production of Puccini's Tosca that was performed as a series of live television broadcasts from the very settings in Rome described in the libretto and at the intended times of day.

The cast -- which also included Placido Domingo and Catherine Malfitano -- therefore assembled for Act One at the Church of Sant' Andrea della Valle at noon and for Act Two at the Farnese Palace as the sun set on the first day of the production, reconvening for the concluding Act Three at Castel Sant' Angelo at dawn the next day.

More recently, in 2011, Raimondi sang Pagano in Verdi’s I Lombardi alla prima crociata in an another unusual production, a concert staged on the rooftop of Milan Cathedral to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification.

Married since 1987 to Isabel Maier, whom he met in Bilbao in Spain, Raimondi has four sons. Nowadays, he is an opera director and coaches opera students at the Bologna Conservatory.

Travel tip:

Bologna, the seventh largest city in Italy, is the historic capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, in northern Italy. Its hub is the Piazza Maggiore, a large square lined where with colonnades, notable for the 13th century Palazzo d'Accursio, which used to serve as Bologna's City Hall, the 16th century Fountain of Neptune and the 15th century Basilica di San Petronio.  Bologna is also famous for its porticoes, of which there are 38km (24 miles) in the historic centre.

La Rocca Albornoziana occupies a commanding position
overlooking the Umbrian town of Spoleto

Travel tip:

The historic and beautiful Umbrian hill town of Spoleto, home to the Instituzione Teatro Lirico Sperimentale at which Raimondi won a national competition for young singers, has an impressive 12th century cathedral among a number of interesting buildings and, standing on a hilltop overlooking the town, the imposing 14th century fortress, La Rocca Albornoziana.  Spoleto is famous, too, as the venue for the annual celebration of the performing arts, the Festival dei Due Mondi, which includes concerts in the Piazza del Duomo and performances in the Roman theatre and a number of churches.

(Black and white photo of  Raimondi by Menerbes CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Photo of La Rocca Albornoziana by Lahiri Cappello CC By 2.0)

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Saint Charles Borromeo

Great reformer earned appreciation after his death

This painting of Charles Borromeo is in the St.
Hermes Church in Ronse, Belgium

Charles (Carlo) Borromeo, a leading Catholic figure who led the movement to combat the spread of Protestantism, was born on this day in Milan in 1538. 

Part of the noble Borromeo family, he became a Cardinal and brought in many reforms to benefit the Church, which made him unpopular at the time.

But he was held in high regard after his death and was quickly made a saint by Pope Paul V.

Borromeo was born at the Castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore, near Milan. His father was Count of Arona and his mother was part of the Medici family.

He was educated in civil and canon law at the University of Pavia.

When his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici became Pope Pius IV in 1559, Borromeo was brought to Rome and given a post in the Vatican.

The following year the Pope made him a Cardinal and asked him to supervise the Franciscans, Carmelites and Knights of Malta and organise the last session of the Council of Trent, which was being held in Trento to reform the Church and counter the spread of Protestantism.  The Council issued a long list of decrees covering disputed aspects of the Catholic religion as well as denouncing what it considered to be heresies committed in the name of Protestantism.

When Borromeo’s older brother died, the family wanted him to leave the Church and marry and have children to continue the family name, but he would not give up his calling.

However, the death of his brother and also his contact with the Jesuits encouraged him to lead a stricter, more Christian life.

Borromeo was made a bishop in the Sistine Chapel in 1563 and became Archbishop of Milan in 1565.

The colossal statue of Charles Borromeo
in his home town of Arona on Lake Maggiore

Before he left Rome, where he had personally overseen church reforms, a nobleman remarked that the city was ‘no longer a place to enjoy oneself or make a fortune’.

Borromeo also reformed Milan after he arrived, simplifying church interiors, clearing away ornaments and banners and separating the sexes during worship.

He believed that many abuses in the church were caused by the ignorance of the clergymen and he established seminaries for the education of candidates for holy orders.

His reforms met with some opposition and a shot was once fired at him when he was in his own chapel. His survival was later considered to be miraculous.

When famine and plague struck Milan, Borromeo used all his own money and then got himself into debt in order to feed the hungry.

He faced increasing opposition while trying to implement the reforms to the Church dictated by the Council of Trent, but in 1584 he became ill with fever and died soon afterwards at the age of just 46.

Even a biographer who admired him described him as an ‘austere, humourless and uncompromising personality.’

But after Borromeo’s death his popularity increased and he was canonised in 1610 and eventually became venerated as a Saint of Learning and the Arts all over the world.

His nephew, Federico Borromeo, furthered his uncle’s support for learning by founding the Ambrosian Library in Milan.

Many churches, colleges, seminaries and even cities throughout the world have been named after Charles Borromeo.  The city of Saint Charles in Louisiana, for example, is named after him, as is the Brazilian city of São Carlos.

Travel tip:

Arona, where Charles Borromeo was born, is a town on Lake Maggiore in the province of Novara. One of its main sights is the Sancarlone, a giant statue of Saint Charles Borromeo made from bronze. It is second in size only to the Statue of Liberty and is believed to have been looked at by the architects of the Statue of Liberty when they were producing their own design.

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan

Travel tip:

The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Piazza Pio XI in Milan was established in 1618 to house paintings, drawing and statues donated to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, a library founded in the same building by Cardinal Federico Borromeo a few years before. In addition to works of art, the museum keeps curiosities such as the gloves Napoleon wore at Waterloo and a lock of Lucrezia Borgia’s hair, in front of which famous poets such as Lord Byron and Gabriele D’Annunzio spent a lot of time drawing inspiration. Visit www.leonardo-ambrosiana.it for more information.

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Attilio Pavesi - Olympic cycling champion

Rider from Emilia-Romagna won Italy's first road racing gold 

Pavesi was soon regarded as a star in Italy,
 where posters of him were everywhere

Attilio Pavesi, the first winner of an individual Olympic gold medal in Italian cycling history, was born on this day in 1910 in the small town of Caorso in Emilia-Romagna.

At the Los Angeles Olympics of 1932, Pavesi won the individual road race and picked up a second gold medal as a member of the Italian quartet that won the team classification in the same race.

Italy had already won gold medals for the team pursuit in track cycling - indeed, they won that title for the fourth time in a row in 1932 - but had not enjoyed success on the road before Pavesi's triumph.

Pavesi, the last of 11 children born to Angelo, a poultry farmer, and his wife Maria, was a natural all-round sportsman, excelling at running, long jump, swimming, diving, gymnastics and football as he grew up.

He was such a strong swimmer he once saved a boy from drowning in a local river by pulling him to the bank by his hair.

His interest in cycling developed after he left school at the age of 10 to take a job in a workshop, learning how to repair all modes of transport from bicycles to tractors.  He joined a cycling team and won a number of trophies and continued to compete during his national service.

Pavesi was selected to travel to Los Angeles as a reserve for the road race but was determined that he would not make the arduous journey just to be a spectator.  The transatlantic crossing typically took about two weeks and when he boarded the SS Conte Biancamano in Naples he had a plan to keep himself in good physical shape by exercising each day.  Luckily, while others on the voyage suffered from seasickness, he was unaffected.

The SS Conte Biancamano pictured at the port of Naples

After disembarking in New York, the Italian athletes then had to make a five-day journey by train to cross from the east coast to the west.  When their individual fitness was assessed, Pavesi was in the best shape and was picked as one of the four-man team.

He won the race, staged as a 100km time trial with the finishing line on Santa Monica Beach, with a time of two hours, 28 minutes and five seconds.  With team-mate Guglielmo Segato second and Giuseppe Olmo fourth, Italy comfortably won the team gold.

Pavesi afterwards attributed his physical strength to his mother's home-made bread.

After the Games, Pavesi turned professional, competing in cycle races at home and abroad.  At the time when the future of Italy and Europe was becoming increasingly uncertain with the outbreak of the Second World War began, he decided to emigrate to Argentina.

The circumstances are not clear, but it appears he had been competing in an event in Buenos Aires when the boat on which he intended to return to Italy departed without him. He eventually settled in the town of Sáenz Peña on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where he opened a bicycle shop and organised professional races.

Pavesi's victory paved the way for a golden period for Italian cycling, with the next six Olympics after the War bringing 16 gold medals.

He visited Italy regularly but Argentina became his home and he had such good health that he survived beyond his 100th birthday.  He was the oldest surviving Olympian when he passed away in August 2011, just two months shy of his 101st birthday.  He spent his final days in a nursing home, looked after by his son Claudio and daughter Patricia.

Pavesi's last visit to Italy was in 2003 at the age of 93, as the principal guest at the opening of the Fiorenzuola Velodrome, not far from Caorso.  The complex contains an Attilio Pavesi Museum, commemorating his career.

The historic Rocca Mandelli in Caorso houses the town hall

Travel tip:

The town of Caorso is notable for the Rocca Mandelli, a fortress built in 820 by the sisters of the Bishop of Piacenza, Imelde and Ursa.  It is thought that the fort was first known as Ca' Ursa - the house of Ursa - from which evolved the name Caorso. The Mandelli family took control of the fort in the late 14th century and it remained in their ownership for more than 400 years.  Nowadays it houses the town hall and municipal offices.

Travel tip:

Piacenza, which stands at the confluence of the Po and Trebbia rivers, was declared "First born of the Unification of Italy" after what happened in 1848 when a massive 98 per cent of the population voted to become part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, having previously been occupied by Austria and Croatia.  It remained strategically important and suffered severe damage at the hands of Allied bombers in the Second World War.  Surviving buildings include the 13th century town hall - Il Gotico - on Piazza Cavelli and the 12th century Romanesque Cathedral.

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Pierina Legnani - ballerina

Italian dancer who conquered St Petersburg

Pierina Legnani photographed in St
 Petersburg in around 1895

The ballerina Pierina Legnani, considered by many ballet historians to be one of the greatest dancers in history, was born on this day in 1863 in Milan.

Legnani's legacy was the 32-turn fouetté en tournant in which the dancer essentially spins on the point of one foot for 32 revolutions while maintaining perfect balance.

No ballerina had completed 32 turns before Legnani, who is said to have tried it out at the Alhambra Theatre in London before introducing the move to the wider world in 1893 on her debut at the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg in Russia, where she was performing in the title role of Cinderella.

It came in the final act on the night of the premiere and her perfection of technique and execution caused a sensation, with many critics hailing her as the supreme ballerina of her generation.

Her feat set a new standard for future ballerinas as a yardstick of strength and technique. A sequence of 32 fouetté turns was later choreographed into the Black Swan solo in Act Three of Swan Lake, of which it continues to be a feature.

Jealous rivals criticised Legnani for what they saw as showing off, taking an audacious gamble that could have backfired horribly, both to her embarrassment and that of the Imperial Ballet. The truth was that many feared that were they challenged to match her they would fall short.

Yet it paid off and Marius Petipa, the French dancer and choreographer who was Premier Maître de Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre, was so impressed with Legnani's technical brilliance, not to mention her bravery, the he gave her the title of prima ballerina assoluta, the first ballerina to be bestowed with such recognition.

Legnani in the Cinderella role that
would make her famous

The title was created by Petipa to signify that in his opinion Legnani, who had been prima ballerina at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, was the best of the best.  The suffix assoluta has been given to only 11 other female dancers since.

It was the making of Legnani's career.  She proved to be Petipa's greatest muse and almost every new ballet he mounted throughout his remaining years with the Imperial Ballet featured Legnani in the principal rôle.

Legnani began dancing at the age of seven and after passing auditions was accepted as a pupil at La Scala under the instruction of Caterina Beretta.  When she was old enough and proficient enough to perform on stage as part of the corps de ballet she was paid just one lira per night.

This rose to 40, 60 and then 80 lira per month.  Her professional career took off when she was named prima ballerina in a production of Salandra, by Giovanni Casati, at the Alhambra in London.

Having understudied for Maria Giuri, Legnani became prima ballerina at La Scala in 1892, the same year in which she was invited to St Petersburg.  She would enjoy eight highly successful years working with Petipa, deciding to leave only because she tired of the rivalries that developed between dancers.

A picture of ballet being performed at La Scala in about 1893

She spent the remainder of her career performing largely in Europe, principally in London, Paris and Milan, before retiring to her villa on the shores of Lake Como, maintaining a connection with ballet as a member of the examining board at La Scala.  She died in 1930, aged 67, and is buried at the cemetery in the village of Pognana Lario.

Travel tip:

The La Scala Theatre Ballet  - Corpo di ballo del Teatro alla Scala - is the resident classical ballet company at La Scala in Milan.  One of the oldest and most renowned ballet companies in the world, it predates the theatre, but was officially founded at the inauguration of La Scala in 1778.  Its history can be traced back to Renaissance courts of Italy, notably in the Sforza family’s palace in Milan.

The Villa Carlotta with its wonderful views towards
the Bellagio peninsula

Travel tip: 

Lake Como is one of the deepest lakes in Europe, with an average depth of 154m (500ft) but plunging to 425m (1,400ft) at its deepest point, more than 200m (650ft) below sea level.  Surrounded by mountains, some of which are topped with snow almost all year round, the lake offers outstanding views in all directions.  It has been a haunt of the wealthy since Roman times, when villas began to be built on the shores.

Celebrities who have or have had homes on Lake Como include Madonna, George Clooney, Gianni Versace, Ronaldinho, Sylvester Stallone and Richard Branson.

More reading:

Fanny Cerrito - Neapolitan favourite who was darling of ballet's Romantic era

La Scala is born - first night at the world's most famous opera house

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