Silvio Scaroni - fighter pilot

World War I ace was air force commander in World War II

Silvio Scaroni in the cockpit of the Hanriot HD.1
aeroplane in which he was most successful

Silvio Scaroni, a fighter pilot whose tally of aerial victories in the First World War was bettered only by Francesco Baracca among Italian flying aces, was born on this day in 1893 in Brescia.

Flying mainly the French-designed Hanriot HD.1 single-seater biplane, Scaroni had 26 confirmed successes out of 30 claimed.  Baracca, who was shot down and killed only a few months before the war ended, was credited with 34 victories.

Recalled to service, Scaroni became commander of the Italian air forces in Sicily during the Second World War, in which role he clashed with Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering, who claimed Scaroni did not provide enough support to Germany’s attempts to destroy strategically vital British bases on Malta.

Scaroni enlisted first with the Italian Army as a corporal in the 2nd Field Artillery. With the Italian entry to the First World War looking more likely - they took a neutral position at first - he transferred to the Italian Air Service in March, 1915, flying his first missions in September of that year as a reconnaissance pilot. Piloting French-built Caudron G.3 aircraft, he carried out 114 scouting missions in 20 months.

He was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to another spotter squadron in January, 1917. Soon afterwards, he began combat training from the Malpensa airfield and was reassigned to a so-called ‘hunting’ squadron as a fighter pilot.

An Hanriot HD.1 similar to the one in which Scaroni
enjoyed so much success

On November 3, Scaroni filed his first claim for an aerial victory, but it went unconfirmed. His first victory came 11 days later, on November 14, flying a Nieuport 17, also a French plane, when he brought down an enemy aircraft near Colbertaldo.

It was his only scalp flying the Nieuport, which was soon to be phased out. Ironically, the Hanriot HD.1 was rejected for service with French squadrons in favour of the SPAD S.7 but proved highly successful with both the Belgian and the Italian air forces.

In fact, some 831 HD.1s were produced by Italian companies under licence.

His success with the Hanriot began almost immediately, with a victory on November 18, the second of his career.

He shot down another enemy aircraft the following day, collecting two more victories in early December, and by the 19th of the month had chalked up six wins in total.

Then came an incredible day that earned him the status of hero among his peers and with the wider public.

It came on December 26, when his squadron’s base was attacked, according to his own description of the drama in an Italian magazine many years later, as many as 23 German-Austrian bombers in two waves.

Scaroni was promoted to the rank
of General in World War Two

Scaroni, having spotted a “cloud of enemy bombers” in the distance at around 9am, fired up his Hanriot and had climbed to 4,000 feet even before his colleagues had taken off.  Despite being hopelessly outnumbered, his skill enabled him to weave in and out of the pack of bombers as they descended to begin dropping their bombs and was too quick for their gunners to line up an accurate strike on him.

He downed two of the enemy aircraft on his own among eight claimed by his squadron and the surviving bombers fled.  A second raid three hours later was also repelled without it even reaching the airfield, Scaroni claiming his third victory of the day. He thus ended his year with nine wins.

The last of his 26 aerial triumphs came on July 12, 1918, but he was wounded in the same engagement over Monte Tomatico in the Belluno Pre-Alps in Veneto.  The incident almost cost him his life after he lost consciousness and began to plunge towards the ground but fortunately was flying at sufficient altitude to recover his senses and make an emergency landing near Monte Grappa.

He was admitted to hospital and remained there for five months, taking no further part in the conflict.  He was awarded with the Gold Medal for Military Valor, adding to his previous two Silver medals and one Bronze medal.

Between the wars, Scaroni continued to serve his country in different capacities, including the position of aeronautical officer of the Italian embassy in London, moving to take a similar post in Washington.

Between 1935 and 1937 he commanded the Italian aeronautical military mission to establish flying schools in China.

During the Second World War he was promoted to General of the Army’s air division. Among his roles was commander of the Italian air forces of Sicily from December 1941 to January 1943.

After the conflict had ended, Scaroni retired to Cavalgese della Riviera, not far from Lake Garda. He died in Milan in 1977 at the age of 84.

The skyline of Belluno with the Duomo in the foreground
 and the Dolomites providing a spectacular backdrop

Travel tip:

Situated just over 100km (62 miles) north of Venice, Belluno sits in an elevated position above the Piave river with the majesty of the Dolomites just beyond it. It is a popular base from which to explore the mountains but is an attractive town in its own right, with many notable Renaissance–era buildings including the 16th century Cattedrale di San Martino on Piazza del Duomo and the nearby 15th century Palazzo dei Rettori, which is the former town hall. The Piazza dei Martiri, the scene of an execution of partisans during the Second World War, is now a popular meeting place. Local cuisines includes some unusual cheeses, including Schiz, a semi-soft cheese often served fried in butter.

Roman ruins are a feature of the city of Brescia

Travel tip:

The city of Brescia, Scaroni’s place of birth, tends not to attract as many tourists as other cities in the area, partly because Bergamo, Verona and the lakes are nearby.  Yet its history goes back to Roman times and you can see remains from the forum, theatre and a temple. There are more recent, Venetian influences in the architecture of the Piazza della Loggia, which has a clock tower similar to the one in Saint Mark’s square. There are two cathedrals – the Duomo Vecchio and its younger neighbour, the Duomo Nuovo.

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Ignazio Fiorillo – composer

Talented Neapolitan influenced music in Germany

Fiorillo studied music at the Naples
Conservatory in his home town

Ignazio Fiorillo, who is remembered as an opera seria composer, was born in Naples on this day in 1715.

Fiorillo often composed music for the libretti of the acclaimed writer, Pietro Metastasio, creating the type of noble and serious operas that were fashionable in Europe in the 18th century.

After studying music at the Naples Conservatory, Fiorillo composed the opera L’egeste, which was premiered in Trieste in 1733.

Another of his operas, Mandane, was first performed at the Teatro Sant’Angelo in Venice in 1736.

Fiorillo was later engaged as a composer for an ensemble specialising in performances for children and toured Europe with them.

Pietro Metastasio was one of the most
acclaimed librettists of his day

In 1749 they stayed in Braunschweig in Germany at the court of Carl I von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. Fiorillo was appointed court composer the following year and during his remaining time at Braunschweig composed most of his operas.

He became composer to the court of Frederick II Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel in 1762 and went on to improve significantly the quality of court opera in Kassel. He also composed intermezzi and stage music for court theatre.

Ignazio Fiorillo retired in 1779 and died in Fritlar in Germany in 1787.

His son, Federigo, who had been born in 1753, became a violinist and composer and is best remembered for his collection of études.

The Naples Conservatory adjoins the church
of San Pietro a Majella

Travel tip:

A Neapolitan by birth, Fiorillo studied at the Naples Music Conservatory. Today, the Music Conservatory is in the complex of San Pietro a Majella, close to Via dei Tribunali, one of the main thoroughfares in the heart of the centro storico in Naples. It is the last in a long series of establishments that were once music conservatories in Naples, dating back to when the Spanish ruled the city in the 16th century. One of the earliest, I Poveri di Gesù Cristo, was founded in 1589 by Marcello Fossataro, a Franciscan monk. It was next to the Church of Santa Maria a Colonna on Via dei Tribunale, but in 1743 it was converted into a church seminary.

The Palazzo Barocci, now a top hotel, is only a short
 distance from the Sant'Angelo vaporetto stop

Travel tip:

Teatro Sant’Angelo, where Fiorillo’s opera Mandane, was premiered in 1736, was a theatre in Venice between 1677 and 1803. It was in Campo Sant’Angelo facing the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge and was the venue for many operas by Antonio Vivaldi and plays by Carlo Goldoni. After the theatre closed, the building was converted into a warehouse, but was later demolished and rebuilt as the Palazzo Barocci. Today it is the four-star Hotel NH Collection Palazzo Barocci, just a few steps from the Sant’Angelo vaporetto stop.


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Antonio Priuli - Doge of Venice

Doge clamped down on Spanish ‘spies’

Antonio Priuli rounded up hundreds of
suspected Spanish plotters

Antonio Priuli, who was the 94th Doge of Venice, was born on this day in 1548 in Venice.

He took office in 1618 in the midst of allegations that the Spanish were conspiring to invade Venice. He immediately began a brutal process of ferreting out individuals suspected of plotting against La Serenissima, the Most Serene Republic of Venice.

The so-called ‘spy war’ did not end until 1622 and resulted in the imprisonment and deaths of many innocent people.

Priuli was the son of Girolamo Priuli and Elisabetta Cappello. He grew up to enjoy a successful career as a sailor and a soldier and married Elena Barbarigo, with whom he had 14 children.

In 1618 Priuli was appointed provveditore, a type of governor, of Veglia, an island in the Adriatic, which now belongs to Croatia.

That same year, following the death of Doge Nicolo Donato, Priuli was recalled from Veglia to become the next Doge.

At the time it was believed that the Spanish, led by the Spanish Ambassador to Venice, Alfonso de la Cueva, 1st Marquis of Bedmar, had landed mercenaries on Venetian territory. It was thought Bedmar had successfully infiltrated the Venetian military and that a Spanish fleet was poised to take Venice.

On Priuli’s orders, hundreds were arrested, many of them foreign soldiers and sailors. Among the innocent victims was Antonio Foscarini, a Venetian nobleman who was arrested after attending an event at the English embassy and executed in April 1622.

The Venetian government issued an apology for Foscarini’s execution the following year and then scaled down the search for plotters. Priuli died just a few months later on August 12, 1623 in Venice.

The Palazzo Priuli in Castello is now an hotel

Travel tip:

Palazzo Priuli, Antonio Priuli’s family home, is now the four-star Hotel Palazzo Priuli in Castello overlooking Fondamento Osmarin. This fine Venetian Gothic palace was built in the 14th century and still has the original, elegant windows. You can choose to stay in the Doge Antonio Priuli suite, which is furnished with a Murano glass chandelier and oriental rugs to create the atmosphere of a noble Venetian’s home.

The Doge's Palace was the home of the Doge and the
seat of the government of the Venetian Republic

Travel tip:

The Doge’s Palace, where Antonio Priuli lived during his five-year reign, was the seat of the Government of Venice and the home of the Doge from the early days of the republic. For centuries this was the only building in Venice entitled to the name palazzo. The others were merely called Cà, short for Casa. The current palazzo was built in the 12th century in Venetian Gothic style, one side looking out over the lagoon, the other side looking out over the piazzetta that links St Mark’s Square with the waterfront. It opened as a museum in 1923 and is now run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

Also on this day: 

1922: The birth of Neapolitian journalist Antonio Ghirelli

1949: The birth of Miuccia Prada, driving force behind the Prada fashion label

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Giovanni Paisiello - composer

Audience favourite with a jealous streak

Giovanni Paisiello was one of the most
popular Italian composers in the 18th century

The composer Giovanni Paisiello, who wrote more than 90 operas and much other music and was enormously popular in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1740 in Taranto.

Paisiello was talented, versatile and had a big influence on other composers of his day and later, yet he was jealous of the success of rivals and is remembered today primarily as the composer whose passionate fans wrecked the premiere of Gioachino Rossini’s opera Almaviva, which was based on the same French play as Paisiello’s Il barbiere di siviglia, which was regarded as his masterpiece.

Rossini’s opera would eventually be more commonly known as Il barbiere di siviglia, but not until after Paisiello had died.

Nonetheless, Paisiello’s supporters still felt Rossini was attempting to steal their favourite’s thunder and many of them infiltrated the audience at Almaviva’s opening night in Rome and disrupted the performance with constant jeers and catcalls.

History has shown that perhaps they were right to be worried: today, Rossini’s Barber of Seville is one of the world’s most popular operas, yet Paisiello’s is rarely performed.

Paisiello was educated at a Jesuit school in Taranto. His father wanted his son to become a lawyer but noted the beauty of his singing voice and enrolled him at the Conservatory of San Onofrio at Naples.

A poster advertising the premiere
of Paisiello's opera Nina

There he displayed a talent for composing too, and the quality of some intermezzi he wrote for the conservatory’s theatre led to him being invited to write his first operas, La Pupilla and Il Marchese Tulissano. These brought him instant recognition and he settled in Naples, producing a series of successful operas, popular for being simple, dramatic, and always fast moving.

He set himself up in rivalry with the established giants of the Neapolitan school, Niccolò Piccinni, Domenico Cimarosa and Pietro Guglielmi. He was known for being bitterly outspoken when one or another of the trio staged a work that received public acclaim, but he enjoyed his own triumphs, in particular with his 1767 comic opera L'ldolo cinese. 

Paisiello left Naples only when he was invited in 1776 by the Russian empress Catherine II to St. Petersburg, where he remained for eight years. It was there that he produced Il barbiere di siviglia, with a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, based on the play by Pierre Beaumarchais.

Il barbiere premiered in St Petersburg in 1782 and its fame spread quickly around Europe. Among those influenced by the artistry of his score and the beauty of the melodies was Mozart, whose Marriage of Figaro made its debut four years later as a sequel to Paisiello’s Barbiere.

Paisiello left Russia in 1784, initially going to Vienna before returning to Naples to enter the service of King Ferdinand IV, where he enjoyed more success, composing what many regard as his best operas, including Nina and La Molinara, the latter featuring perhaps the best-known tune that Paisiello wrote in his lifetime, the duet Nel cor più non mi sento, which inspired works by Beethoven, Paganini and many others.

Domenico Cimarosa was a target for
Paisiello's outspoken comments

His decline began after he was invited to Paris in 1802 by Napoleon, for whom he had composed a march for the funeral of General Hoche. This time his rivals were Luigi Cherubini and Etienne Méhul, towards whom he displayed similar jealousy to that he once aimed at Cimarosa, Guglielmi and Piccinni.

However, the Parisian public was unimpressed and in 1803 he obtained permission to return to Italy, citing his wife's ill health. He kept his job in Naples even after the fall of Ferdinand IV, who was replaced as king by Napoleon’s brother, Joseph, and in turn by Joachim Murat.

But by then he was beginning to lose his touch and his fortunes declined just as the power of the Bonapartes was collapsing. His wife died in 1815 and his own health failed quickly thereafter. He died in 1816 at the age of 76.

In addition to his operas, Paisiello wrote a good deal of church music and instrumental works that include symphonies, harp and piano concerti, string quartets, sonatas for harp, violin and cello.

The 20th century saw his Barbiere and La Molinara revived along with a number of other operas and instrumental pieces.

The Castello Aragonese is a landmark in Taranto

Travel tip:

Taranto, situated at the top of the inside of the ‘heel’ of Italy, where Paisiello was born, is a large city - population in excess of 200,000 - of two distinct sections, divided by a swing bridge. The bridge links the small island containing the Città Vecchia, the old city, guarded by the imposing 15th century Castello Aragonese castle, which protects an area of Greek origins which has not been overdeveloped and has an authentic atmosphere of old southern Italy.  On the southern side of the bridge is the modern, new city, full of wide boulevards and carrying a much more prosperous air.  The city is heavily industrialised with a huge steel industry and a large naval base but its National Museum contains one of the most important collections of Greek and Roman artefacts in Italy.

The Conservatorio of San Onofrio

Travel tip:

The Conservatorio of San Onofrio a Porta Capuana was one of the four original Naples conservatories, founded in 1588 and developed first as an orphanage. Almost one fifth of the students at the Conservatory of San Onofrio were castrati, which gave it a different identity.  Its popularity declined during the Napoleonic period, and only 30 students remained when the conservatory merged with that of Santa Maria di Loreto in 1797.

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