The Battle of Anzio

Key moment in World War II brought heavy casualties

A British landing craft unloads tanks and troop
carriers on to the beach at the start of the assault

British and American troops landed on the beach at Anzio, a coastal town south of Rome in the region of Lazio, in the early hours of the morning on this day in 1944.

The Allies were planning to dislodge German troops blocking the route to Rome and to liberate the capital city quickly, but the Battle of Anzio was to last for many months and cause the deaths of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

Operation Shingle, the name for the complex amphibious landing, had been the idea of the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, as he lay in bed recovering from pneumonia in December 1943. His concept was to land two divisions of men at Anzio, and nearby Nettuno, bypassing the German forces entrenched across the Gustav Line in central Italy, to enable the Allies to take Rome.

But the operation was opposed by German troops, as well as forces from the newly-created Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI) - the Nazi puppet state in northern Italy - who were located in the area.

Operation Shingle was originally commanded by Major General John Lucas of the US Army. 

Allied troops and vehicles at first faced little
opposition as they made their way ashore

Its success depended on the element of surprise and the swiftness with which the invading soldiers moved inland. The location was reclaimed marshland and it was surrounded by mountains. Any delay could result in the mountains being occupied by the German and Italian troops and result in the Allied soldiers becoming trapped.

The landing was initially a success with seemingly no opposition from the Germans, but Lucas, perhaps not fully appreciating the importance of moving on from the beach quickly and wanting to be cautious, delayed the advance until he felt that the position of his troops was fully consolidated.

Meanwhile, the commander of the German troops, Field Marshall Albert Kesselring, moved every unit he could spare into a defensive ring around the beachhead. The Germans also stopped the drainage pumps and flooded the reclaimed marshland with salt water, planning to trap the Allied soldiers there and expose them to a malaria epidemic spread by the area's mosquitos. 

For weeks, shells rained on to the beach, harbour, and marshland, and anything else that the Germans could see from their position above.

After a month of fighting, Lucas was relieved of his command and sent home. He was replaced by Major General Lucian Truscott.

British troops had to take cover in shallow trenches
as they came under heavy German bombardment

By May, the Allies had managed to break out of the area, but instead of moving inland to cut the lines of communication of the German units fighting at Monte Cassino in the south of Lazio, which was Truscott’s first instinct, he was ordered to turn his troops north west to Rome.

As a result, German troops fighting at Monte Cassino were able to withdraw and join Kesselring’s forces north of Rome, where they regrouped and fought back against the Allies.

They were aiming to defend the next major position on what was then known as the Gothic Line, the last major line of defence for the German troops.

The surprise landings at Anzio and Nettuno on January 22 finally achieved their goal when the Allies captured Rome on June 4, 1944. 

But the Battle of Anzio had resulted in 24,000 US, and 10,000 British, casualties, men who were either killed, wounded, or reported missing. There were also about 40,000 casualties among the German and Italian troops.

Around 300,000 troops, together with their weapons, had fought with intensity along just a 16-mile stretch of coastline. The Germans were able to observe the battlefield from above and pummel the Allies, who were tightly packed on the beachhead and fought back ferociously, knowing they could not afford to be pushed back into the sea.

Even Churchill, and the other supporters of Operation Shingle, had not expected the intense months of fighting that were to eventually take place.

Anzio today is a seaside resort and fishing port and
a departure point for ferries to the Pontine Islands

Travel tip:

The town of Anzio is about 51 kilometres, or 32 miles, to the south of Rome in the region of Lazio. It is also a fishing port and a departure point for ferries to the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian sea of Ponza, Palmarola, and Ventotene. Anzio was known as Antium in Roman times and its symbol remains to this day the goddess Fortuna. At the end of the 17th century, the Popes Innocent XII and Clement XI had the port rebuilt and also restored the harbour. In 1925, Anzio became the Station for the first submarine telecommunications cable connected to New York. The Commonwealth Anzio War cemetery and Beachhead War Cemetery are both located in Anzio. Along the coastline are the remains of many Roman villas, one of which has been identified as a former home of the Emperor Nero.

A staircase in the mediæval
part of the town of Nettuno

Travel tip:

The nearby town of Nettuno is now a tourist resort and has a harbour and a yacht club. Nettuno is also a centre for production of the white wine, Cacchione, which has been awarded DOC status. Nettuno has a well preserved Borgo Medievale with mediæval streets and squares and early in the 16th century the Forte Sangallo was built by the architect Antonio Sangallo the Elder to protect the town from the sea. Gabriele d’Annunzio wrote his opera, La Figlia di Iorio, while he was a guest in Nettuno with the actress Eleonora Duse, and Luigi Pirandello wrote a novel, Va Bene, set in Nettuno in 1904. After their landing during World War II, American soldiers taught the people of Nettuno to play baseball and Nettuno Baseball Club is now one of the most important Italian baseball teams. The footballer and manager Bruno Conti was born in Nettuno in 1955.

Also on this day:

1506: The founding of the Papal Swiss Guard

1889: The birth of supercentenarian Antonio Todde

1893: The birth of gang boss Frankie Yale

1956: The death of brigand and folk hero Giuseppe Musolino

2005: The death of double World War veteran Carlo Orelli

Home

21 January

Giuseppe Savoldi - footballer

The world’s first £1 million player

Giuseppe Savoldi, whose transfer from Bologna to Napoli in 1975 made him the first footballer in the world to be bought for £1 million, was born on this day in 1947 in Gorlago, a municipality a short distance from the city of Bergamo in Lombardy.  A prolific striker, Savoldi’s big-money deal came four years ahead of the much heralded £1 million transfer of another striker, Trevor Francis, from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest, which made him the first player in Britain to move for a seven-figure sum.  Napoli, who saw Savoldi as the last component in what they hoped would be a title-winning team, paid 1.4 billion lire in cash, plus two players, Sergio Clerici and Romario Rampanti, to secure his signature. The two players were valued at 600 million lire in total, which valued Savoldi at 2 billion lire, the equivalent at the time of about £1.2 million.  But where Francis, who later spent five seasons playing in Serie A, won two European Cups with Nottingham Forest, scoring the winning goal in the final in 1979, Savoldi’s move did not yield anything like the same kind of success.  Napoli had finished third and then second in Serie A in the seasons before Savoldi’s arrival but were unable to maintain their momentum. Read more…

______________________________________

Gennaro Contaldo – chef

TV cook is passionate about Amalfi’s speciality dishes

Celebrity chef Gennaro Contaldo was born on this day in 1949 in Minori in Campania.  Contaldo has made many appearances on British television alongside chefs such as the late Antonio Carluccio, Jamie Oliver and James Martin and he has also brought out several cook books.  It is well documented that he is the man responsible for inspiring Jamie Oliver’s interest in Italian food.  Contaldo grew up in the small seaside town of Minori near Amalfi and is a passionate advocate of the style of cooking in the area, cucina amalfitana.  From an early age he was interested in dishes cooked with local produce, going out to collect wild herbs for his mother, and he began helping out in local restaurants at the age of eight.  Contaldo moved to Britain in the late 1960s and travelled around the country working in village restaurants and studying the food growing wild in each area, such as herbs and mushrooms. He eventually went to London and worked in several restaurants, including Antonio Carluccio’s establishment in Neal Street.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Antonio Janigro - conductor and cellist

Musician who found ‘accidental’ fame in Yugoslavia

The conductor and cellist Antonio Janigro, who spent more than two decades as an orchestra leader in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, was born on this day in 1918 in Milan.  An accomplished cello soloist in Italy, his adventure in Yugoslavia happened by accident, in a way.  He was on holiday there in 1939 when the Second World War began, leaving him stranded with no prospect of returning home.  Happily, Zagreb Conservatory offered Janigro a job as professor of cello and chamber music. This turned out to be a providential turn of fate and he was to remain in Yugoslavia for much of his life.  He founded the school of modern cello playing in Yugoslavia, formed the exemplary chamber orchestra I Solisti di Zagreb with Dragutin Hrdjok in 1954 and for 10 years led the Radio Zagreb symphony orchestra. Raised in a house on the Via Guido d’Arezzo in Milan, Janigro was born in a musical family, although his father’s dream of becoming a concert pianist had to be abandoned, sadly, when he lost his arm after being shot in the First World War.  Janigro himself studied piano from the age of six, and then began playing the cello in 1926, when he was eight years old.  Read more…

Pietro Rava - World Cup winner

Defender was the last survivor from Azzurri of 1938

Pietro Rava, who was the last survivor of Italy's 1938 World Cup-winning football team when he died in December 2006, was born on this day in 1916 at Cassine in Piedmont.  A powerful defender who could play at full back or in a central position, Rava won 30 caps for the national team between 1935 and 1946, finishing on the losing side only once and being made captain in 1940.  He was also a member of the Italy team that won the gold medal in the football competition at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  At club level, he spent most of his career with Juventus, forming a formidable defensive partnership with Alfredo Foni, alongside whom he also lined up in the national side.  Rava won a Championship medal in 1949-50, his final season at Juventus, although by then he had fallen out of favour with Jesse Carver, the Turin club's English coach, and made only six appearances, moving to Novara the following year.  At the time of his birth, Rava's family were living in Cassine, a small town near Alessandria, about 100km (62 miles) south-east of Turin, because of his father's job with a railway company.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Camillo Golgi – neuroscientist

Nobel prize winner whose name lives on in medical science

Camillo Golgi, who is recognised as the greatest neuroscientist and biologist of his time, died on this day in 1926 in Pavia.  He was well known for his research into the central nervous system and discovering a staining technique for studying tissue, sometimes called Golgi’s method, or Golgi’s staining.  In 1906, Golgi and a Spanish biologist, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system.  Golgi was born in 1843 in Corteno, a village in the province of Brescia in Lombardy. The village was later renamed Corteno Golgi in his honour.  In 1860 Golgi went to the University of Pavia to study medicine. After graduating in 1865 he worked in a hospital for the Italian army and as part of a team investigating a cholera epidemic in the area around Pavia.  He resumed his academic studies under the supervision of Cesare Lombroso, an expert in medical psychology, and wrote a thesis about mental disorders. As he became more and more interested in experimental medicine he started attending the Institute of General Pathology headed by Giulio Bizzozero, who was to influence Golgi’s research publications.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: Winning at All Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer, by John Foot

(Also published as Calcio: A History of Italian Football)

The 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France was a down-and-dirty game, marred by French superstar Zidane's head-butting of Italian defender Materazzi. But viewers were also exposed to the poetry, force, and excellence of the Italian game as operatic as Verdi and as cunning as Machiavelli, it seemed to open a window into the Italian soul. John Foot's epic history shows what makes Italian soccer so unique. Mixing serious analysis and comic storytelling, Foot describes its humble origins in northern Italy in the 1890s to its present day incarnation where soccer is the national civic religion. A story that is reminiscent of Gangs of New York and A Clockwork Orange, Foot shows how the Italian game, like its political culture, has been overshadowed by big business, violence, conspiracy, and tragedy, how demagogues like Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi have used the game to further their own political ambitions. But Winning at All Costs also celebrates the sweet moments , the four World Cup victories, the success of Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, the role soccer played in the resistance to Nazism, and the great managers and players who show that Italian soccer is as irresistible as Italy itself.

John Foot is Professor of Modern Italian History at the University of Bristol. He has written a number of books on Italian politics, history and sport.

Buy from Amazon

Home

20 January

Marco Simoncelli - motorcycle world champion

Young rider whose career ended in tragedy

The motorcycle racer Marco Simoncelli, who is part of an illustrious roll call of Italian world champions headed by Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi, was born on this day in 1987 in Cattolica on the Adriatic coast.  Simoncelli, who was European 125cc champion in 2002 in only his second year of senior competition, became 250cc world champion in 2008 when he won six races riding for Gilera.  He had dreams of emulating Rossi, winner of the 250cc world title in 1999, in going on to be a force in the premier MotoGP category, in which the latter has been world champion seven times, just one fewer than Agostini's record eight titles.  But after stepping up to MotoGP in 2010, Simoncelli suffered a fatal crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix in October the following year, killed at the age of just 24.  On only the second lap of the Sepang circuit, he lost control of his Honda at a corner and appeared to be heading for the gravel run-off area but suddenly veered back across the congested track.  With the bike almost on its side, Simoncelli was struck by two other competitors.  One of them, with chilling irony, was Rossi, who was entirely blameless but unable to prevent his front wheel from striking his compatriot's head.  Read more…

______________________________________

Ennio Porrino - composer

Premature death robbed Italian music of great talent

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.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Franca Sozzani – magazine editor

Risk taker who turned Vogue Italia into a major voice

Franca Sozzani, the journalist who was editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Vogue magazine for 28 years, was born on this day in 1950 in Mantua.  Under her stewardship, Vogue Italia was transformed from what she saw as little more than a characterless clothing catalogue for the Milan fashion giants to one of the edgiest publications the style shelves of the newsstands had ever seen.  Sozzani used high-end fashion and the catwalk stars to make bold and sometimes outrageous statements on the world issues she cared about, creating shockwaves through the industry but often selling so many copies that editions sometimes sold out even on second or third reprints.  It meant that advertisers who backed off in horror in the early days of her tenure clamoured to buy space again, particularly when the magazine began to attract a following even outside Italy.  She gave photographers and stylists a level of creative freedom they enjoyed nowhere else, encouraging them to express themselves through their photoshoots, particularly if they could deliver a message at the same time.  She encouraged her writers, too, not to shy away from issues she thought were important, and not to regard fashion as an insular world.  Read more…

Federico Fellini – film director

The cinematic legacy of Rimini’s most famous son

Federico Fellini, one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century, was born on this day in Rimini in 1920.  He had a career lasting almost 50 years and his films were nominated for 12 Academy Awards. He won four Oscars, each for Best Foreign Language Film, with La strada, Nights of Cabiria, 8½ and Amarcord.  Fellini initially went to Rome to study Law at university but ended up working as a journalist instead.  His assignments for a magazine gave him the opportunity to meet people involved in show business and he eventually got work as a script writer for films and radio.  Fellini worked as both a screenwriter and assistant director on Roberto Rossellini films as well as producing and directing for other filmmakers. He began work on his first solo film, The White Sheik, in 1951. It received mixed reviews but in 1953 his film, I vitelloni, pleased both the public and the critics.  He won his first Academy Award with Nights of Cabiria, starring his wife, Giulietta Masini, in 1953.  Fellini’s film La dolce vita, starring Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni and set in Rome, broke all box office records in 1960 and won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. It is one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Rafael Bombelli – mathematician

First person to explain algebra in simple language

Rafael Bombelli, the mathematician regarded as the inventor of complex numbers, was baptised and was also probably born on this day in 1526 near Bologna.  He wrote a book about algebra in simple language that could be understood by everyone, giving a comprehensive account of what was known about the subject at the time. The first three volumes, published in 1572, were the first European texts to explain how to perform computations with negative numbers.  Rafael Bombelli was the eldest son of Antonio Mazzoli, a wool merchant, who had changed his name to Bombelli to disassociate himself from the reputation of his family. His grandfather had taken part in a failed attempt to seize Bologna on behalf of the Bentivoglio family but had been caught and executed. Antonio Mazzoli was able to return to Bologna only after changing his name to Bombelli.  It is thought that Rafael Bombelli did not attend university but was taught by an engineer-architect named Pier Francesco Clementi.  He followed Clementi into the profession and acquired a patron, Alessandro Rufini. His patron was given the right to reclaim marsh land in the Val di Chiana by the Pope and Bombelli worked on this project until 1555.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: Marco Simoncelli: The Tribute Book, by Paolo Simoncelli and Rossella Simoncelli

Marco Simoncelli: The Tribute Book is a compelling celebration of the life of Marco Simoncelli, the maverick motorcycle racer who lost his life in the 2011 Malaysian MotoGP race. Written by his parents, Rossella and Paolo, this book paints an intimate portrait of a rising star. Simoncelli's final lap was as adrenaline-fuelled as the rest of his career, which was on the way up - the two races before his last were arguably two of his best. Marco's eventful paddock life, signature 'afro' and close friendship with Valentino Rossi are all captured here by the words of his parents, and in 200 unique photographs of life on and off the track.

Paolo Beltramo, an Italian television journalist who specialises in motorsports, assisted the Simocellis with the writing of their tribute book. 

Buy from Amazon

Home

19 January

Il trovatore – opera

Verdi masterpiece is regularly performed all over the world 

One of the most successful operas composed by Giuseppe Verdi, Il trovatore was first staged on this day in 1853 in Rome.  The four act opera was based on a play by Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez about a troubadour, the son of a gypsy woman, who is in love with a lady in waiting at a Spanish castle.  After its premiere, at the Teatro Apollo in Rome, the opera became a big success and in the first three years there were 229 productions of it worldwide. In Naples alone there were 11 different productions in six theatres, including Teatro San Carlo, during the first three years. The opera was first performed in America by the Max Maretzek Opera Company in 1855. The Metropolitan Opera in New York have performed it more than 600 times since it was first staged there in 1883.  Verdi was asked to prepare a French version of the opera in 1855, Le Trouvère, and to include music for a ballet. It was first performed in French in 1857 in Paris when Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugènie went to see it.  Along with Rigoletto and La traviata. Il trovatore is believed by experts to represent Verdi at the height of his artistry in the middle of his career.   Read more…

_________________________________________

Giuseppe Bonomi - architect

Roman who became famous for English country houses

The architect Giuseppe Bonomi, who became better known by his Anglicised name Joseph Bonomi after spending much of his working life in England, was born on this day in 1739 in Rome.  Records nowadays refer to him as Joseph Bonomi the Elder, to distinguish him from his son of the same name, who became a sculptor, artist and Egyptologist of some standing and tends to be described as Joseph Bonomi the Younger.   Joseph Bonomi the Elder is known primarily for designing a number of English country houses in the last two decades of the 18th century and the early years of the 19th.  Among these are Lambton Castle in County Durham, Barrells Hall in Warwickshire, Longford Hall in Shropshire and Laverstoke House in Hampshire.  He also designed the saloon in the grand house of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in Portman Square in London, sadly destroyed during the Blitz in the Second World War.  Bonomi’s father hailed from the Veneto and was an agent to members of the Roman aristocracy. Giuseppe was educated at the Collegio Romano, the Jesuit school in Rome that taught pupils from elementary school to university age.  Read more…

______________________________________

Rosina Storchio - soprano

Star prospered despite Butterfly debut flop

The soprano Rosina Storchio, a major star of the opera world in the early 20th century, was born on this day in 1872 in Venice.  A favourite of the celebrated conductor Arturo Toscanini, with whom she had an affair that scandalised Milan, she sang opposite Enrico Caruso and other male stars of her era, including Giuseppe Anselmi, Titta Ruffo and the Russian, Fyodor Chaliapin.  She sang in five notable premieres.  Ruggero Leoncavallo cast her as the first Mimì in his version of La bohème (1897) and also as Zazà in the opera of the same name (1900), Umberto Giordano created the role of Stephana for her in Siberia (1903), while she was Pietro Mascagni’s first Lodoletta (1917).  The first night for which she was often remembered, however, was the one that turned into a personal catastrophe for Giacomo Puccini, when Madama Butterfly was unveiled at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1904 only to be roundly booed by the audience, forcing the opera to be pulled from La Scala’s spring programme after one night.  Critics argued that the second act was too long and that despite a star-studded cast, including the celebrated Storchio in the role of Cio-Cio San, the story’s tragic heroine, the performance suffered from being under-rehearsed.  Read more…

Paolo Borsellino - anti-Mafia judge

Magistrate slain by Mafia 57 days after colleague Giovanni Falcone

Paolo Borsellino, the judge who was helping to wage a successful war against the Sicilian Mafia when he was murdered in 1992, was born on this day in 1940 in Palermo.  He and his boyhood friend, Giovanni Falcone, became the most prominent members of a pool of anti-Mafia magistrates set up in the 1980s to investigate organised crime and share information. They made considerable progress in weakening the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Cosa Nostra, in particular through the so-called Maxi Trial of 1986-87, which resulted in 360 convictions and prison sentences totalling 2,665 years.  Yet both were killed within the space of two months, Falcone on May 23 by a bomb placed under the motorway between Sicilian capital Palermo and the city's airport, Borsellino on July 19 by a car bomb as he left his mother's house in the centre of the city.  The two were born and raised within a few streets of one another in the Kalsa district of Palermo, not far from the tree-lined Foro Italico Umberto I, the broad thoroughfare that runs along the city's waterfront.  It was a middle class neighbourhood that suffered severe damage in air raids as the Allies prepared to invade Sicily in 1943.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Assunta ‘Pupetta’ Maresca – camorrista

Ex-beauty queen who avenged death of husband

Assunta Maresca, the mobster’s wife who made headlines around the world when she walked into a bar in Naples in broad daylight and shot dead the man she suspected of ordering the murder of her husband on behalf of the Neapolitan Mafia - the Camorra - was born on this day in 1935 in the coastal town of Castellammare di Stabia.  Better known as ‘Pupetta’ – the little doll – on account of her small stature and stunning good looks, Maresca took the law into her own hands after her husband – a young and ambitious camorrista and the father of her unborn child - was assassinated on the orders of a rival.  Her extraordinary act brought her an 18-year prison sentence, of which she served about a third, yet made her a figure of such public fascination that several movies and TV series were made about her life.  She went on to become the lover of another mobster and was alleged to have participated in Camorra activity herself, serving another jail term after she was found guilty of abetting the murder of a forensic scientist, which she denied.  Assunta Maresca was born into a world of crime.  Her father, Alberto, was a smuggler specialising in trafficking cigarettes.  Read more…

________________________________________

Giuseppe Millico - opera singer, composer and teacher

Castrato taught Lord Nelson’s lover

The castrato opera singer and composer Giuseppe Millico, who numbered Lord Nelson’s future lover, Emma Hamilton, as among his pupils as a singing teacher in Naples, was born on this day in 1737 in Terlizzi, a town in Apulia.  As a singer, Millico is best remembered for his performances in the operas of the Bavarian composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. He also compiled a significant body of work of his own, including eight operas, eight cantatas, numerous arias and duets not part of wider works, and 82 canzonets.  Having learned his craft in Naples in the 1750s, Millico returned to the city in 1780 after many years of touring, becoming a teacher as well as a composer. He taught singing to the Bourbon princesses Maria Teresa and Luisa Maria, as well as to Emma, Lady Hamilton, the actress and model, who was living in Naples after her marriage to Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador.  After studying at one of the Naples conservatories, Millico made his performing debut in Rome in 1757. Soon afterwards, he went to Moscow to sing at the Russian court. He remained in Russia for seven years, earning the nickname Il Moscovita on his return.  Read more…

______________________________________

Book of the Day: The Cambridge Verdi Encyclopaedia, edited by Roberta Montemorra Marvin 

Verdi's enduring presence on the opera stages of the world and as a subject for study by scholars in various disciplines has placed him as a central figure within modern culture. His operas, including La traviata, Rigoletto and Aida, are among the most frequently performed worldwide and his popularity from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day is undisputed. The Cambridge Verdi Encyclopaedia covers all aspects of Verdi's life, his music and his world. Appendices list Verdi's known works, both published and unpublished, the characters in his operas and the singers who created them, and a chronology of his life. As a starting point for information on specific works, people, places and concepts associated with Verdi, the Encyclopaedia reflects the very latest scholarship, presented by an international array of experts and will have a broad appeal for opera lovers, students and scholars.

Roberta Montemorra Marvin is a professor emerita of Musicology at the University of Massachusetts (USA), affiliated professor in International Studies at the University of Iowa (USA), and associate general editor for The Works of Giuseppe Verdi. She has published widely on Italian opera of the 19th century with an emphasis on the reception and performance of Verdi's operas in Victorian Britain.

Buy from Amazon

Home

18 January

NEW - Forza Italia - political party

Movement that gave media magnate Silvio Berlusconi political power

The shape of Italy’s political landscape changed on this day in 1994 with the launch of the Forza Italia party, whose leader, the wealthy media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, served as Italy’s prime minister three times. Work had been going on behind the scenes to lay the foundations of the party for several months, going back to Berlusconi and a group of friends and business colleagues meeting in a notary’s office in Milan in June 1993 to give legal status to what was called the Forza Italia Association for Good Government.  By November, a network of Forza Italia Clubs was established, quickly attracting many thousands of members. Details of this network appeared in the media, although Berlusconi denied that they were branches of a political party - despite news in December that an address on Via dell'Umiltà in Rome had been registered as Forza Italia headquarters. Its office was in the same building that once housed the headquarters of the Italian People's Party, a forerunner of the Christian Democracy party.  On January 18, 1994, however, it was confirmed that Forza Italia would be fielding candidates in the elections due to be held in March of that year.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster – Cardinal

Blessed monk who tried to preach humility to Mussolini

Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, who was a Benedictine monk and served as Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan during World War II, was born on this day in 1880 in Rome.  Towards the end of the war, Schuster attempted to arrange a truce between Mussolini and the partisans, but failed because Mussolini refused to accept the demands for total surrender made by the partisan delegates.  During the unsuccessful meeting between Mussolini and the partisans in the Archbishop’s Palace in Milan, Schuster is reported to have made an attempt to preach humility to the Fascist leader. More than 40 years after his death, Cardinal Schuster was beatified on 12 May 1996 by Pope John Paul II.  Schuster was the son of a Bavarian tailor who had moved to live in Rome and he served as an altar boy at a German Church near St Peter’s Basilica.  In 1898 he joined the Order of Saint Benedict and took the name Ildefonso before entering the monastic community of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.  He studied while he was a monk and graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1903, later receiving a Doctorate in Theology.   Read more…

_____________________________________

Katia Ricciarelli - operatic soprano

Star whose peak years were in ‘70s and ‘80s

The opera singer Katia Ricciarelli, who at her peak was seen as soprano who combined a voice of sweet timbre with engaging stage presence, was born on this day in 1946 at Rovigo in the Veneto.  She rose to fame quickly after making her professional debut as Mimi in Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème in Mantua in 1969 and in the 1970s was in demand for the major soprano roles.  Between 1972 and 1975, Ricciarelli sang at all the major European and American opera houses, including Lyric Opera of Chicago (1972), Teatro alla Scala in Milan (1973), the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1974) and the Metropolitan Opera (1975).  In 1981, she began an association with the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro that she maintained throughout the ‘80s.  In addition to her opera performances, Ricciarelli also appeared in a number of films.  She was Desdemona in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello in 1986, alongside Plácido Domingo. In 2005 she won the best actress prize Nastro d'Argento, awarded by the Italian film journalists, for her role in Pupi Avati's La seconda notte di nozze (2005).  During her peak years, Desdemona was one of her signature roles. Read more…

Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder – musician

Court composer suspected of being a spy

Alfonso Ferrabosco, the composer who first introduced the madrigal to England, was born on this day in Bologna in 1543.  As well as composing music for Queen Elizabeth I of England, he was also suspected of working as a spy for her.  Ferrabosco had been born into a family of musicians and travelled about in Italy and France while he was young with his father and uncle.  He went to England in 1562 with his uncle and found employment with Elizabeth I, becoming the first composer to introduce the unaccompanied harmony of the madrigal to England, where it later became very popular. Elizabeth is said to have settled an annuity equivalent to £66 on him.  Ferrabosco’s madrigals suited English tastes and were considered very skilful. He also composed sacred music and instrumental music for lutes and viols.  He made periodic trips back to Italy, but these were frowned upon both by the Pope and the Inquisition. England was at war with several Roman Catholic countries at the time and as a result, Ferrabosco lost his Italian inheritance.  At one point he was serving Cardinal Farnese in Rome, but decided he wanted to return to England.  Read more…

_____________________________________

Dino Meneghin – basketball player

Italy’s biggest star won 32 trophies and Olympic medal

Dino Meneghin, universally recognised as the greatest Italian player in basketball history, was born on this day in 1950 in Alano di Piave, a village in the Veneto.  The first Italian and only the second European player to be drafted by a National Basketball Association team when he was picked by the Atlanta Hawks in 1970, Meneghin enjoyed a professional career spanning 28 years.   He did not retire until he was 44 years old and had played in a professional match against his own son, Andrea, having won 32 trophies including 12 Italian national championships and seven EuroLeague titles.  Meneghin also participated in four Olympic basketball tournaments, winning a silver medal in the 1980 Games in Moscow. His international career amounted to 271 appearances for Italy, in which he scored 2,847 points.  Brought up in Varese in Lombardy, Meneghin was always exceptionally tall, growing to a height of 6ft 9ins (2.06m), and was earmarked for an athletic career.  He and his brother Renzo would train together, Renzo as a middle-distance runner, Dino as a shot-putter and discus thrower.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: The Shortest History of Italy: 3,000 Years from the Romans to the Renaissance to a Modern Republic (Shortest Histories No 13), by Ross King

The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It's hard to imagine a world without Italian influence - and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula, sure of its place in the world. In this breakneck history, bestselling author Ross King dismantles this assumption, uncovering the story of a land rife with inner uncertainty even as its influence spread.  As the Italian tale unfolds, prosperity and power fluctuate like the elevation in the Dolomites. If Rome's seven hills could talk, they might speak of the glorious time of Trajan - or bemoan the era of conquest and the Bubonic Plague that decimated Rome's population. Episodes of wealth like the First Triumvirate and the time of the Medicis are given fresh life alongside descriptions of the Middle Ages, the early days of Venice, the invasion of Napoleon, and the long struggle for unification.  Highlighting key events and personalities, The Shortest History of Italy sees King paint a vibrant portrait of a country whose political and cultural legacies enrich our lives today.

Ross King is the author of many acclaimed books about Italian history and culture, including The Bookseller of Florence, Brunelleschi’s Dome and Leonardo and the Last Supper. He lectures widely on Renaissance art at museums and is a regular participant in Italian Renaissance seminars in the UK and America.  He lives just outside Oxford.

Buy from Amazon

Home

Forza Italia - political party

Movement that gave media magnate Silvio Berlusconi political power

The Forza Italia logo, displaying the colours
of the Italian flag, soon became a familiar sight

The shape of Italy’s political landscape changed on this day in 1994 with the launch of the Forza Italia party, whose leader, the wealthy media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, served as Italy’s prime minister three times.

Work had been going on behind the scenes to lay the foundations of the party for several months, going back to Berlusconi and a group of friends and business colleagues meeting in a notary’s office in Milan in June 1993 to give legal status to what was called the Forza Italia Association for Good Government.

By November, a network of Forza Italia Clubs was established, quickly attracting many thousands of members. Details of this network appeared in the media, although Berlusconi denied that they were branches of a political party - despite news in December that an address on Via dell'Umiltà in Rome had been registered as Forza Italia headquarters. Its office was in the same building that once housed the headquarters of the Italian People's Party, a forerunner of the Christian Democracy party.

On January 18, 1994, however, it was confirmed that Forza Italia would be fielding candidates in the elections due to be held in March of that year.

Il Movimento politico Forza Italia, to give the party its full title, emerged from a period of profound political upheaval in Italy, when the traditional powers of the nation’s political history were swept away in a far-reaching corruption scandal uncovered by the Milan magistrate Antonio Di Pietro and his team of investigators.

The charismatic Berlusconi was a
natural vote winner for the party

The investigation, which became known as Mani Pulite - Clean Hands - eventually led to more than 3,000 arrests, the indictment of more than half the members of the Italian parliament and the collapse and dissolution of both the Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party, whose leader, Bettino Craxi, had been convicted on two charges of political corruption and was due to face trial on a further four when he died in 2000.

Amid this turmoil, filling the void in particular left by the once all-powerful Christian Democrats, Berlusconi, the former property investor who made his fortune after launching Italy’s first private TV network, saw his opportunity to launch a bid for political power.

Drawing on a line from a popular football chant in his choice of Forza Italia as its name, Berlusconi and his allies designed a party that would stand for market-oriented economic policies and a strong national identity combined with traditional conservative values. The party advocated lower taxes, minimal government intervention in the economy and law changes aimed at boosting economic growth.

They wanted to focus their appeal towards moderate voters, former Christian Democrat voters largely, who were - in Berlusconi’s own description - "disoriented, political orphans and who risked being unrepresented".

In fact, the words ‘forza Italia’ - literally ‘Italy force’ but interpreted by English-language commentators as meaning something akin to ‘Go Italy’ - had previously appeared in Christian Democrat slogans during the 1987 election campaign.

An individual with natural charisma, Berlusconi had both the image and the resources to turn the new party into an overnight success. He managed the project himself as both a successful businessman and, by challenging the broadcasting monopoly of the state-owned Rai network, an establishment outsider. Meanwhile, his television channels - Canale 5, Rete 4 and Italia 1 - provided a ready-made platform to connect with the public. His own personality won many of Forza Italia's votes.

Berlusconi waves to a cheering crowd during
his third successful campaign for office

He also seemed to have an innate ability to persuade seemingly incompatible political groups to join coalitions, without which forming a government in Italy is virtually impossible.  

Forza Italia’s immediate success, winning 366 seats in the Chamber of Deputies as the largest party at the 1994 elections, came after Berlusconi had formed a campaigning alliance in the north with Umberto Bossi’s Lega Nord, and in the south with Gianfranco Fini’s post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale, two parties who for the most part despised one another. Lega Nord left the coalition in December and Berlusconi’s first stint as prime minister ended after just 251 days but uniting Bossi and Fini for even a few months could be seen as remarkable.

The centre-left held away for the next five years but Forza Italia regrouped and won power again in 2001 after Berlusconi had brought together the disparate ambitions of north and south again in his Casa delle Libertà - House of Freedoms - alliance. 

This time, Forza Italia and their allies having won almost a third of the vote, Berlusconi was installed as prime minister for a second time, staying in post for four years and 340 days, his executive proving to be the longest lived in the history of the Republic.

Despite being investigated over numerous scandals during his next period in opposition, Berlusconi won a third term as prime minister in 2008, although this time under the banner of Il Popolo della Libertà - People of Freedom - after joining forces with Fini’s Alleanza Nationale. This time, he stayed in office for three years and 192 days.

The merger between the two parties meant that Forza Italia did not officially exist between 2008 and 2013 but with the disbanding of the People of Freedom it was relaunched. Although barred from office himself after being convicted of tax fraud, Berlusconi remained the party’s figurehead until his death in 2023, having been elected to the Senate after his ban expired.

The reformed Forza Italia has yet to achieve the same level of popularity as the original version but remains a significant player in Italian politics and was part of the centre-right coalition led by Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), whose victory at the 2022 elections put current prime minister Giorgia Meloni in power.

The Trevi Fountain in Rome, with its backdrop of
the Palazzo Poli, is one of Rome's best-known sights

Travel tip:

The Via dell'Umiltà in Rome is part of the Trevi district in the heart of the city. A beautiful, elegant and historic neighbourhood, it is best known for the Trevi Fountain, which was officially opened in 1762 and has become one of the city’s best-known landmarks.  The district is also home to the Palazzo Barberini, the 17th century palace to which three of Rome’s greatest architects - Carlo Maderno, Francesco Borromini and Gian Lorenzo Bernin - all contributed and which now houses part of the collection of Italy’s National Gallery of Ancient Art. Other notable sights in the district are the Fontana del Tritone and Fontana Barberini, the Palazzo Colonna and the Palazzo Quirinale, official residence of the Italian president.

The Palazzo Chigi, off the Via del Corso, is the
official residence of the Italian prime minister

Travel tip:

Silvio Berlusconi’s official residence during his terms in office as prime minister was the 16th-century Palazzo Chigi, which overlooks the Piazza Colonna and the Via del Corso in Rome. The palace was in the ownership of the Chigi family, part of Roman nobility, from 1659 until the 19th century. It became the residence of the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to Italy in 1878 before being bought by the Italian state in 1916, when it became the home of the Minister for Colonial Affairs. Later it was the official residence of the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and in 1961 became the official meeting place of the Council of Ministers, whose president is the head of the Italian government - the prime minister - and who was allowed to use the palace as his official home in Rome.

Also on this day: 

1543: The birth of musician Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder

1880: The birth of cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster

1946: The birth of operatic soprano Katia Ricciarelli

1950: The birth of basketball player Dino Meneghin

Home

17 January

Pope Gregory XI returns the papacy to Rome

Important date in Roman and papal history

The French Pope, Gregory XI, returned the papacy to Rome, against the wishes of France and several of his cardinals, on this day in 1377.  The move back to Rome was a highly significant act in history as the papacy, from that date onwards, was to remain in the city.  Gregory was born Pierre-Roger De Beaufort in Limoges. He was the last French pope, and he was also the last pope to reign from Avignon, where he had been unanimously elected in 1370.  He immediately gave consideration to returning the papacy to Rome in order to conduct negotiations for reuniting the Eastern and Western Churches and to maintain papal territories against a Florentine revolt being led by the powerful Visconti family.  But Gregory had to shelve his Roman plan temporarily in order to strive for peace between England and France after another phase in the Hundred Years’ War started.  However, in 1375, he defeated Florence in its war against the Papal States and the following year, he listened to the pleas of the mystic Catherine of Siena, later to become a patron saint of Italy, to move the papacy back to Rome.  Read more…

______________________________________

Antonio del Pollaiuolo – artist

Paintings of muscular men show knowledge of anatomy

Renaissance painter, sculptor, engraver and goldsmith Antonio del Pollaiuolo was born on this day in 1433 in Florence.  He was also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo and sometimes as Antonio del Pollaiolo. The last name came from the trade of his father who sold poultry.  Antonio’s brother, Piero, was also an artist and they frequently worked together. Their work showed classical influences and an interest in human anatomy. It was reported that the brothers carried out dissections to improve their knowledge of the subject.  Antonio worked for a time in the Florence workshop of Bartoluccio di Michele where Lorenzo Ghiberti - creator of the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery - also received his training.  Some of Antonio’s paintings show brutality, such as his depiction of Saint Sebastian, which he painted for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence and presents muscular men in action. His paintings of women show more calmness and display his meticulous attention to fashion details.   Antonio was also successful as a sculptor and a metal worker and although he produced only one engraving, The Battle of the Nude Men, it became one of the most famous prints of the Renaissance.  Read more…

Antonio Moscheni - Jesuit painter

Unique legacy of chapel frescoes in India

The painter Antonio Moscheni, best known for the extraordinary frescoes he created in the chapel of St Aloysius College in Mangalore, India, was born on this day in 1854 in the town of Stezzano, near Bergamo in Lombardy.  St Aloysius, situated in the state of Karnataka in south-west India, was built by Italian Jesuit Missionaries in 1880 and the chapel added four years later.  A beautiful building, it would not look out of place in Rome and the Baroque extravagance of Moscheni's work, which adorns almost every available wall space and ceiling, makes it unique in India.  The chapel welcomes thousands of visitors each year simply to marvel at Moscheni's art for the vibrancy of the colours and the intricacy of the detail. Scenes depicted include the life of St. Aloysius, who as the Italian aristocrat Aloysius Gonzaga became a Jesuit and was studying in Rome when he died at the age of just 23, having devoted himself to caring for the victims of an outbreak of plague.  Also painted are the Apostles, the lives of the Saints and the life of Jesus.  Read more…

______________________________________

Guidobaldo I – Duke of Urbino

Military leader headed a cultured court

Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who was to become Duke of Urbino, was born on this day in Gubbio in 1472.  He succeeded his father, Federico da Montefeltro, as Duke of Urbino in 1482.  Guidobaldo married Elisabetta Gonzaga, the sister of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, but they never had any children.  His court at Urbino was one of the most refined and elegant in Italy where literary men were known to congregate.  The writer Baldassare Castiglione painted an idyllic picture of it in his Book of the Courtier.  Castiglione was related on his mother’s side to the Gonzaga family of Mantua and represented them diplomatically.  As a result he met Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, and later took up residence in his court among the many distinguished guests.  During this time Castiglione also became a friend of the painter, Raphael, who painted a portrait of him that is now in The Louvre in Paris.  Castiglione’s book, Il Libro del Cortegiano, was written in the form of an imaginary dialogue between Elisabetta Gonzaga and her guests and provides a unique picture of court life at the time. It was published in 1528, the year before he died.  Read more…

_______________________________________

Book of the Day: Avignon of the Popes: City of Exiles, by Edwin Mullins

At the beginning of the 14th century, anarchy in Italy led to the capital of the Christian world being moved from Rome for the first and only time in history. It was a critical moment, and it resulted in seven successive popes remaining in exile for the next 70 years. The city chosen to replace Rome was Avignon. Depending on where you stood at the time. they were 70 years of heaven, or of hell. Opinions invariably ran to extremes, as did the behaviour of the popes themselves. It was during this period of exile that the city witnessed some of the most turbulent events in history, including the suppression of the Knights Templar and the last of the heretical Cathars, the first onslaught of the Black Death, the final collapse of the crusading dream, and the first decades of the Hundred Years War between England and France, in which successive Avignon popes attempted to mediate. The papal flight from Rome was fiercely castigated by Dante in The Divine Comedy, while during the later years of papal Avignon the enigmatic figure of Petrarch, the most celebrated poet and scholar of his day, loomed angrily over the city. In a dramatic denouement, Avignon became home to the anti-popes, rivals and enemies of the re-established Roman papacy. Avignon of the Popes is a portrait sketch of that era. And at the centre of the picture is Avignon itself, as it grew from being a relatively insignificant town on the Rhône to become, albeit briefly, one of the great capitals of the world.

Edwin Mullins was a writer, journalist and filmmaker. A former art correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, he wrote widely on the visual arts and architecture. Among his 20 books are The Pilgrimage to Santiago and In Search of Cluny: God’s Lost Empire.

Buy from Amazon

Home