8 January

Leonardo Sciascia – writer

Books mercilessly expose Italian politics and role of the Mafia

Leonardo Sciascia, novelist, playwright and politician, was born on this day in 1921 in Racalmuto in Sicily.  Many of his novels looked at Sicilian life and how the Mafia operates as part of society, and some have since been made into films.  He also wrote a book analysing the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro, the prominent Christian Democrat politician and former prime minister.  Sciascia was part of an investigation into Moro’s kidnapping and criticised Giulio Andreotti, the prime minister at the time, for his lack of action and for failing to deal with Brigate Rosse, the Red Brigades.  When Sciascia was a teenager his family moved to Caltanissetta in Sicily, where he studied writing and literature.  He married Maria Andronico, a local school teacher, in 1944 and he himself held teaching positions for the early part of his career, retiring to write full time in 1968.  In 1954 he published an autobiographical novel inspired by his experiences as an elementary school teacher.  In 1948 his brother committed suicide, which was to have a profound effect on Sciascia’s life.  His first work was a collection of poems satirising fascism, which was published in 1950. Read more…

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Giotto – Renaissance artist

Florentine genius was first to paint realistic figures

The brilliant 14th century painter Giotto di Bondone, who was known simply as Giotto, died on this day in 1337 in Florence.  Although much of his work is no longer in existence, he is remembered as one of the greatest artists of the early Renaissance period.  It is believed Giotto was born in about 1267 in Florence but it is not known how he learned to paint with such a sense of space, naturalism and drama. His work represented a crucial turning point in the history of art because he painted lifelike, solid figures and put in fascinating background details.  He is believed to be the first artist to make a decisive break with the Byzantine style of painting and draw figures accurately from life.  Giotto’s revolutionary style was followed by many other painters later in the 14th century and it is said that he was actually paid a salary by the commune of Florence because of his excellence.  Some of his work can be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, such as his altarpiece, The Ognissanti Madonna, painted in 1310, which is a good example of his ability to paint lifelike people.  But Giotto’s most stunning surviving work is the interior of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padova.  Read more…

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Maria Teresa de Filippis – racing driver

Pioneer for women behind the wheel

The racing driver Maria Teresa de Filippis, who was the first woman to compete in a Formula One world championship event and remains one of only two to make it on to the starting grid in the history of the competition, died on this day in 2016 in Gavarno, a village near Bergamo in Lombardy.  De Filippis, a contemporary of the early greats of F1, the Italians Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari and the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, qualified for the Belgian Grand Prix in June 1958 and finished 10th.  She made the grid for the Portuguese and Italian Grands Prix later in the year but had to retire from both due to engine problems.  She managed only six laps in the former but was unlucky not to finish in the latter event at Monza, where she completed 57 of the 70 laps. Although she was at the back of the field, 13 other cars had retired earlier in the race and she would therefore have finished eighth.  These were her only F1 races. The following year she turned her back on the sport following the death of her close friend, the French driver Jean Behra, in a crash in Germany. Only a year earlier, her former fiancé, the Italian driver Luigi Musso, had also been killed.  Read more…

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Manuela Arcuri - actress and model

TV drama star who portrayed woman who killed Mafia boss

The actress and former model Manuela Arcuri, who received accolades for playing the lead role in a truth-inspired drama about a grieving widow who shot dead a gang boss, was born on this day in 1977 in Anagni, an ancient town in southern Lazio.  Arcuri portrayed a character based on Assunta ‘Pupetta’ Maresca, who made headlines in 1955 when she walked into a bar in Naples and shot dead the Camorra boss who had ordered the killing of her husband, just three months after they were married.  The four-episode drama, aired in 2013 on the Italian commercial TV channel Canale 5, was called Pupetta: Il coraggio e la passione (Pupetta: Courage and Passion). Directed by Luciano Odorisio and also starring Tony Musante, Eva Grimaldi and Barbara De Rossi, the series confirmed Arcuri’s standing as a television actress of note, winning her the award of best actress at the 2013 Rome Fiction Fest.  She had appeared by then in leading roles in a number of TV dramas and mini-series, including Io non dimentico (I Don’t Forget), Il peccato e la vergogna (The Sin and the Shame) and Sangue caldo (Hot Blood).   Read more…

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7 January

ll tricolore

Flag represented people’s hopes for a united Italy

The Italian flag, with its panels of green, white and red, was first hoisted on this day in 1797 in Reggio Emilia.  Long before Italy became a united country, an early form of the tricolore was being flown in a part of the country then known as the Cispadane Republic, where it had been agreed to make universal “the standard or flag of three colours, green, white and red”.  The Cispadane Republic (Repubblica Cispadana) was founded with the protection of the French Army in 1796 in what is now Emilia-Romagna. The republic organised a congress on 7 January in Reggio Emilia and adopted the first ever tricolore as its flag.  But it was many years and many battles later before the flag as we know it now was formally adopted by the Italian republic in 1948.  It is thought the Cispadane republic chose panels of red and white because they were the colours of the flag of Milan and green because it was the colour of the uniform of the Milan civic guard.  Some believe the green panel (on the hoist side of the flag as it is used now) represents Italy’s plains and hills, the white panel the snow-capped alps and the red panel the blood spilt in Italy’s fight for independence from foreign domination.  Read more…

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Vincent Gardenia - TV and film actor

US sitcom star with Neapolitan roots

The actor Vincent Gardenia, one of the most recognisable faces on American television in the 1960s and 1970s and twice nominated for an Oscar for his film roles, was born on this day in 1920 in what is now Ercolano, a town that forms part of the Naples metropolitan area.  Gardenia starred as the father of Cher's character in the film Moonstruck, was the detective Frank Ochoa alongside Charles Bronson in Death Wish and was Mr Mushnik in the musical film adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors.  On television, he portrayed J Edgar Hoover in the mini-series Kennedy,  starring Martin Sheen as the murdered former president, but was perhaps best known as Archie Bunker's neighbour Frank Lorenzo in the 70s comedy hit All in the Family, which was the American version of the iconic British comedy Till Death Us Do Part.  Born Vincenzo Scognamiglio, he spent only the first two years of his life in Italy before his family took the decision to emigrate to the United States, settling in New York in the borough of Brooklyn.  His father, Gennaro, had worked as an actor and theatre manager in Naples and soon after arriving in New York established an Italian-language acting troupe.  Read more…

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Pope Gregory XIII

Pontiff used his power to change the date overnight

Pope Gregory XIII was born Ugo Boncompagni on this day in 1502 in Bologna.  Gregory XIII is chiefly remembered for introducing the Gregorian calendar, which is still the internationally accepted calendar today.  As Ugo Boncompagni, he studied law in Bologna and graduated in 1530. He later taught jurisprudence and among his students were the Cardinals Alessandro Farnese and Carlo Borromeo.  Before he took holy orders, Ugo had an affair with Maddalena Fulchini, who gave birth to his illegitimate son, Giacomo Boncompagni.  Pope Paul III summoned Ugo to Rome in 1538 to work for him in a judicial capacity. He went on to work for Pope Paul IV and Pope Pius IV. Ugo was made Cardinal Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and sent to the Council of Trent by Pius IV.  He was also sent to be legate to Phillip II of Spain and formed a close relationship with the Spanish King.  In 1572, after the death of Pope Pius V, the 70-year-old Cardinal Boncompagni was chosen to be the next pope and assumed the name of Gregory XIII, in homage to Pope Gregory I, who is remembered as a great church reformer.   Read more…

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Ruggiero Giovannelli – composer

Church musician wrote popular madrigals and songs

Ruggiero Giovannelli, a religious composer who also wrote a surprising number of light-hearted madrigals, died on this day in 1625 in Rome.  He may have been a pupil of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the most famous of the Roman School composers of the 16th century. Even though there is no documentary evidence to support this, there are stylistic similarities in their music.  On Palestrina’s death in 1594, Giovannelli was chosen to replace him as maestro di cappella at the Julian Chapel in St Peter’s Basilica.  Giovannelli was born in Velletri near Rome and not much is known about his life until 1583 when he became maestro di cappella at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi near the Piazza Navona in Rome. He moved on to become maestro di cappella at the Collegio Germanico, a pontifical college in Rome, in 1591.  His most important appointment was when he was chosen to replace Palestrina at St Peter’s in 1594, a position he held until 1599 when he became a singer at the Sistine Chapel, a position he held until he became maestro di cappella there in 1614.  Giovannelli composed church music in the style of Palestrina. Read more…

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Pope Innocent X

Political pontiff dominated by sister-in-law

A politically charged and controversial period in papal history ended on this day in 1655 with the death in Rome of Pope Innocent X.  Described by some historians as a scheming and bitter pontiff, Innocent X’s tenure was notable for his malicious attack on a rival family, his destruction of the ancient city of Castro, a squabble with France that almost ended in war, his interference in the English Civil War and his refusal to recognise the independence of Portugal.  It was also overshadowed by rumours of an immoral relationship with his sister-in-law, Olimpia Maidalchini, the widow of his late brother. Historians generally agree that these were unfounded, yet Innocent X was dominated by her to the extent that she became the most powerful figure in his court, her influence so strong that ambassadors, cardinals and bishops knew that the pope would defer to her before making any decision and consequently would address any issues directly to her.  Born in Rome in 1574 and baptised as Giovanni Battista Pamphili, he came from a wealthy and well-established family who originally came from Gubbio in Umbria.  Read more…

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6 January

NEW - Silvana Pampanini - actress and singer

Postwar pin-up who preceded Loren and Lollobrigida

The actress and singer Silvana Pampanini, who starred in more than 50 films and was Italian cinema’s biggest box office draw in the 1950s, died on this day in 2016 in Rome.  She was 90 years old and had been hospitalized for some weeks following abdominal surgery. Her funeral took place at the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, in the Esquilino district to the southeast of the city centre.  Born in Rome into a family of Venetian heritage in 1925, she had ambitions to become an opera singer, inspired by the career of her aunt, Rosetta Pampanini, a noted soprano who sang at many of the world’s great opera houses.  She enrolled at the renowned Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, where her male teacher was so struck by her physical beauty that without her knowledge he entered her for the 1946 Miss Italy contest, the first to be staged after the end of World War Two.  Though taken aback at first, Pampanini was a confident young woman and went along with it. Indeed, the audience were so appreciative of her curvy figure, green eyes and long legs that when the jury awarded the title to Rossana Martini, another future actress, there was a near riot and police had to be called to restore order. Read more…

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Baldassare Verazzi - painter

Piedmontese artist famous for image of uprising in Milan

The painter Baldassare Verazzi, whose most famous work depicts a scene from the anti-Austrian uprising known as The Five Days of Milan, was born on this day in 1819 in Caprezzo, a tiny village in Piedmont, 120km (75 miles) from Turin in the hills above Lake Maggiore.  Something of a revolutionary in that he was an active supporter of the Risorgimento, it is supposed that he was in Milan in 1848 when citizens rose up against the ruling forces of the Austrian Empire, which controlled much of northern Italy.  The Cinque Giornate di Milano, in March of that year, comprised five days of street fighting that eventually resulted in the Austrian garrison being expelled from the city, marking the start of the First Italian War of Independence.  Verazzi’s painting, which is today on display at the Museum of the Risorgimento in the Castello Sforza in Milan, is entitled Episodio delle Cinque Giornate (Combattimento a Palazzo Litta), and shows three figures sheltering behind a barricade while another aims a rifle over the barricade, presumably in the direction of Austrian troops.  Born into a family of humble origins, Verazzi studied at the Brera Academy in Milan.  Read more…

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Adriano Celentano – singer and actor

Italy’s biggest-selling recording artist of all time

The pop singer and movie actor Adriano Celentano, who is estimated to have sold in the region of 200 million records in a career spanning 60 years, was born on this day in 1938 in Milan.  One of the most important and influential figures in Italian pop culture, Celentano enjoys such enduring popularity that when he gave his first live performance for 18 years at the Arena di Verona in 2012, screened on the Canale 5 television channel, it attracted an audience of more than nine million viewers.  He has recorded more than 40 albums, among which, Tutti le migliori (All The Best) reviving his collaboration with another veteran Italian star, Mina, was released in 2017 and included new material.  Celentano’s biggest individual hits include Stai lontana di me (Stay away from me, 1962), Si è spento il sole (The sun has gone out, 1962), Pregherò (I will pray, 1962), Il ragazzo della via Gluck (The boy from Gluck Street, 1966), La coppia più bello del mondo (The most beautiful couple in the world, 1967), Azzurro (Blue, 1968), Sotto le lenzuola (Under the sheets, 1971), Ti avrò (I will have you, 1978) and Susanna (1984).  Read more…

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Giuseppe Sammartini – oboe player and composer

Musician could make oboe sound like the human voice

Giuseppe Sammartini, a brilliant oboist and composer during the late baroque and early classical era, was born on this day in 1695 in Milan.  The musician - named Giuseppe Francesco Gaspare Melchiorre Baldassare Sammartini in full - spent many years living and working in London, where he was hailed as ‘the greatest oboist the world had ever known.’ He also worked as a music master for Frederick, Prince of Wales and his wife Augusta, when Frederick was heir to the British throne. Frederick was the eldest son of King George II, but he died before his father. Frederick’s own eldest son later became King George III.  Giuseppe’s younger brother, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, also became a well-known composer and oboe player. The brothers had both been given oboe lessons by their French father, Alexis Saint-Martin.  Giuseppe Sammartini, who could also play the flute and recorder, was the oboe player at a church in Milan in about 1717.  He then became oboist at the Teatro Regio Ducale, an opera house in Milan, in 1720.  Sammartini went to live and work in Brussels in 1729 but then moved to London, where he was a great success.  Read more…

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First Montessori school opens in Rome

Educationalist Maria Montessori launches Casa dei Bambini

The first of what would become recognised across the world as Montessori schools opened its doors in Rome on this day in 1907.  The Casa dei Bambini, in the working class neighbourhood of San Lorenzo, was launched by the physician and educationalist Maria Montessori.  Montessori - the first woman in Italy to qualify as a physician - had enjoyed success with her teaching methods while working with children as a volunteer at Rome University's psychiatric clinic.  She was convinced that the techniques she had used to help children with learning difficulties and more serious mental health issues could be adapted for the benefit of all children.  The Casa dei Bambini came into being after Montessori had been invited to work on a housing project in San Lorenzo, where her responsibility was to oversee the care and education of the project's children while their parents were at work.  Situated in Via dei Marsi, it catered for between 50 and 60 children aged between two and seven.  The methods Montessori employed, which included many practical activities as well as more conventional lessons.  Read more…

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Befana - Italy’s 6 January tradition

A good witch who traditionally sweeps away problems

Children in Italy will be waking up on this day hoping to find that Befana has left them some presents while they have been sleeping.  Although Christmas is almost over, the eve of 6 January is when a kind witch is supposed to visit the good children in Italy and leave them presents.  Traditionally, children who have been naughty are supposed to receive only a lump of coal and those who have been stupid are supposed to receive only a carrot.  But in reality, many children throughout Italy will expect good presents from Befana today.  Befana is also sometimes referred to as La Vecchia (the old woman) and La Strega (the witch). But she is supposed to be a similar character to Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus.  It is believed her name derives from La Festa dell’Epifania (the feast of the Epiphany).  Befana is usually portrayed in illustrations as an old lady riding a broomstick, wearing a black shawl and covered in soot because she enters the children’s homes through the chimney.  Another tradition is that Befana sweeps the floor of the house before she leaves, symbolising the sweeping away of the problems of the previous year.  Read more…

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Silvana Pampanini - actress and singer

Postwar pin-up who preceded Loren and Lollobrigida

Silvana Pampanini combined acting talent with
star quality to become Italy's best paid actress

The actress and singer Silvana Pampanini, who starred in more than 50 films and was Italian cinema’s biggest box office draw in the 1950s, died on this day in 2016 in Rome.

She was 90 years old and had been hospitalized for some weeks following abdominal surgery. Her funeral took place at the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, in the Esquilino district to the southeast of the city centre.

Born in Rome into a family of Venetian heritage in 1925, she had ambitions to become an opera singer, inspired by the career of her aunt, Rosetta Pampanini, a noted soprano who sang at many of the world’s great opera houses.

She enrolled at the renowned Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, where her male teacher was so struck by her physical beauty that without her knowledge he entered her for the 1946 Miss Italy contest, the first to be staged after the end of World War Two.

Though taken aback at first, Pampanini was a confident young woman and went along with it. Indeed, the audience were so appreciative of her curvy figure, green eyes and long legs that when the jury awarded the title to Rossana Martini, another future actress, there was a near riot and police had to be called to restore order. Later, the result was amended and the contest declared a draw.

Pampanini was unashamedly promoted as a sex
symbol during the 1950s Italian cinema boom

Beauty contests were fertile ground for movie makers in search of the next starlet and although Pampanini wanted to be appreciated for her singing voice as well as her visual appeal it was the latter quality that producers were so keen to exploit.

After her screen debut in 1946, her fame grew steadily and her photo frequently appeared on the front covers of Italy’s booming weekly magazines. Her father, who initially disapproved of her dream of becoming a movie star, soon changed his mind and became her agent. By 1951, when she starred alongside Delia Scala in Carlo Campogalliani’s musical comedy Bellezze in bicicletta - Beauties on Bicycles - and as the Empress Poppea in Mario Soldati’s comedy, OK Nerone, she was the highest paid actress in Italy and was making up to eight films per year.

Those titles unashamedly showcased her pin-up status but Pampanini was not without talent as an actress. Titles such as Luigi Comencini’s drama La Tratta delle bianche - The White Slave Trade - Paolo Moffa’s La principessa delle Canarie - The Princess of the Canaries - Gianni Franciolini’s Racconti Romani - Roman Tales - and Dino Risi’s Il Gaucho - The Gaucho - saw her perform opposite major actors such as Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Totò and Vittorio De Sica.

La strada lungo un anno won
a Golden Globe in 1958

In 1958 she took a part in Giuseppe De Santis's La strada lungo un anno - The Road a Year Long - which won the Golden Globe award for best foreign film and was nominated for an Oscar in the same category.

She became popular as far afield as Egypt, Mexico and Japan as well as in Spain and France, where she was known as Niní Pampan. She became a worldwide symbol of Italian beauty alongside such stars as Lucia Bosè and Silvana Mangano, and later Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.

There were countless offers to take her appeal to Hollywood, but Pampanini baulked at the idea of spending hours learning English and turned them all down. 

Nonetheless, she travelled extensively, happy to be a smiling ambassador for Italian cinema In Europe, South America, North Africa and even the Soviet Union, often appearing on local TV shows or accepting invitations to be a guest panel member at film festivals. 

Although she was frequently linked romantically with co-stars such as Orson Welles, Omar Sharif, William Holden and Tyrone Power, she never married, despite having, in her own words, ‘more suitors than headaches’ in her life.

She rejected an offer of marriage from comic actor Totò because of his age - he was 27 years’ her senior. There were rumours of affairs with the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, and Egypt’s King Farouk, who were both said to be smitten after meeting her.

Pampanini with the comic actor Totò, one of
a number of suitors she ultimately rejected

Pampanini was pursued with particular ardour by the Greek-born producer Moris Egas, who showered her with jewels and furs and other valuable items. When she ultimately rejected him, he took legal action to try to recover his gifts but lost the case.

Later, in an autobiography entitled Scandalamente perbene - Scandalously Respectable - she claimed that the love of her life had been an older man - another actor - who had died a month before they were to wed, but she declined to name him. 

Pampanini had a fiery temperament. After the Miss Italy contest that shot her to fame, she gave a radio interview alongside her joint-winner that had to be curtailed when the two began to quarrel and pull each other’s hair. Years later, at the Venice Lido Film Festival, she physically attacked a journalist who had been unkind to her in a magazine article.

Her career effectively came to an end in her mid-60s, when she gave up full-time work to look after her elderly parents. After they died, she moved for a while to Monte Carlo and lived in relative obscurity.  She made some TV appearances, the last of which was in 2002.

Rome's Parioli district is an upmarket residential
area notable for its tree-lined streets

Travel tip:

The Parioli district, where Pampanini lived at the height of her fame, is one of Rome's wealthiest residential neighbourhoods. Located north of the city centre, it is notable for its tree-lined streets and elegant houses, and for some of Rome's finest restaurants. The Auditorium Parco della Musica and the Villa Ada, once the Rome residence of the Italian royal family and surrounded by the second largest park in the city, can also be found within the Parioli district, which takes its name from the Monti Parioli hills.

The entrance to the historic
Conservatorio in Via dei Greci

Travel tip:

The Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, where Silvana Pampanini trained as a singer, dates back to 1875. It was set up under the auspices of one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, now known as the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, which was established in 1565. The Conservatorio can be found in Via dei Greci, not far from the Spanish Steps in central Rome. The Academy is located at the Parco della Musica in the northern part of Rome in Viale Pietro de Coubertin in the Flaminio district, close to the location of the 1960 Summer Olympic Games.

Also on this day:

Befana - Italy’s 6 January tradition

1695: The birth of oboist and composer Giuseppe Sammartini

1819: The birth of painter Baldassare Verazzi

1907: The first Montessori school opens in Rome

1938: The birth of singer and actor Adriano Celentano

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5 January

Dr Michele Navarra – physician and Mafia boss

Hospital doctor who headed Corleone clan

Michele Navarra, an extraordinary figure who became the leading physician in his home town of Corleone while simultaneously heading up one of the most notorious clans in the history of the Sicilian Mafia, was born on this day in 1905.  Dr Navarra was a graduate of the University of Palermo, where he studied engineering before turning to medicine, and became a captain in the Royal Italian Army. He could have had a comfortable and worthy career as a doctor.  Yet he developed a fascination with stories about his uncle, Angelo Gagliano, who until he was murdered when Navarra was a boy of about 10 years old had been a member of the Fratuzzi – the Brothers – a criminal organisation who leased agricultural land from absentee landlords and then sublet it to peasant farmers at exorbitant rates, enforcing their authority by extorting protection money, as well as by controlling the hiring of workers.  As the son of a land surveyor, Navarra already enjoyed privileges inaccessible to most of the population and his medical qualifications only further lifted his standing in the community. Somehow, though, it was not enough.  Read more…

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Umberto Eco – novelist and semiotician

Prolific author became fascinated with signs and symbols

Academic and writer Umberto Eco was born on this day in 1932 in Alessandria in Piedmont.  Eco, who died in 2016, was best known for his mystery novel, The Name of the Rose - Il Nome della Rosa, which was first published in Italian in 1980, but he was also a respected expert on semiotics, the branch of linguistics concerned with signs and symbols.  Eco studied medieval literature and philosophy at the University of Turin and after graduating worked in television as well returning to lecture at the University of Turin. He was a visiting professor at a number of American universities and received honorary doctorates from universities in America and Serbia.  As well as producing fiction, he published books on medieval aesthetics, literary criticism, media culture, anthropology and philosophy. He also helped to found an important new approach in contemporary semiotics and to launch a journal on semiotics.  Eco set his first novel, The Name of the Rose, in a 14th century monastery with a Franciscan friar as the detective. The book has been described as ‘an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory’.  Read more…

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Severino Gazzelloni - flautist

Lead player with RAI orchestra considered a great of Italian music

The flautist Severino Gazzelloni, who for 30 years was the principal player of his instrument in the prestigious RAI National Symphony Orchestra but who had a repertoire that extended well beyond orchestral classical music, was born on this day in 1919 in Roccasecca, a town perched on a hillside in southern Lazio, about 130km (81 miles) south of Rome.  He was known for his versatility. In addition to his proficiency in classical flute pieces, Gazzelloni also excelled in jazz and 20th century avant-garde music. As such, many musicians and aficionados regard him as one of the finest flute players of all time.  Gazzelloni also taught others to master the flute. His notable pupils included the American jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy and the Dutch classical flautist Abbie de Quant.  The son of a tailor in Roccasecca, Gazzelloni grew up in modest circumstances yet had music around him from a young age as his father played in a local band.  He taught himself music and became fascinated with the flute as an instrument, acquiring the technique to play it simply by practising for endless hours on his own.  By the age of seven, his father considered him good enough to sit alongside him in the band.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Impastato - anti-Mafia activist

Son of mafioso was murdered for speaking out

Giuseppe Impastato, a political activist who was murdered by the Sicilian Mafia in 1978, was born on this day in 1948 in Cinisi, a coastal resort 36km (22 miles) west of Palermo which is now home to the city's Punta Raisi airport.  Also known as Peppino, Impastato was born into a Mafia family.  His father, Luigi, had been considered a significant enough figure in the criminal organisation to be sent into internal exile during the Fascist crackdown of the 1920s and was a close friend of the local Mafia boss, Gaetano Badalamenti.  Impastato had already begun to take an interest in left-wing political ideology when his uncle, Cesare Manzella, was blown up by a car bomb in 1963, the victim of a contract killing.  The murder had a profound effect on Impastato, then only 15, who denounced all his father stood for and left home.  He began to write, founding a left-wing newsletter, L'Idea Socialista, in 1965, and soon joined the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP).  He became the regular instigator of student and workers' protests during the late 1960s and led a number of anti-Mafia demonstrations.  Read more…

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4 January

Carlo Levi – writer and painter

Author and doctor who highlighted poverty in southern Italy

The anti-Fascist writer, painter and doctor, Carlo Levi, died on this day in Rome in 1975.  He is best remembered for his book Christ Stopped at Eboli - Cristo si è fermato a Eboli - an account of the time he spent in political exile in a remote, impoverished part of Italy.  Levi was born in Turin in 1902. His father was a wealthy Jewish physician and Levi went to the University of Turin to study medicine after finishing school.  While at University he became active in politics and after graduating he turned his attention to painting.  But he never completely abandoned medicine and moved to Paris to continue his medical research while painting.  After returning to Italy, Levi founded an anti-Fascist movement in 1929. As a result he was arrested and sent into exile to a remote area of Italy called Lucania (now renamed Basilicata).  He encountered extreme poverty, which had been unknown in the north where he grew up. As well as writing and painting while he was in exile, he served as a doctor to help the poor villagers he lived among.  When he was released from his political exile he moved back to France but on his return to Italy he was arrested again.  Read more…

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Pino Daniele - singer and songwriter

Naples mourned star with flags at half-mast

The Neapolitan singer-songwriter Pino Daniele died on this day in 2015 in hospital in Rome.  Daniele, whose gift was to fuse his city’s traditional music with blues and jazz, suffered a heart attack after being admitted with breathing difficulties. Daniele, who had a history of heart problems, had been taken to Rome after falling ill at his holiday home in Tuscany.  On learning of his death, the Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris ordered that flags on municipal buildings in the city be flown at half-mast.  Born in 1955, Daniele grew up in a working class family in the Sanità neighborhood of Naples, once a notorious hotbed of crime. His father worked at the docks.  As a musician, he was self-taught, mastering the guitar with no formal lessons and developing a unique voice, alternately soaring and soft, and gravelly to the point of sounding almost hoarse.  He named the great American jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and George Benson as his major influences but also drew deeply on the life, culture and traditions of his home city, which he loved.  His songs sometimes combined Italian, English and Naples dialect.  Read more…

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Gaetano Merola – conductor and impresario

Neapolitan who founded the San Francisco Opera

Gaetano Merola, a musician from Naples who emigrated to the United States and ultimately founded the San Francisco Opera, was born on this day in 1881.  Merola directed the company and conducted many performances for 30 years from its opening night in September 1923 until his death in August 1953.  He literally died doing what he loved, collapsing in the orchestra pit while conducting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra during a concert at an outdoor amphitheatre in the city.  The son of a violinist at the Royal Court in Naples, Merola studied piano and conducting at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples, graduating with honours at the age of 16.  Three years later he was invited to New York to work as assistant to Luigi Mancinelli, another Italian emigrant, born in Orvieto, who was a noted composer and cellist who was lead conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera.  Demand for his services grew and he made regular guest appearances with companies across America and beyond, including a stint at Oscar Hammerstein’s London Opera House on the site of what is now the Peacock Theatre in Holborn.   Read more…

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Giuseppe ‘Pino’ Greco - Mafia executioner

Notorious hitman thought to have committed at least 80 murders

The notorious Mafia hitman Giuseppe Greco, who was convicted posthumously on 58 counts of murder but whose victims possibly ran into hundreds, was born on this day in 1952 in Ciaculli, a town on the outskirts of Palermo in Sicily.  More often known as ‘Pino’, or by his nickname Scarpuzzedda - meaning ‘little shoe’ - Greco is considered one of the most prolific killers in the history of organised crime.  The nephew of Michele Greco, who lived on an estate just outside Ciaculli and rose to be head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission - a body set up to settle disputes between rival clans - Pino Greco is generally accepted to have been responsible for 80 deaths, although some students of Cosa Nostra history believe he could have committed more than 300 killings.  Most of Greco’s victims were fellow criminals, the majority of them killed during the Second Mafia War, which began in 1978 and intensified between 1981 and 1983 with more than 1,000 homicides, as rival clans fought each other and against the state, with judges, prosecutors and politicians prominent in the fight against organised crime themselves becoming targets.  Read more…

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Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – composer

Brief career of 'opera buffa' genius

Opera composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born on this day in 1710 as Giovanni Battista Draghi, in Jesi, in what is now the province of Ancona.  He later acquired the name Pergolesi, the Italian word for the residents of Pergola in Marche, which had been the birthplace of his ancestors.  Pergolesi was the most important early composer of opera buffa - comic opera. He wrote a two-act buffa intermezzo for one of his serious operas, which later became a popular work in its own right.  He also wrote sacred music and his Stabat Mater, composed in 1736, has been used in the soundtracks of many contemporary films.  Pergolesi received a musical education at the Conservatorio dei Poveri in Naples where he gained a good reputation as a violinist.  In 1732 he was appointed maestro di cappella to the Prince of Stigliano in Naples and produced for him an opera buffa, Lo frate ‘nnammorato, and a sacred work, believed to be his Mass in D, which were both well received.  The following year his serious opera, Il prigionier superbo, was produced but it was the comic intermezzo, La serva padrona, inserted between the acts, that was most popular, revealing his gift for comic characterisation.  Read more…

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3 January

NEW - Baldassare Galuppi – opera composer

Musician from Burano had a talent for comic opera

The prolific Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi, who worked alongside the playwright Carlo Goldoni, died on this day in 1785 in Venice.  At the height of his career, Galuppi achieved international success, working at different times in Vienna, London and Saint Petersburg, but his main base was Venice, where he held a succession of prestigious posts during his life. Galuppi was born on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon and was sometimes referred to as Il Buranello, a signature he used on his music manuscripts. His father was a barber who also played the violin in an orchestra, and is believed to have been his first music teacher.  At the age of 15, Galuppi wrote his first opera, which was performed at Chioggia and Vicenza. He then became harpsichordist at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.  In the early part of his career, Galuppi was successful in the opera seria genre, but after 1749 many of his operas were comic collaborations with the Venetian dramatist Carlo Goldoni. The most popular of his comic operas was his 1754 composition Il filosofo di campagna – The Country Philosopher.  Read more…

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Sergio Leone – film director

Distinctive style of  ‘Spaghetti Western’ creator

Italian film director, producer and screenwriter Sergio Leone was born on this day in 1929 in Rome.  Leone is most associated with the ‘spaghetti western’ genre of films, such as the Dollars trilogy of westerns featuring Clint Eastwood.  He had a distinctive film-making style that involved juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots.  Leone’s father was a film director and his mother was a silent film actress. He went to watch his father at work on film sets from an early age.  He dropped out of university to begin his own career in the industry at the age of 18 as an assistant to the director Vittorio De Sica.  He began writing screen plays and worked as an assistant director on Quo Vadis and Ben Hur at Cinecittà in Rome.  When the director of The Last Days of Pompeii fell ill, Leone was asked to step in and complete the film.  He made his solo debut as a director with The Colossus of Rhodes in 1961.   Leone turned his attention to making spaghetti westerns in the 1960s and his films, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly were big financial successes.  Read more…

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Renato Carosone – singer-songwriter

Composer revived popularity of the traditional Neapolitan song

Renato Carosone, who became famous for writing and performing Neapolitan songs in modern times, was born Renato Carusone on this day in 1920 in Naples.  His 1956 song Tu vuo’ fa’ l’Americano - 'You want to be American' - has been used in films and performed by many famous singers right up to the present day.  Torero, a song released by him in 1957, was translated into 12 languages and was at the top of the US pop charts for 14 weeks.  Carosone studied the piano at the Naples Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella and obtained his diploma in 1937, when he was just 17. He went to work as a pianist in Addis Ababa and then served in the army on the Italian Somali front. He did not return to Italy until 1946, after the end of the Second World War.  Back home, he had to start his career afresh and moved to Rome, where he played the piano for small bands.  He was asked to put together a group for the opening of a new club and signed Dutch guitarist, Peter van Houten and Neapolitan drummer, Gegè di Giacomo, with whom he launched the Trio Carosone.  When Van Houten left to pursue a solo career, Di Giacomo remained with Carosone and they recruited more musicians to form a new band.  Read more…

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Cicero - politician and philosopher

Roman writer and orator revered by Renaissance scholars

Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman lawyer, politician, philosopher and great orator whose rediscovered works were an important driver of the Renaissance in the 14th century, was born on this day in 106BC in Arpinum, a hill town about 100km (62 miles) southeast of Rome known today as Arpino.  A loyal supporter of the Roman Republic, Cicero’s brilliance as a student of Roman law and his effectiveness as a speaker led to his rapid rise in Roman politics, which saw him become the youngest citizen to attain the rank of consul, the highest political office of the republic, without hailing from a political family.  Although his political career foundered after his opposition to the secret alliance between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus known as the First Triumvirate, forced him into exile, Cicero turned to writing, producing many works relating to philosophy, as well as hundreds of letters and speeches.  Much of his work disappeared after his death, but was rediscovered by 14th century scholars, most notably Francesco Petrarca - Petrarch - as academics sought to enhance their knowledge by seeking out ancient Greek and Roman texts. Read more…

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Pietro Metastasio – poet and librettist

From street entertainer to leading libretto writer

Pietro Metastasio, who became Europe’s most celebrated opera librettist in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1698 in Rome.  He was christened Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, one of four children born to Felice Trapassi, from Assisi and Francesca Galasti from Bologna. His father served in the papal forces before becoming a grocer in Via dei Cappellari.  While still a child, Pietro could attract crowds by reciting impromptu verses. On one occasion, in 1709, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, director of the Arcadian Academy, stopped to listen. He was so impressed that he made the young boy his protégé and later adopted him, changing his surname to Metastasio.  He provided the young Metastasio with a good education and encouraged him to develop his talent.  When Gravina was on his way to Calabria on a business trip, he exhibited Metastasio in the literary circles of Naples, but after the young boy became ill, he placed him in the care of a relative to help him recuperate.  Gravina decided Metastasio should never improvise again but should concentrate on his education and reserve his talent for nobler efforts.  Read more...

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Gianfranco Fini – politician

Party leader who moved away from fascism

Gianfranco Fini, former leader of the Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance), the post-fascist political party in Italy, was born on this day in 1952 in Bologna.  Fini has been President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Silvio Berlusconi’s Government from 2001 to 2006.  His father, Argenio ‘Sergio’ Fini, was a volunteer with the Italian Social Republic, a Fascist state in Northern Italy allied with Germany between 1943 and 1945.  His maternal grandfather, Antonio Marani, took part in the march on Rome, which signalled the beginning of Italian Fascism in 1922.  Fini’s first name, Gianfranco, was chosen in memory of his cousin, who was killed at the age of 20 by partisans after the liberation of northern Italy on 25 April, 1945.  Fini became interested in politics at the age of 16, after he was involved in a clash with communist activists and he went on to join the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist political party.  After graduating from La Sapienza University in Rome he became involved with the party’s newspaper, Il Secolo d’Italia.   Read more…

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Baldassare Galuppi – opera composer

Musician from Burano had a talent for comic opera

Galuppi became a major figure
in the evolution of comic opera

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carlo Goldoni, with whom
Galuppi worked successfully

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The statue of Galuppi
in Piazza Galuppi

Travel tip:

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

Travel tip:

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

Also on this day:

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

1698: The birth of poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio

1920: The birth of singer-songwriter Renato Carosone

1929: The birth of film director Sergio Leone

1952: The birth of politician Gianfranco Fini

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