22 April 2017

Alida Valli - actress

Scandal dogged star admired by Mussolini


The actress Alida Valli was the object of Mussolini's admiration
The actress Alida Valli was the object of
Mussolini's admiration
The actress Alida Valli, who was once described by Benito Mussolini as the most beautiful woman in the world after Greta Garbo, died on this day in 2006 at the age of 84.

One of the biggest stars in Italian cinema in the late 1930s and 40s, when she starred in numerous romantic dramas and comedies, she was best known outside Italy for playing Anna Schmidt, the actress girlfriend of Harry Lime in Carol Reed’s Oscar-winning 1949 classic The Third Man.

She was cast in the role by the producer David O Selznick, who shared the Fascist leader’s appreciation for her looks, and who billed her simply as Valli, hoping it would create for her a Garboesque enigmatic allure.  Later, however, she complained that having one name made her “feel silly”.

Valli was born in Pola, Istria, then part of Italy (now Pula, Croatia), in 1921. She was christened Baroness Alida Maria Laura Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg, on account of a noble line to her paternal grandfather, Baron Luigi Altenburger, an Austrian-Italian from Trento and a descendant of the Counts d’Arco.

Her father was a journalist and professor. The family moved to Como when she was young but her father died when she was a teenager, after which she and her mother moved to Rome, where she enrolled at the capital's new film school, Centro Sperimentale.

She had no expectations of making a career in movies but the Centro's teachers recognised her talent. The name Alida Valli was invented for her, and in 1937 she made five films, each one more successful than the last. Consequently, her salary went up with each production. When she realised her earnings could support her whole family, she decided that it was a career worth taking seriously.

Alida Valli with Joseph Cotten in The Third Man
After a number of comedies and costume dramas, she won acclaim for more serious roles in Picolo mondo antico (1941) and We the Living (1942). The latter saw her star opposite Rossano Brazzi as tragic lovers in post-revolutionary St Petersburg, which pleased the Fascist regime because it seemed to convey an anti-communist message.

She felt uncomfortable about being linked with the Mussolini regime, however, especially when an anonymous letter to the United States embassy in Rome stalled her application for a visa to work in the US. The letter accused her of Fascist sympathies and being romantically involved with Hitler's propanganda chief Joseph Goebbels. The visa was granted, but only after Selznick's lawyers had disproved the allegations.

After Alida returned to Europe, she moved into more serious roles in films such as Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954) and Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido (1957), which had won her praise and confirmed that her beauty was underpinned with genuine acting ability.

Her success was overshadowed, however, by her relationship with Piero Piccioni, the son of Italy’s foreign minister, Attilio Piccioni, who was implicated in a sex and drugs scandal – the so-called Montesi scandal -  that emerged following the discovery of a young woman’s body on a beach near Ostia Antica, the old Roman resort, in 1953.

Piccioni was acquitted of any culpability in the woman’s death after Valli confirmed that she and Piccioni were together in Amalfi, 200 miles away, at the time, staying in a villa as guests of Carlo Ponti.  Valli had by then separated from her husband, Oscar De Mejo.

Valli with Stewart Granger in Luchino Visconti's Senso
During the next decade Alida struggled to rebuild her film career and turned to working more in theatre and television, before her reputation was re-established with parts in such films as Pier Paolo Pasolini's Oedipus Rex (1967) and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Spider's Strategem (1970), 1900 (1976) and La Luna (1979).

Valli encountered tragedy in her personal life when her lover as a young actress, the fighter pilot Carlo Cugnasca, was killed in action over Africa. In 1944, Alida married De Mejo, a jazz pianist, with whom she had a son, Carlo, in 1945, by which time Alida had been offered a Hollywood contract.  They had another son, Larry, but parted after eight years.

Valli's death at her home in Rome was announced by the office of the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni. The Italian president, CarloAzeglio Ciampi, described her passing as “a great loss for the cinema, the theatre and Italian culture.”

The 15th century facade of Como's Duomo
The 15th century facade of Como's Duomo
Travel tip:

Como, where Valli grew up, can be found at the southern tip of the eastern branch of Lake Como. It is a pleasant town with an impressive cathedral in the historical centre, the construction of which spanned almost 350 years, which is why it combines features from different architectural areas, including Gothic and Renaissance. The façade was built in 1457, its characteristic rose window and a portal flanked by Renaissance statues of Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, both of whom were from Como. This Duomo replaced the earlier 10th-century cathedral, San Fedele.



Travel tip:

The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia can be found off Via Tuscolana to the south of Rome, nextdoor to the Cinecittà studio complex. It is the oldest film school in Western Europe, founded in 1935 during the Mussolini era by his head of cinema, Luigi Freddi. It is still financed by the Italian government to provide training, research and experimentation in the field of cinema.  Apart from Alida Valli, other actors and actresses to have emerged from the school include Claudia Cardinale, Domenico Modugno and Francesca Neri. Directors among the alumni include Michelangelo Antonioni, Giuseppe De Santis and Luigi Zampa.



More reading:




21 April 2017

The birth of Rome

City said to have been founded on April 21, 753BC


Nicolas Mignard's 1654 painting shows Faustulus  bringing home Romulus and Remus to his wife
Nicolas Mignard's 1654 painting shows Faustulus
bringing home Romulus and Remus to his wife
Three days of celebrations begin in Rome today to mark the annual Natale di Roma Festival, which commemorates the founding of the city 2,770 years ago.

The traditional celebrations take place largely in the large open public space of Circus Maximus, which hosts many historical re-enactments, and where Sunday’s main event – a costumed parade around the city, featuring more than 2,000 gladiators, senators, vestal virgins and priestesses – begins and ends, departing at 11.15am.

City museums offer free entry today and many of the city’s restaurants have special Natale di Roma menus.  After dark, many public places will be lit up, torches will illuminate the Aventine Hill, and firework displays will take place by the Tiber river.

According to legend, Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, founded Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants.

They were said to be the sons of Rhea Silvia, the daughter of King Numitor of Alba Longa, a city located in the nearby Alban Hills southeast of what would become Rome.

Before they were born, Numitor was deposed by his younger brother Amulius, who murdered his existing son and forced Rhea to become a vestal virgin so that she would not give birth to rival claimants to his title.

The 2016 Festival: Actors dressed as gladiators
gather at Circus Maximus ready to march on Rome
The legend has it that Rhea was nonetheless impregnated by the war god Mars and gave birth to Romulus and Remus, whom Amulius immediately ordered to be put to death by drowning in the Tiber.

Yet they did not die.  There are different explanations as to what happened next, but somehow the baby boys ended up on the shore of the river at the foot of the Palatine Hill – either because they were washed up there or because Amulius’s men took pity on them and left them at the side of the river instead of throwing them into the water.

It was there, according to the legend, that they were discovered by the she-wolf, who suckled them until they were found by a shepherd called Faustulus.

Brought up by Faustulus and his wife, the twins later became leaders of a band of shepherd warriors. When they learned who they really were they went to Alba Longa, where they killed Amulius and restored their grandfather, Numitor, to power.

They decided to found a city on the site where they had been saved as infants, only for the story to take a bizarre twist when an argument between them turned into a fight and Remus was killed. 

Women dressed as Vestal Virgins are part of the day's fun
Again there are different explanations for the argument. One is that it stemmed simply from their failure to agree on the exact location of their new city. Another says that a site was agreed, but that when Romulus ploughed a furrow around the Palatine Hill to mark where the walls of the city would be, Remus mocked his ‘wall’ by jumping over it, at which point Romulus struck him with such ferocity he fell to the ground, dead.

When work commenced on building the city, named Rome in his honour, Romulus divided the early population into three tribes, giving each an area of the city – a tribune – in which to live.  He chose 100 men from leading families to form a senate.  He called these men the patres – or city fathers – and their descendants became known as patricians, forming one half of the Roman class system.  The other class – which comprised servants, freedmen, the fugitives to whom Romulus offered asylum, and others – became known as plebians, or plebs for short.

The lack of women compared with men among the early population caused a problem for Romulus, which he tried to solve in a way that was always likely to end badly.  He invited the people of cities near Rome to attend a festival, promising games and entertainment, but had secretly instructed his soldiers at a given signal to kidnap women of marriageable age.

Most of those seized happened to be from the Sabine tribe. Naturally, the Sabine men were not pleased and war ensued, a settlement reached only when Romulus agreed to share Rome with the Sabine king, Titus Tatius, an arrangement that lasted until Tatius was killed in a riot.

The city then returned to the sole rule of Romulus, who went on to reign for 37 years until his death in 717BC, apparently during a violent storm.  Witnesses claimed to have seen him picked up by a whirlwind, which led to the idea that he had been plucked from the earth and changed into Quirinus, the god of the Roman state.

Circus Maximus is the largest public open space in Rome
Travel tip:

The Circus Maximus – or Circo Massimo in Italian - is an open space south of the Forum and south-west of the Colosseum, in the valley between the Aventine Hill and the Palatine Hill, that was the site of an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium. It was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire, measuring 621 m (2,037 ft) in length and 118 m (387 ft) in width, and capable of holding more than 150,000 spectators. Nowadays it is a public park often used for open-air music events and mass gatherings, such as took place after Italy won the 2006 World Cup in Germany, when thousands of Romans turned out to see the players show off their trophy on a stage in the park.

Rome hotels from Hotels.com

The papal residence opens on to a normal square in Castel Gandolfo
The papal residence opens on to a normal
square in Castel Gandolfo
Travel tip:

The Alban Hills – or Colli Albani – is an area of volcanic terrain just 20km (12 miles) south-east of Rome, which comprises the Albano and Nemi lakes and the towns of the Castelli Romani, so-called because each originally had a castle. They include Frascati, Albano Laziale, Rocca di Papa and Castel Gandolfo, the traditional summer residence of the pope.


More reading:


How emperor Trajan balanced military expansion with progressive social policies

Emperor Titus and the relief effort for victims of 79AD Vesuvius eruption

Moment that inspired Gibbon's epic history of the Roman Empire


Also on this day:


1574: The death of Cosimo I de' Medici





20 April 2017

Ivanoe Bonomi – statesman

Liberal socialist was a major figure in transition to peace in 1945


Ivanoe Bonomi was prime minister of Italy on two occasions
Ivanoe Bonomi was prime minister
of Italy on two occasions
The anti-Fascist politician Ivanoe Bonomi, who served as prime minister of Italy both before and after the dictator Benito Mussolini was in power, died on this day in 1951.

He was 77 but still involved with Italian political life as the first president of the Senate in the new republic, an office he had held since 1948.

Bonomi had briefly been head of a coalition government in 1921, during which time he was a member of one of Italy’s socialist parties, but his major influence as an Italian statesman came during Italy’s transition to peace after the Second World War.

Having stepped away from politics in 1922 following Mussolini’s March on Rome, he resurfaced almost two decades later when he became a leading figure in an anti-Fascist movement in 1942.  He founded a clandestine anti-Fascist newspaper and became a member of an elite committee who would meet in the Seminario Romano, which was owned by the Vatican and therefore considered neutral territory.

Bonomi was one of a number of political figures who urged the King, Victor Emmanuel III, to abandon Italy’s alliance with Germany and remove Mussolini from office.  After Mussolini was arrested in 1943, and by then a member of the Liberal Party, Bonomi became part of the new government led by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, chairing the National Liberation Committee.

He was appointed prime minister for a second time, in succession to Badoglio, in 1944, because he was seen as a moderate and had the approval of the Allies.

King Victor Emmanuel III
King Victor Emmanuel III
His premiership lasted one year, ending when he tended his resignation in June 1945 after the liberation of northern Italy from the Germans, two months after Mussolini, who had been freed from house arrest in the Gran Sasso raid, was executed by Italian partisans.

Bonomi remained a key figure on the path to peace, however, as one of three Italian negotiators at the talks that led to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.  

Born in Mantua in 1873, Bonomi obtained degrees in natural sciences and law and after a short period in teaching he turned to journalism, writing for the socialist newspaper Avanti and other left-leaning publications.

He joined the Italian Socialist Party and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1909, representing Mantua, yet he was expelled from the party in 1912, partly because he was an advocate of reform and moderation, but mainly because of his support for the Italian invasion of Libya, which he hoped would create new economic opportunities for Italians and stem the migration to North America and other European nations.

Bonomi then joined the Italian Reformist Socialist Party, and supported Italy's participation in the First World War on the side of the Triple Entente.  He volunteered for the army.

He entered government as minister of public works from 1916 until 1917 under the Liberal prime minister Paolo Boselli and was minister of war in the government led by the Radical Party's Francesco Nitti and the Liberal Giovanni Giolitti from 1920 until 1921, helping to negotiate a treaty with Yugoslavia via the Treaty of Rapallo.

Bonomi's moderate views made him an acceptable post-War prime minister
Bonomi's moderate views made him an
acceptable post-War prime minister
After becoming treasury minister under Giolitti, he became prime minister of Italy for the first time – the first socialist to hold the post – in a coalition government, although the grouping collapsed after seven months and he was replaced Luigi Facta, another Liberal and the last prime minister before the Fascist insurgency seized power.

Unable to prevent the rise of Fascism and amid an atmosphere in which opponents of Mussolini were subjected to intimidation and sometimes violent attacks, Bonomi chose to withdraw from public life and concentrate on historical studies.

He attracted criticism for appearing to be a weak figure at the time but risked his own safety by joining forces with other opponents of Fascism during the war, narrowly escaping arrest when a Fascist military unit raided the Seminario Romano, in violation of Germany’s purported respect for the sovereignty of the Holy See.  Bonomi was among 110 anti-Fascists who were inside the seminary. Most escaped, although 18 were captured.

The Palazzo della Ragione in Piazza delle Erbe in Mantua
The Palazzo della Ragione in Piazza delle Erbe in Mantua
Travel tip:

Mantua has been made effectively safe ever from being spoilt by progress by the three artificial lakes created almost 1,000 years ago that form a giant defensive moat around the Lombardy city. It means that little has changed about Mantua in centuries, its dimensions and its population remaining almost constant. Italians refer to it as La Bella Addormentata – the Sleeping Beauty. It’s architecture is the legacy of the Gonzaga family, who ruled the city for 400 years and built the Palazzo Ducale – Ducal Palace – which is not so much a palace as a small town, comprising a castle, a basilica, several courtyards, galleries and gardens. At the centre of the town, life revolves around Piazza delle Erbe, an old marketplace with arched porticoes, fashion shops and lively bars, and Piazza Sordello, with grand palaces and a white marble Baroque cathedral.

The Seminario Romano provided shelter for anti-Fascists
The Seminario Romano provided shelter for anti-Fascists
Travel tip:

The creation of a seminary in Rome for the education of priests was promoted by Pope Pius IV and Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, his nephew. The Seminario Romano, in Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, was housed in several buildings until 1607, when it was moved to a palace belonging to the Gabrielli family. In 1824 Pope Leo XII assigned the building to the reconstituted Jesuit Order and it is now a residence for Jesuit priests and brothers studying for advanced academic degrees.


More reading:


How Mussolini had his own son-in-law executed

The Fascist thugs who murdered socialist politician Giacomo Matteotti

Alcide de Gasperi - the prime minister who rebuilt Italy


Also on this day:


1949: The birth of politician Massimo d'Alema, Italy's first communist prime minister




19 April 2017

Canaletto - Venetian painter

Brilliant artist known for beautiful views of Venice



Giovanni Antonio Canal - Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal - Canaletto
The Venetian artist Giovanni Antonio Canal – better known as Canaletto – died on this day in 1768 in the apartment in Venice in which he had lived for most of his life.

He was 70 years old and according to art historian William George Constable he had been suffering from a fever caused by a bladder infection.

His death certificate dated April 20 indicated that he died la notte scorsa all’ore 7 circa – ‘last night at about seven o'clock’. He was buried in the nearby church of San Lio in the Castello district, not far from the Rialto bridge.

Canaletto was famous largely for the views he painted of his native city, although he also spent time in Rome and the best part of 10 years working in London.

His work was popular with English visitors to Venice, in particular. In the days before photographs, paintings were the only souvenirs that tourists could take home to remind them of the city’s beauty.

Unlike his contemporary, and sometime pupil, Francesco Guardi, whose paintings were a romanticised vision of the city, Canaletto did not feel the need to embellish what he saw.  His works, therefore, were notable for their accuracy.

A Canaletto painting of St Mark's Square looking towards the clock tower on the northern side
A Canaletto painting of St Mark's Square looking towards
the clock tower on the northern side
His paintings would begin with a drawing made on the spot, which he would reproduce on canvas in his studio. Canaletto was known to use the camera obscura – a darkened box with a pinhole in which the view is caught and reflected by lenses and mirrors onto a sheet of drawing paper, enabling the artist to trace the outlines of the reflected image as an aid to perspective.

In the studio, he would cut lines into the canvas so that he could accurately reproduce the shape and size of the buildings he had sketched, returning to the scene to add detail and colour by painting ‘from nature’ – in the open air.

Famous for his sweeping scenes of wide canals and water pageants, and for capturing the grandeur of the Doge's Palace and St Mark’s, Canaletto did not confine himself only to the most popular views. He appreciated the beauty created by sunlight illuminating the stone of the buildings and the terracotta roofs, creating different shades of colour depending on the time of day.

Yet he also recognised a different side to his city, as depicted in one of his early paintings, The Stonemasons’ Yard, in which the figures are peasant workers engaged in hard physical work, the buildings scruffy and dilapidated, the sky grey and overcast.

Canaletto's early work The Stonemasons' Yard contrasted with the 'picture postcard' views for which he became famous
Canaletto's early work The Stonemasons' Yard contrasted
with the 'picture postcard' views for which he became famous
Born in 1697, Giovanni was the son of a painter, Bernard Canal, who made a living making scenery for the theatre. He began as an apprentice in his father’s workshop and became known as Canaletto – literally ‘little Canal’.

He went to Rome to study and was very impressed with the work of Giovanni Paolo Pannini, who painted the daily life of people in his own city, and returned in 1719 eager to become of the Pannini of his own city.  The first painting known to have been signed by Canaletto was dated 1723.

He owed much of his commercial success to the wealthy English merchant, Joseph Smith, later to be the British Consul in Venice, who bought many of Canaletto’s paintings to hang in his own houses, or to sell on to other wealthy Englishmen. He effectively became Canaletto’s agent, often arriving with commissions to paint particular views.

In 1746 Canaletto moved to London, partly to be nearer to his most profitable market, but also because the Austrian War of Succession led to a fall in the number of English visitors to Venice.  For the next 10 years, he produced views of London, including Westminster Abbey, Northumberland House and the new Westminster Bridge, although his clients were less excited with pictures of scenes with which they were familiar than the ones that brought back memories of their travels.

Joseph Smith eventually sold much of his personal collection to George III, which is why the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle contains a substantial number of Canaletto originals. George III paid £20,000 for the lot, which seems very little given the amounts that have changed hands for Canaletto paintings in more recent years.

The record price paid at auction for a Canaletto – indeed the record paid for any work by one of the so-called Old Masters – is £18.6 million, which an anonymous bidder paid for View of the Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto at Sotheby's in London in July 2005, eclipsing the record set the previous day when The Bucintoro at the Molo, Venice, on Ascension Day was sold by the same auction house for £11.4 million.

Canaletto's house, marked with the plaque above the brown doors, was in an obscure backstreet near the Rialto
Canaletto's house, marked with the plaque above the brown
doors, was in an obscure backstreet near the Rialto
Travel tip:

For much of his life, Canaletto lived in a modest apartment at the end of Calle de la Malvasia, close to a small courtyard-square called Corte Perini in Castello. The building is marked with a plaque. It is easy enough to find – simply leave St Mark’s Square via Marzaria dell’Orologio, passing under the famous clock on the north side of the square, proceed to the church of San Zulian and look for a small alleyway off to the right called Piscina San Zulian, leading to a bridge, Ponte de la Malvasia, which crosses into Calle de la Malvasia. The church of San Lio is in Salizada San Lio, accessible from Corte Perini via a covered walkway.



The Ca' Rezzonico museum holds a number of Canalettos
Travel tip:

Although many Canaletto paintings are in museums and private collections around the world, particularly in England and the United States, a small number are on display in Venice at Ca’ Rezzonico, a palace on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro sestiere, which is now a museum dedicated to 18th century Venice.

Check out Venice hotels on TripAdvisor

More reading:


How Venetian old master Titian set new standards

Where the work of Tintoretto remains on show in Venice

How Guardi evoked the last days of the Venetian Republic


Also on this day:


1937: The birth of TV chef and restaurateur Antonio Carluccio



Home


18 April 2017

Ilario Bandini - racing car maker

Farmer's son who created beautiful and successful cars


Ilario Bandini, the car maker, pictured in 1988
Ilario Bandini, the car maker, pictured in 1988
Ilario Bandini, a businessman and racing driver who went on to construct some of Italy’s most beautiful racing cars, was born on this day in 1911 in Villa Rovere in Emilia-Romagna.

His cars won races in Europe and America and his designs earned the respect of the great Italian performance car maker Enzo Ferrari.

Bandini was from a farming family but was fascinated with cars and motorcycles and began to work part-time as a mechanic while he was still at school, eventually becoming an apprentice in a workshop in nearby Forlì.

At the age of 25 he took the bold decision to move to Eritrea, then an Italian colony, in northern Africa, where he repaired trucks and in time set up a transport business, which was very successful.

The venture made him enough money to open a garage in Forlì. when he returned to Italy in 1939, running a repair workshop alongside a car rental and chauffeured limousine business.

Bandini at the wheel of his first car, the Bandini 1100
Bandini at the wheel of his first car, the Bandini 1100
At around the same time, he began to compete in motorcycle races, soon graduating from two wheels to four. In 1940, he took part in the Mille Miglia, the 1,000-mile road race from Brescia, near Lake Garda, to Rome and back, driving a Fiat Balilla.

Bandini built his first car almost by accident.  In his possession during the Second World War was a Fiat 1100, which he cut apart and hid to avoid it being requisitioned by the German army.  He began to reassemble it after the war but made adaptations as he did so and equipped the chassis with an entirely different body, made in aluminium by the Turin coach builder Rocco Motto.

He felt entitled to call the car the Bandini 1100, which thus became the first car – “La Prima” – to carry the Bandini name. The small, two-seat car was notable for its elegant, curved lines.  Driving it himself, he finished second in the Predappio to Rocca delle Camminate, a road race held just outside Forlì.

The Bandini badge Ilario placed on the car featured a bantam rooster crowing, the symbol of the town of Forlì.

The 1100 Siluro, which brought Bandini his first race victory
The 1100 Siluro, which brought Bandini his first race victory
More cars followed. His 1100 Siluro, so-called because of its torpedo-like bodywork, gave him his first win in the Giro dell’Umbria, encouraging him to produce purpose-built racing cars to compete in races such as the Mille Miglia in Italy and the SCCA series in America. They were soon a force to be reckoned in Europe and the United States.

The model that established his reputation was the Bandini 750 Sport Siluro, a tiny sports car that he produced between 1950 and 1956. The car used a modified inline four cylinder Crosley engine, produced by Powel Crosley Jnr, an industrialist from Cincinnati, Ohio, who owned the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.

The 750 Siluro was versatile enough to contest all kinds of events, from hill climbs to road races, airbase circuits and endurance events.

In America, the Siluro won the SCCA class championships in 1955 and 1957 and claimed many other victories in different categories on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Bandini badge, featuring the crowing bantam, symbol of Forlì
The Bandini badge, featuring the
crowing bantam, symbol of Forlì
Known to his friends as Lili and sometimes referred to as the “great Drake of Forlì”, Bandini never moved into mass production cars.  There were 17 different models but all of his vehicles were one-offs, in effect, which is why only 73 Bandinis were ever built.  His final car, the Berlinetta 1000 Turbo 16V, was finished shortly before his death in 1992 at the age of 80.

Extraordinarily, Ilario was still getting behind the wheel to compete himself even into his 70s. He drove his 1300 16Vi in the Predappio hill climb in 1985, at the age of 73.

Members of Bandini’s extended family have preserved the memory of his achievements in a museum established in his last workshop in Forlì., which has many documents relating to his career and 10 Bandini cars, considered to be representative of the development of the marque. There are thought to be 46 surviving Bandinis, owned mainly by Japanese and American enthusiasts.

Travel tip:

Villa Rovere was a hamlet at the time of Ilario Bandini’s birth. Situated some 13km (8 miles) west of Forlì, it is now part of the city’s metropolitan area, almost a satellite community.  Forlì itself is a wealthy city with thriving clothing and footwear industries and a number of notable buildings, including the Basilica of San Mercuriale in the central Piazza Saffi, the Pinacoteca Comunale art gallery and the Rocca di Rivaldino, once the fortress stronghold of the redoubtable Caterina Sforza.  Local restaurants are notable for Romagnolo cuisine.

Hotels in Forlì from Hotels.com

The Bandini Collection is housed in a museum in Rovere
The Bandini Collection is housed in a museum in Rovere
Travel tip:

Ilario Bandini’s achievements were recognised in 2002 – 10 years after his death – when in a special ceremony in Forlì, a square just in front of the city’s railway station was renamed Piazzale Ilario Bandini in his honour.  The museum – the Collezione dell’Automobile Brandini – can be found in Via del Braldo in Rovere, although note that viewings are by appointment. 


17 April 2017

Graziella Sciutti - operatic soprano

Vivacious performer who became a successful director


Graziella Sciutti became an opera star in the 1950s
Graziella Sciutti became an opera star in the 1950s
The operatic soprano Graziella Sciutti, a singer known for a vivacious stage presence and engaging personality who excelled in the work of Mozart, Puccini and Verdi, was born on this day in 1927 in Turin.

The daughter of an organist and pianist, she grew up in a bilingual household, speaking both Italian and her mother’s native tongue, French. Her early childhood was spent in Geneva in Switzerland before the family moved to Rome, so that she could attend the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, which is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious musical institutions.

Sciutti wanted to play the piano like her father but it became clear she had a notable voice and she caught the eye as a soloist when she was still a student.

She was asked at the last moment to appear in a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, the up-and-coming Austrian who would become one of the greatest conductors in the world.  It was a daunting prospect, forced on her at short notice after another singer became ill, but she rose to the challenge and won accolades as a result. 

It led her to be spotted by Gabriel Dussurget, founder and leading light of the Festival at Aix-en-Provence Festival, who had enough confidence in his new discovery to cast her in 1951 in the one-woman opera, Menotti's The Telephone, a role regarded as a test for a young, immature singer.

Sciutti's vivacious character made her a popular performer in Italy and beyond
Sciutti's vivacious character made her
a popular performer in Italy and beyond
Her ambition at that stage was to be a concert singer and she was unsure at first whether she could master the dramatics of opera, yet she was to return to Aix many times. It was there, in fact, that she began to acquire her association with the heroines of Mozart, singing Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Despina in Così Fan Tutte and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with distinction.  

In 1954, she made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in England, playing Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). In subsequent years she enchanted audiences as Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff and again visited the Mozart roles of Susanna and Despina.

Sciutti undertook the role of Carolina in Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto (The Secret Marriage) in the inaugural performances of the Piccola Scala, the small theatre in Milan that adjoined the famous Teatro allaScala, in 1955.  At one stage she was nicknamed ‘the Callas of the Piccola Scala’.

Some critics felt her voice to be too thin for her to be seen as one of the great sopranos but she had the technique to project to all corners of the theatre and, for all her early doubts, she had the acting skills to make up for any shortcomings in her voice. Pretty and petite in comparison with many singers, the innocence, perkiness and coquetry demanded of many of her roles seemed to come naturally.

Her debut at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden followed in 1956. In 1961 she appeared on stage in America for the first time at the San Francisco Opera, going on to make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York soon afterwards.

Sciutti excelled in the arias of Mozart, Bellini and others
Sciutti excelled in the arias of Mozart, Bellini and others
At the Vienna State Opera she sang many of her best roles, including Nannetta in a staging of Falstaff conducted by Leonard Bernstein and directed by Luchino Visconti.

Sciutti was a regular at the Salzburg Festival for 20 years, her Mozart interpretations always in demand. Her final appearance there came in 1972 as Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, conducted by Riccardo Muti.

Her voice proved enduring enough to appear at Glyndebourne even at the age of 50 as Elle in Poulenc's La Voix Humaine. This was a production she also directed, paving the way for a new career.

She directed Figaro and L'Elisir d'Amore for Canadian Opera and in 1983 her production of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Juilliard School won praise.  A year later she directed at the Met for the first time. Her 1995 staging of La Bohème at the New York City Opera won her an Emmy Award after it was broadcast on live television.

Always eager to pass on her knowledge to opera students and would-be performers, she taught at both the Royal College of Music in London and the Lyric Centre in Chicago.

She married an American singer, Robert Wahoske, in 1955, but they divorced in 1960.  She died in Geneva in 2001, a few days before what would have been her 74th birthday, and was survived by her daughter, Susanna.

The historic headquarters of the Accademia was in central Rome, near Piazza di Spagna
The historic headquarters of the Accademia
was in central Rome, near Piazza di Spagna
Travel tip:

Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by a papal bull (public decree) issued by Pope Sixtus V in 1585. Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music. Its historical headquarters was in Via Vittoria, not far from Piazza di Spagna, but since 2003 it has been headquartered in Viale Pietro de Coubertin at the Renzo Piano-designed Parco della Musica in Rome. It has had a permanent symphony orchestra and choir since 1895. Alumni include Beniamino Gigli, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ennio Morricone and Cecilia Bartoli.



An audience at the Piccola Scala in 1978
An audience at the Piccola Scala in 1978
Travel tip:

The Piccola Scala, next to Teatro alla Scala, the opera house in Milan considered to be one of the world’s great opera venues, was opened in 1955 as a theatre dedicated to ancient works that were suited to a fairly intimate setting.  It had room for no more than 600 people. As well as Cimarosa's Matrimonio Segreto, early productions included works by Handel and Monteverdi. Later it staged operas by contemporary composers, including Nino Rota, who was better known for his film music but actually wrote the score for 11 operas.  Sadly, the theatre closed in 1985 after the capacity was reduced to 350 because of new regulations, too small to make it economically viable.



More reading:


How mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has helped revive lesser-known composers

Giacomo Puccini - musical genius who assumed Verdi's mantle as Italy's greatest

Maestro Muti shows no signs of slowing down


Also on this day:



1598: The birth of astronomer Giovanni Riccioli

Home


16 April 2017

Adelaide del Vasto – Countess of Sicily

Prudent ruler who looked after Sicily for her young sons


Adelaide (right) in a painting that depicts her renouncing by Baldwin of Jerusalem
Adelaide (right) in a painting
that depicts her renouncing
by Baldwin of Jerusalem
Adelaide del Vasto, who served as regent of Sicily during the 12th century, died on this day in 1118 in Sicily.

One historian described her as ‘a prudent woman’ and a Greek and Arab document listed Adelaide – known in Italian as Adelasia - as ‘a great female ruler and protector of the Christian faith’.

Born in Piedmont, Adelaide was from an important family with branches that ruled Liguria and Turin. She became the third wife of Roger I of Sicily in 1089. When he died in 1101 she became regent of Sicily for her young sons, Simon and Roger II, when she was about 26.

After rebellions broke out in parts of Calabria and Sicily, Adelaide dealt with them severely, but this did not tarnish her reputation as a good ruler.

Adelaide’s eldest son, Simon, was enthroned at about the age of nine but he died in 1105 leaving her as regent again until Roger II became old enough to take control of the kingdom in 1112. There is evidence that Adelaide continued to play a central role in the governing of Sicily as her signature can still be seen on documents drawn up after that date.

Baldwin, King of Jerusalem
Baldwin, King of Jerusalem
During her regency Palermo officially became capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. Adelaide, and later Roger II, chose to rule with the help of local officials rather than bringing in foreign advisers. She also donated generously to local Greek monasteries to win favour with them.

When Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, was looking for a new wife, Adelaide was suggested to him by his advisers. Adelaide laid down terms that their son, if they had one, should inherit Jerusalem, but if there was no heir, the kingdom should pass to her son, Roger II.

Adelaide took a large amount of money, which Baldwin urgently needed, Muslim archers and about 1000 Sicilian soldiers with her to Jerusalem.

When no new heir was immediately forthcoming, the King was blamed for having contracted a bigamous marriage because his second wife was still alive and living in a convent after having been cast aside. The Pope, Paschal II, asked for the marriage between Adelaide and Baldwin to be annulled. By then Baldwin was ill and became convinced that renouncing his sin of bigamy would cure him, so he agreed. The annulment was performed and Adelaide sailed back to Sicily.

Adelaide died in 1118 and was buried in Patti in northern Sicily.

Roger II was outraged at the way his mother had been treated and never forgave the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Thirty years later he refused to give assistance when Jerusalem needed it during the second Crusade, which resulted in a great victory for the Muslims. At the time he was accused of taking revenge against the whole population because of ‘the fault of a single individual’.

The Church of San Cataldo, with its Norman bell tower and spherical red domes of Islamic influence
The Church of San Cataldo, with its Norman bell tower
and spherical red domes of Islamic influence
Travel tip:

Palermo, which became capital of Sicily during the time Adelaide was regent, is a vibrant city with a wealth of beautiful architecture to impress visitors. The buildings reflect the influence of both northern European and Arabic style. The Church of San Cataldo in Piazza Bellini is a good example of the fusion of Norman and Arabic architecture, having a bell tower typical of churches in northern France as well as three spherical, red domes on the roof, which are typical features of Islamic and Byzantine architecture.


The Cathedral of San Bartolomeo in Patti
The Cathedral of San Bartolomeo in Patti
Travel tip:

Patti, where Adelaide was buried, is a town in north-east Sicily, about 76 km (47 miles) from Messina, which is famous for the ruins of Tindari, an ancient town destroyed by an earthquake. The city was rebuilt after the Saracens had been driven out by Roger I and Roger II and today is popular for its large sandy beaches. Adelaide’s tomb can be seen in Patti’s Cathedral of San Bartolemeo, which originated in the 10th century and has a striking Romanesque façade.


More reading:


Home