Premiere of Verdi’s Otello

Composer’s penultimate opera prompted 20 curtain calls

The original poster advertising
the debut of Verdi's Otello

Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Otello, the penultimate work of his outstanding career, was staged for the first time at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala theatre on this day in 1887.

The four-act opera, based on the play Othello by William Shakespeare, came into being only after a long campaign by Verdi’s publisher, Giulio Ricordi, and the librettist Arrigo Boito, to persuade Italy’s greatest opera composer to come out of his unofficial retirement.

Verdi effectively called time on his writing career after the success of Aida in 1871. It was his 28th opera and his success had enabled him to become a wealthy landowner. Although his Requiem was to come in 1874, he was reluctant to commit himself to any new works.

It took Ricordi and Boito eight years from first suggesting to Verdi that he wrote an opera based on Othello to it actually coming to fruition.

The composer had been a lifelong admirer of Shakespeare’s work, which he had read and re-read since he was a young man. He had written an opera based on Macbeth which was first performed in Florence in 1847.

The idea was first put to him at a dinner at Verdi’s Milan residence in 1879, attended by Ricordi and Boito. Verdi was sceptical but respected Boito, with whom he had worked previously on a revision of Simon Boccanegra, and was interested enough when Boito began working on a libretto for Otello to ask that he be sent a copy.

The composer remained reluctant to commit himself but Ricordi learned from Verdi’s second wife, Giuseppina, that Verdi had been impressed with Boito’s work and in 1884 - by then in his 70s - he began work on composing a score.

Verdi was already in his 70s when he
began to write the music for Otello

The creative process survived one difficult moment, after Boito had been misquoted in an interview as saying he wanted to write the music as well as the libretto for Otello, as he had with his own opera, Mefistofele. Thankfully, Boito was able to convince an unsettled Verdi that this was never his intention.

Verdi finally finished the score for Otello in the autumn of 1886, announcing its completion with a laconic letter to Boito that read simply: "DEAR BOITO, It is finished! All honour to us! (and to Him!!). Farewell. G. VERDI".

By now, the wider public and the opera community had become aware that Verdi was working on a new opera, 15 years after Aida, and singers, conductors and opera-house managers across Europe were making known their interest in being part of the project.

Yet it had already been decided that La Scala would be the venue and that Franco Faccio, the theatre’s musical director and the conductor of many Verdi operas in Italy and elsewhere, would have the baton.  The production was to be part of La Scala’s Carnival and Lent season.

In the end, the principal singers chosen were Francesco Tamagno, Italy's foremost dramatic tenor, to sing Otello, the French singing-actor Victor Maurel to take the baritone role of Iago, and Romilda Pantaleoni, a talented soprano renowned for her acting skills, to sing the part of Desdemona.

Even at this late stage, Verdi reserved the right to pull the plug if rehearsals were not to his liking. Happily, he was satisfied with what he saw and Otello’s first night could hardly have gone better. The audience at La Scala, never slow to express their displeasure if a performance falls below the standards they had come to expect, were so enthused that their applause at the conclusion went on so long that the cast answered no fewer than 20 curtain calls.

Otello went on to be performed at all the leading opera houses in Europe and America. Its success persuaded Verdi to enter into one more collaboration with Falstaff in 1893, also based on Shakespeare’s work.

Milan's Teatro all Scala is possibly the best
known opera house in the world

Travel tip:

Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the ballet and opera house of world renown, was founded after a fire in 1776 destroyed the Teatro Regio Ducale, which until then had been the home of opera in Milan. The cost of the new theatre, built on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala to a design by the great neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini, was borne by the owners of the boxes at the Ducale, in exchange for possession of the land and for renewed ownership of their boxes. The theatre, inaugurated on August 3, 1778 with a production of Antonio Salieri's opera L'Europa riconosciuta, was originally known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala, which was in time shortened to Teatro alla Scala and ultimately to La Scala, by which it is usually known today. 

The Casa di Riposa per Musicisti was created
thanks to the philanthropy of Giuseppe Verdi

Travel tip:

Verdi left his mark in Milan with more than just his music. Among a number of philanthropic acts by the composer, his Casa di Riposo per Musicisti - literally ‘rest home for musicians’ - is one of the more extraordinary. Still operating as a retirement home for musicians today, it can be found in Piazza Michelangelo Buonarroti, in the west of the city in a palazzo built along neo-Gothic lines by the architect Camillo Boito, brother of Verdi’s librettist, Arrigo Boito. Conceived in 1889, it was completed 10 years later. Both Verdi and his wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, are buried in a small mausoleum within the grounds. The home did not open for residents until after Verdi’s death in 1901, by which time he had already made provision in his will for the home - which he described as ‘to shelter elderly singers who have not been favoured by fortune, or who when they were young did not have the virtue of saving their money’ - to be funded out of future royalties from his operas.

Also on this day:

251: The death of Saint Agatha of Sicily

1578: The death of painter Giovanni Battista Moroni

1932: The birth of football coach Cesare Maldini

1960: The first public screening of Fellini’s classic movie La dolce vita

1964: The birth of footballer and coach Carolina Morace

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4 February

Cesare Battisti – patriot and irredentist

Campaigner for Trentino hailed as national hero

Cesare Battisti, a politician whose campaign to reclaim Trentino for Italy from Austria-Hungary was to cost him his life, was born on this day in 1875 in the region’s capital, Trento.  As a member of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party, Battista was elected to the assembly of South Tyrol and the Austrian Imperial Council, where he pushed for autonomy for Trentino, an area with a mainly Italian-speaking population.  When the First World War arrived and Italy decided to side with the Triple Entente and fight against Austria-Hungary, Battisti decided he could fight only on the Italian side, joining the Alpini corps.  At this time he was still a member of the Austrian Chamber of Deputies, so when he was captured wearing Italian uniform during the Battle of Asiago in 1916 he was charged with high treason and executed.  Italy now looks upon Battisti as a national hero and he is commemorated in monuments in several places in the country, as well as having numerous schools, streets and squares named after him.  At the time of his birth, the son of a merchant, also called Cesare, Trento was part of Tyrol in Austria-Hungary, even though it was a largely Italian-speaking city.  Read more…

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Giacomo Facco – composer

The forgotten talent of the musician from Padua

Giacomo Facco, a Baroque composer, was born on this day in 1676 in Marsango, a small town just north of Padova (Padua).  Highly regarded during his own lifetime, he was completely forgotten about until 1962 when his work was rediscovered by Uberto Zanolli, a musicologist.  Facco is believed to have worked as a violinist and a conductor and he is known to have been given a job in 1705 by the Viceroy of Sicily as a choirmaster, teacher and violinist in Palermo.  In 1708 he moved with the Viceroy to Messina where he composed The Fight between Mercy and Incredulity. In 1710 he presented a work dedicated to King Philip V of Spain, The Augury of Victories, in Messina Cathedral.  By 1720 it is known Facco was working in the Spanish court because his pay is mentioned in a report dating from that year. He is later named as clavichord master to the Spanish princes.  At the height of his success he was commissioned to compose an opera to celebrate the marriage of one of the princes in 1721.  He then seems to have fallen out of favour and was just employed as a violinist in the orchestra of the Royal Chapel until his death in Madrid in 1753.  Read more…

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Eugenio Corti - soldier and writer

Author drew on his experiences on the front line

Eugenio Corti, the writer most famous for his epic 1983 novel The Red Horse, died on this day in 2014 at the age of 93.  He passed away at his home in Besana in Brianza in Lombardy, where he had been born in January 1921.  The Red Horse, which follows the life of the Riva family in northern Italy from Mussolini's declaration of war in the summer of 1940 through to the 1970s, covers the years of the Second World War and the evolution of Italy's new republic.  Its themes reflect Corti's own view of the world, his unease about the totalitarianism of fascism and communism, his faith in the Christian Democrats to tread a confident path through the conservative middle ground, and his regret at the decline in Christian values in Italy.  It has been likened to Alessandro Manzoni's novel I promessi sposi - The Betrothed - for its strong moral tone and for the way that Corti employs the technique favoured by Manzoni of setting fictional characters in the novel against a backcloth of actual history, with real people and events written into the plot.  The Red Horse, which took Corti more than a decade to write, became a literary phenomenon in Italy, selling so many copies it needed to be reprinted 25 times.  Read more…

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Alessandro Magnasco - painter

Artist known for eerie scenes and lifelike figures

The painter Alessandro Magnasco, who became famous for populating eerie landscapes with exaggeratedly realistic figures to illustrate the darker sides of society in his lifetime, was born on this day in 1667 in Genoa.  He specialised in wild and gloomy landscapes and interiors, often crowded with figures such as bandits and beggars, sometimes soldiers, monks or nuns in chaotic scenes, and acquired a substantial following.  His work was especially popular with wealthy families in Milan and Florence, where he worked primarily, and regular lucrative commissions enabled him to become wealthy himself.  Magnasco’s father, Stefano, was a modestly successful painter in Genoa and it is likely Alessandro would have remained in the Ligurian city had his father not died suddenly when he was only three years old.  Instead, when he was old enough, he was sent to Milan in the hope that he would learn about commerce and forge a career as a businessman.  However, Magnasco inherited his father’s love of painting and realised there were opportunities to pursue his passion in Milan, persuading his patron to pay his expenses while he took up an apprenticeship with Filippo Abbiati.  Read more…

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Ugo Betti - playwright

Judge who combined writing with legal career

Ugo Betti, a playwright whose works exploring facets of the human condition are considered by some to be the finest plays written by an Italian after Luigi Pirandello, was born on this day in 1892 in Camerino in Le Marche.  Betti wrote 27 plays, mainly concerned with evil, guilt, justice, atonement and redemption, largely in his spare time alongside a career in the legal profession.  Although he started life in what was then a remote town in the Apennine mountains, about 75km (47 miles) inland from the Adriatic coast and a similar distance from the city of Perugia, Betti moved with his family at an early age to Parma in Emilia-Romagna.  He followed his older brother Emilio in studying law, although his progress was interrupted when he was enlisted as a volunteer in the army after Italy entered the First World War. He was captured in the disastrous Battle of Caporetto and interned in a German prisoner of war camp.  By chance, he found himself in the company of two writers, Carlo Emilio Gadda and Bonaventura Tecchi, who encouraged him in his own writing. His first collections of poems were written while he was in German captivity.  Read more…

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3 February

Giuseppe Moretti - sculptor

Sienese artist who became famous in the United States

The sculptor Giuseppe Moretti, who became well known in the United States as a prolific creator of public monuments, was born on this day in 1857 in Siena.  Moretti's favourite medium was marble and he considered his Head of Christ, which he carved from a block of Alabama marble in 1903, to be his greatest work.  The creation which earned him most fame, however, was the 56-foot (17.07m) statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking, which he made for the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis, Missouri on behalf of the city of Birmingham, Alabama as a symbol of its heritage in the iron and steel industry.  Moretti made the statue in clay in New Jersey before overseeing its casting in iron in Birmingham.  Vulcan, the largest cast iron statue in the world, was relocated to Alabama State Fairgrounds after the St Louis Exposition before being moved again to the top of Red Mountain, the ridge overlooking Birmingham, which it shares with a number of radio and television transmission towers.  Although he spent much of his life away from Italy, it was in his homeland that Moretti developed his love for art and sculpture.  Read more…

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Wilma Montesi - murder victim

‘Body on the beach’ mystery that sparked a national scandal

Wilma Montesi, the woman whose unexplained death in 1953 precipitated a scandal that reached the highest levels of the Italian government, was born on this day in 1932 in Rome.  Raised in the Trieste-Salario neighbourhood, little more than a couple of kilometres from central Rome, she was a 21-year-old woman who dreamed of becoming an actress but whose ambitions were known to no one outside her own family and friends until she disappeared from her home in Via Tagliamento on the afternoon of April 9, 1953.  Two days afterwards, her semi-naked body was found on the beach at Torvaianica, some 40km (25 miles) south of the capital. The mystery surrounding her death sparked four years of police investigations and conspiracy theories and the resignation of a senior member of prime minister Mario Scelba’s government.  On the afternoon of her disappearance, Montesi had declined an invitation to go to the cinema with her mother and sister, saying she would go for a walk instead. After she failed to return in time for supper, her family noticed that her ID papers and some jewellery, a gift from her policeman boyfriend that she always wore, were still in her room.  Read more…

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Giulio Gatti-Casazza - impresario

Manager who transformed the New York Met

Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the impresario who as general manager transformed the Metropolitan Opera in New York into one of the world’s great houses, was born on this day in 1869 in Udine in northeast Italy.  The former general manager at La Scala in Milan, Gatti-Casazza was in charge of the Met for 27 years, from 1908 to 1935. In that time, having brought with him from Milan the brilliant conductor and musical director Arturo Toscanini, he not only attracted almost all of the great opera singers of his era but set the highest standards for the company, which have been maintained to the present day.  Gatti-Casazza also pulled off the not inconsiderable feat of rescuing the Met from the brink of bankruptcy after the stock market crash of 1929. The young Gatti-Casazza had studied engineering after leaving school, graduating from the Genoa Naval School of Engineering, yet the love of opera was in the family. His father was manager of the Teatro Comunale, the municipal theatre in Ferrara, where they had moved when Giulio was young, and he succeeded his father in that role in 1893.  He proved very effective, combining his knowledge of opera with a natural gift for management.   Read more…

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Giuseppe Forlenza – eye surgeon

Napoleon recognised brilliance of ocular specialist

Giuseppe Forlenza, an important 18th century ophthalmologist and surgeon, was born on this day in 1757 in Picerno in the province of Potenza. He became famous for performing successful cataract surgery and for his treatment of eye diseases. Forlenza was born in the region of Basilicata, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Naples. His father and two uncles were all surgeons.  He went to Naples and then on to France to study surgery. He spent two years gaining experience at St George’s Hospital in London and then returned to France where he concentrated on treating eye diseases.  Forlenza carried out eye surgery at a retirement home in Paris and performed many remarkable operations on soldiers returning from fighting in Egypt who were suffering from eye problems.  He was recognised as a leading eye surgeon by Napoleon, who in a royal decree assigned him to treat eye disease throughout France.  Forlenza eventually returned to Italy where he performed many free operations in Turin and Rome.  Read more…

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Giovanni Battista Vaccarini - architect

Sicilian Baroque designs shaped the look of Catania

Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, the architect who designed many of the important buildings in Sicily’s second city of Catania, was born on this day in 1702 in Palermo. He was responsible for several palaces, including the Palazzo del Municipio, the Palazzo San Giuliano and the Palazzo dell’Università.  He completed the rebuilding of a number of churches, including the Chiesa della Badia di Sant’Agata, and designed the Baroque façade of the city’s Duomo – the Cattedrale di Sant’Agata – which had been a ruin.  Perhaps his most famous work, though, is the Fontana dell’Elefante, which he placed at the centre of the reconstructed Piazza Duomo, consisting of a marble pedestal and fountains, supporting an ancient Roman statue of an elephant made from lava stone, which in turn has an obelisk mounted on its back, supposedly inspired by Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Obelisk of Minerva in Rome, which is also borne by an elephant.  The monument's nickname in the Sicilian language is "Liotru," a reference to Elidoros, an eighth century wizard who sought, through magic, to make the elephant walk. The statue came to be adopted as the symbol of the city.  Read more…

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2 February

NEW - Vittorino da Feltre – humanist and educator

Teacher to the nobility provided free education for poor children

A scholar considered to have been the greatest humanist schoolmaster of the Renaissance, Vittorino da Feltre, died on this day in 1446 in Mantua in the Lombardy region.  Da Feltre, who was originally named Vittore dei Ramboldini when he was born in Feltre in the republic of Venice in 1378, is thought to have established the first boarding school in Europe, a place of learning where the pupils enjoyed their lessons so much that it became known as La Casa Gioiosa - The House of Joy.  After studying and then teaching at the University of Padua, Da Feltre chose to settle in Padua and became a successful teacher, welcoming pupils into his own home, varying his fee according to the financial situation of the pupil’s family. He himself had come from a noble family that had become impoverished and his own early education had been difficult, but this had contributed to making him a strong and decisive character. He had also benefited from free tuition at the University of Padua.  In 1423, he was asked to become tutor to the children of the powerful Gonzaga family, who ruled over Mantua. He agreed to do this providing he could set up his own school away from the Gonzaga court and its political influence.  Read more…

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Antonio Maria Valsalva – anatomist

Work by brilliant professor benefits astronauts today

Antonio Maria Valsalva, a much respected anatomist, died on this day in 1723 in Bologna.  Valsalva’s research focused on the anatomy of the ear and his discoveries were so important that a piece of equipment used by astronauts today is named after him.  The Valsalva device in spacesuits allows astronauts to equalise the pressure in their ears by performing the Valsalva manoeuvre inside the suit without using their hands to block their nose. It has also been used for other purposes, such as to remove moisture from the face.  Valsalva was born in Imola in 1666. He received an education in humanities, mathematics and natural sciences before going on to study medicine and philosophy at Bologna University. He later became Professor of Anatomy at Bologna University.  His main interest was the middle and inner ear and it was Valsalva who coined the term Eustachian tube for a part within the ear. It was named after the 16th century anatomist Bartolomeo Eustachi. The Valsalva manoeuvre, the forcible exhalation against a closed airway, often practised by people to equalise pressure between the ears when on an aeroplane, is still used by doctors today to help them with diagnosis in certain situations.  Read more…

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Raimondo D’Inzeo – Olympic showjumper

First athlete to compete in eight consecutive Games

Raimondo D'Inzeo, who with his older brother Piero became the first athlete to compete in eight consecutive Olympic Games, was born on this day in 1925 in Poggio Mirteto, a small town in Lazio about 45km (28 miles) northeast of Rome.  They achieved the record when they saddled up for the show jumping events in Montreal in 1976, surpassing the previous record of seven consecutive summer Games held by the Danish fencer Ivan Osiier, whose run, which began in 1908 and was interrupted twice by World Wars, had stood since 1948.  The D’Inzeo brothers, whose Olympic journey began in London in 1948 just as Osiier’s was ending, had chalked off seven Olympics in a row at Munich in 1972, when each won the last of their six medals in the team event. Raimondo had carried the Italian flag at the opening ceremony.  Their finest moment came at the 1960 Olympics in their own country, when they were roared on by a patriotic crowd at the Villa Borghese Gardens in Rome to complete a one-two in the individual event, Raimondo taking the gold medal on his horse Posillipo, Piero the silver on The Rock.  Read more…

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Antonio Segni - prime minister and president

Sardinian politician famous for tactical cunning

Antonio Segni, the first Sardinian to become Italy's prime minister, was born on this day in 1891 in Sassari, the second largest city on the island.  Sassari was also the hometown of another Italian prime minister, Francesco Cossiga, and of the country's most successful Communist leader, Enrico Berlinguer.  Like Segni, Cossiga also served the country as president.  Born into a landowning family and a prominent member of the Christian Democratic party from the time of its formation towards the end of the Second World War, Segni was prime minister from 1955 to 1957 and from 1959 to 1960. He was president from 1962 until he was forced to retire due to ill health in 1964.  Frail in appearance for much of his life, Segni was a strong politician nonetheless, given the affectionate nickname Il malato di ferro - the invalid with the iron constitution - by his supporters.  He was also highly astute, particularly when it came to wrong-footing opponents.  Segni became politically active in his late 20s, joining the Italian People's Party (PPI) - predecessor of the Christian Democrats - in 1919 and by 1924 was a member of the party's national council. Read more…

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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - composer

Prolific writer had huge influence on the development of religious music

The composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who was the most famous representative of the 16th century Roman school of musical composition and whose work is often described as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony, died on this day in 1594 in Rome.  Probably in his 70th year when he died, he had composed hundreds of pieces, including 104 masses, more than 300 motets, at least 72 hymns and some 140 or more madrigals.  He served twice as maestro di cappella - musical director - of the Cappella Giulia (Julian Chapel), the choir at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a highly prestigious if not well paid position.  Appointed for the first time in 1551, he might have stayed there for the rest of his working life had a new pope, Paul IV, not introduced much stricter discipline compared with his predecessor, Julius III. A decree set down by Paul IV in 1555 forbade married men to serve in the papal choir, as a result of which Palestrina and two colleagues were dismissed.  Palestrina subsequently directed the choir at the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano for five years before quitting abruptly in frustration at the limited ability of his singers, compared with St Peter’s.  Read more…

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Vittorino da Feltre – humanist and educator

Teacher to the nobility provided free education for poor children

Vittorino da Feltre treated his 
pupils as equal, wealthy or poor

A scholar considered to have been the greatest humanist schoolmaster of the Renaissance, Vittorino da Feltre, died on this day in 1446 in Mantua in the Lombardy region.

Da Feltre, who was originally named Vittore dei Ramboldini when he was born in Feltre in the republic of Venice in 1378, is thought to have established the first boarding school in Europe, a place of learning where the pupils enjoyed their lessons so much that it became known as La Casa Gioiosa - The House of Joy.

After studying and then teaching at the University of Padua, Da Feltre chose to settle in Padua and became a successful teacher, welcoming pupils into his own home, varying his fee according to the financial situation of the pupil’s family. He himself had come from a noble family that had become impoverished and his own early education had been difficult, but this had contributed to making him a strong and decisive character. He had also benefited from free tuition at the University of Padua.

In 1423, he was asked to become tutor to the children of the powerful Gonzaga family, who ruled over Mantua. He agreed to do this providing he could set up his own school away from the Gonzaga court and its political influence.

He also enrolled other children to be taught at the school along with the Gonzaga children, both noble and poor children, who were selected because of their ability. The poor children did not have to pay for their education and were taught on an equal footing with the children from wealthy families. He also educated girls and did not consider the female pupils to be inferior to the male pupils.

Palazzo Bo, the main building
of the University of Padua

Latin and Greek language and literature were at the centre of the curriculum of the school. The children were also taught arithmetic, geometry and music and did games and physical exercise, following the Greek ideal of development of the body as well as of the mind. The school was close to a lake and surrounded by beautiful countryside, which also contributed to the wellbeing of the pupils.

Da Feltre saw education as a pathway to living a Christian life and made his pupils feel loved and cared for in terms of their health and characters. He adapted his teaching methods to their individual abilities and needs and never used corporal punishment. Among his students were Federico da Montefeltro, who became Duke of Urbino, and Gregorio Correr, who became Patriarch of Venice.

One of the first modern educators to develop during the Renaissance, Da Feltre’s teaching methods were therefore innovative and many other schools in Europe were to adopt his educational model.

During his career, Da Feltre not only educated future Italian rulers and professional men but also taught Latin and Greek scholars who came to him from the east. This paved the way for the translation of the Greek manuscripts that were to inspire the Renaissance in Europe.

After Da Feltre’s death at the age of 68 in Mantua, Iacopo da San Cassiano, a humanist and mathematician who had been one of his pupils, took over the running of the school and inherited his library. Da Feltre was laid to rest in the Chiesa di Santo Spirito in Mantua.

Feltre School in Chicago, a private non-profit school, educates adults in English grammar, composition, public speaking, philosophy and the humanities. The name and philosophy of the school, which was founded in 1992, was inspired by the work of Vittorino da Feltre.

The town of Feltre, where Da Feltre was
born, sits on a hill 20km from Belluno

Travel tip:

Feltre, where Vittorino da Feltre was born and from which he took his name, is a town in the province of Belluno in the Veneto. It is located 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of Belluno and there is a view of the Dolomites from the north of the town. The Cathedral, which was rebuilt during the Renaissance, has retained its 14th century campanile. It is flanked by a 15th century baptistery, which houses a precious, medieval baptismal font. There is an excavated archaeological area under the Cathedral revealing part of the Roman layout of the city. There is a statue of Vittorino in the main square, Piazza Maggiore.

The Palazzo Ducale was the seat of the
Gonzaga family, rulers of Mantua

Travel tip:

Mantua, where Da Feltre worked, died and is buried, is an atmospheric ancient city in Lombardy, to the south east of Milan. It is famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of Da Feltre’s employers, the Gonzaga family, between 1328 and 1707. The palace is famous for its Camera degli Sposi, which is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna, depicting the life of Ludovico Gonzaga and his family. The beautiful backgrounds of imaginary cities and ruins are a reflection of Mantegna’s love of classical architecture.

Also on this day: 

1594: The death of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

1723: The death of anatomist Antonio Maria Valsalva

1891: The birth of poltician Antonio Segni

1925: The birth of Olympic showjumper Raimondo D'Inzeo

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1 February

Renata Tebaldi – opera singer

Performer with a beautiful lirico soprano voice

Opera singer Renata Tebaldi was born on this day in 1922 in Pesaro.  Said by the conductor Arturo Toscanini to possess ‘the voice of an angel’, Tebaldi had a long stage career and made numerous recordings.  Her parents had separated before her birth and she grew up in the home of her maternal grandparents in Langhirano in the province of Parma in Emilia-Romagna.  Tebaldi was stricken with polio at the age of three but later became interested in music and sang in the church choir. She was sent to have piano lessons but the teacher decided she should study singing instead and arranged for her to attend the conservatory in Parma. She later transferred to Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro. Tebaldi made her stage debut in 1944, while Italy was still at war, in Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele at the Teatro Sociale in Rovigo but her beautiful voice first began to attract attention in 1946 when she appeared as Desdemona in Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello in Trieste.  She auditioned for Toscanini who was immediately impressed.  Read more…

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Corradino D'Ascanio - engineer

Aeronautical genius famed for helicopters and the Vespa scooter 

Corradino D'Ascanio, the aeronautical engineer whose design for a clean motorcycle turned into the iconic Vespa scooter and who also designed the first helicopter that could actually fly, was born on this day in 1891 in Popoli, a small town about 50km inland of Pescara.  The engineer, whose work on aircraft design during the Second World War saw him promoted to General in the Regia Aeronautica, was always passionate about flight and might never have become involved with road vehicles had he not been out of work in the post-War years.  His scooter would have been built by Lambretta had he not fallen out with the company founder, Ferdinando Innocenti, in a dispute over his design.  Instead, D'Ascanio took his plans to Enrico Piaggio, with whom he had worked previously in the aeronautical sector.  Piaggio saw in D'Ascanio's scooter an irresistible opportunity to revive his ailing company and commissioned the design, which became known as the Vespa after Piaggio remarked that its body shape resembled that of a wasp.  Read more…

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Teresa Mattei - partisan and politician

Former Communist who led Italian Women’s Union

The politician and former partisan Teresa Mattei, who was the youngest member of the Constituent Assembly that formed Italy’s post-War government and later became a director of the Unione Donne Italiane (Italian Women’s Union), was born on this day in 1921 in Genoa.  After being expelled from the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1957, Mattei became a leading advocate of the rights of children as well as women and later campaigned for the prosecution of war criminals.  As a prominent executive of the UDI she was influential in the adoption of mimosa as the symbol of International Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8 each year, arguing that because the flower proliferated in the countryside it represented a more accessible alternative to violets and orchids.  The daughter of a lawyer who was prominent in the anti-Fascist Partito d’Azione (Action Party), Mattei herself was an active member of the Italian Resistance during the Second World War, using the nom de guerre "Partigiana Chicchi".  Read more…

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Francesco Maria Veracini – violinist

Virtuoso performer was prolific composer

One of the great violinists of the 18th century, Francesco Maria Veracini, was born on this day in 1690 in Florence.  He was to become famous throughout Europe for his performances and for a while he was Handel’s biggest rival as a composer.  Veracini was born into a musical family, although his father was a pharmacist and undertaker. His grandfather, Francesco, had been one of the first violinists in Florence and had a music school business, which he eventually passed on to his son, Antonio, who was Francesco’s teacher. Veracini grew up in Florence but by 1711 he had established himself in Venice where he played in church orchestras.  In 1712 on February 1, his 22nd birthday, he performed a violin concerto of his own composition in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in honour of the visit to Venice of the Austrian ambassador. This is the first recorded public performance by Veracini playing one of his own compositions. At about that time, one of his performances so impressed the violinist, Giuseppe Tartini, that he decided to take time off to study better use of the bow in Ancona.  Read more…

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31 January

Ernesto Basile - architect

Pioneer of Stile Liberty - the Italian twist on Art Nouveau

The architect Ernesto Basile, who would become known for his imaginative fusion of ancient, mediaeval and modern architectural elements and as a pioneer of Art Nouveau in Italy, was born on this day in 1857 in Palermo.  His most impressive work was done in Rome, where he won a commission to rebuild almost completely the Palazzo Montecitorio, the home of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian parliament.  Yet his most wide-ranging impact was in Sicily, where he followed in the footsteps of his father, Giovan Battista Filippo Basile, in experimenting with the Art Nouveau style.  Basile senior designed the Villa Favaloro, in Piazza Virgilio off Via Dante, and with Ernesto and others, notably Vincenzo Alagna, taking up the mantle, it was not long before entire districts of the city were dominated by Stile Liberty, the Italianate version of the Art Nouveau that took its name from the Liberty and Co store in London's Regent Street, which sold ornaments, fabric and objets d'art to a refined clientele and encouraged modern designers.  Fine examples of Ernesto Basile’s architecture in Palermo include the Villino Florio (1899–1902) in Viale Regina Margherita, and the Hotel Villa Igiea (1899–1901) on the waterfront.  Read more…

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Daniela Bianchi - actress

James Bond’s love interest whose Italian accent was never heard

Daniela Bianchi, an actress best known for her role as a Bond girl in the film From Russia With Love, was born on this day in 1942 in Rome.  She played Russian agent Tatiana Romanova in the hit 1963 film starring Sean Connery as James Bond, although her voice had to be dubbed because of her Italian accent.  Daniela’s parents originally came from Sirolo in Le Marche. Her father was a retired Italian army colonel and one of her grandmothers was a marchesa. Daniela was raised in Rome, where she studied ballet for eight years, and she then went on to become a fashion model.  She was the winner of Miss Rome in 1960 and then runner-up in the Miss Universe contest the same year, where she was also voted Miss Photogenic by the press.  Daniela was chosen over 200 other actresses by the Bond producers for the role of Tatiana Romanova and, at the age of 21, was the youngest ever main Bond girl. She was also the only Italian to be a main Bond girl.  Her character, Tatiana, was a Russian cipher clerk who had been sent by Soviet Army Intelligence to entrap James Bond.  Before and after making From Russia With Love, Daniela appeared in many French and Italian films.  Read more…

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Mariuccia Mandelli - fashion designer

'Godmother of Italian fashion' was immortalised by Warhol

Mariuccia Mandelli, the founder of the fashion house Krizia, was born on this day in 1925 in Bergamo in northern Italy.  Although Mandelli trained to be a primary school teacher on the advice of her mother and pursued a teaching career when she was in her twenties, she had a talent for sewing and had always been interested in fashion. It took just one lucky break to get her started. When a friend offered her the use of a flat rent-free for six months, Mandelli went to live there, bought an old sewing machine and started making clothes. She then launched her label, Krizia - a name by which she was sometimes known - by selling the clothes from her small car, a Fiat 500. She used to drive to shops in Milan with suitcases full of samples and by 1954 had established a ready-to-wear fashion house.  Mandelli also went on to establish a popular line of men’s wear, one of the first female fashion designers to do this successfully.  In 1964, Mandelli unveiled her first black-and-white collection at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the designs for which earned her a Critica della Moda award. Krizia grew rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s. Read more…

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Bernardo Provenzano - Mafia boss

Head of Corleonesi clan dodged police for 43 years

Bernardo Provenzano, a Mafia boss who managed to evade the Sicilian police for 43 years after a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1963, was born on this day in 1933 in Corleone, the fabled town in the rugged countryside above Palermo that became famous for its association with Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather.  The former farm labourer, who rose through the ranks to become the overall head - il capo di tutti i capi - of the so-called Cosa Nostra, lived for years under the eyes of the authorities in an opulent 18th century villa in a prestigious Palermo suburb, although ultimately he took refuge in the hills, alternating between two remote peasant farmhouses.  He was finally captured and imprisoned in 2006 and died in the prisoners' ward of a Milan hospital 10 years later, aged 83.  Although Provenzano assumed power during one of the bloodiest periods in Mafia history, he was eventually credited with rescuing the organisation from the brink of collapse by turning away from the violent path followed by his predecessor as capo di tutti i capi, Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, and restoring traditional Mafia values. Read more…

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Charles Edward Stuart – royal exile

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s heart will forever be in Frascati 

The Young Pretender to the British throne, sometimes known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, died on this day in 1788 in Rome.  The man who would have been King Charles III was born and brought up in Italy where his father, James, the son of the exiled Stuart King James II, had been given a residence by Pope Clement XI.  Charles Edward Stuart was raised as a Catholic and taught to believe he was a legitimate heir to the British throne.  In 1745 Charles sailed to Scotland hoping to gather an army to help him place his father back on the thrones of England and Scotland.  He defeated a Government army at the Battle of Prestonpans and marched south. He had got as far as Derbyshire when the decision was made by his troops to return to Scotland because of the lack of English support for their cause.  They were pursued by King George II’s son, the Duke of Cumberland, who led troops against them at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Many of his soldiers were shot and killed and the surviving Jacobites fled. They were pursued by Cumberland ’s men, who committed atrocities against them when they were caught.   Read more…

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Don Bosco – Saint

Father and teacher who could do magic tricks

Saint John Bosco, who was often known as Don Bosco, died on this day in 1888 in Turin.  He had dedicated his life to helping street children, juvenile delinquents and other disadvantaged young people and was made a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1934.  Bosco is now the patron saint of apprentices, editors, publishers, children, young delinquents and magicians.  He was born Giovanni Bosco in Becchi, just outside Castelnuovo d’Asti in Piedmont in 1815. His birth came just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars that had ravaged the area.  Bosco’s father died when he was two, leaving him to be brought up by his mother, Margherita.  Mama Margherita Occhiena would herself be declared venerable by the Catholic Church in 2006.  Bosco attended Church and grew up to become very devout. Although his family was poor, his mother would share what they had with homeless people who came to the door.  While Bosco was still young, he had the first of a series of dreams that would influence his life.  He saw a group of poor boys who blasphemed while they played together, and a man told him that if he showed meekness and charity he would win over these boys.  Read more…

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