1.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
2.
Gaetano Donizetti
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Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, Donizetti was a composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century. Donizettis close association with the bel canto style was undoubtedly an influence on composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy, there he received detailed training in the arts of fugue and counterpoint. Over the course of his career, Donizetti wrote almost 70 operas, in all, Naples presented 51 of Donizettis operas. Before 1830, success came primarily with his operas, the serious ones failing to attract significant audiences. However, his first notable success came with an opera seria, Zoraida di Granata, significant historical dramas did appear and became successful, they included Lucia di Lammermoor given in Naples in 1835, and one of the most successful Neapolitan operas, Roberto Devereux in 1837. Up to that point, all of his operas had been set to Italian libretti, Donizetti found himself increasingly chafing against the censorial limitations which existed in Italy. From about 1836, he interested in working in Paris. The first opera was a French version of the then-unperformed Poliuto which, two new operas were also given in Paris at that time. As the 1840s progressed, Donizetti moved regularly between Naples, Rome, Paris, and Vienna continuing to compose and stage his own operas as well as those of other composers, but from around 1843, severe illness began to take hold and to limit his activities. Eventually, by early 1846 he was obliged to be confined to an institution for the ill and, by late 1847, friends had him moved back to Bergamo. The youngest of three sons, Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamos Borgo Canale quarter located just outside the city walls and his family was very poor and had no tradition of music, his father Andrea being the caretaker of the town pawnshop. Simone Mayr, a German composer of internationally successful operas, had become maestro di cappella at Bergamos principal church in 1802, in 1807, Andrea Donizetti attempted to enroll both his sons, but the elder, Giuseppe, was considered too old. He remained there for nine years, until 1815, however, as Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook notes, in 1809 he was threatened with having to leave because his voice was changing. In 1810 he applied for and was accepted by the art school, the Academia Carrara. Then, in 1811, Mayr once again intervened, as Ashbrook states, this was nothing less than Mayrs argument that Donizetti be allowed to continue his musical studies. The piece was performed on 13 September 1811 and included the character stating the following, Ah, by Bacchus
3.
Gioachino Rossini
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Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote operas, as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music and piano pieces. A precocious composer of operas, he made his debut at the age of eighteen. His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia, Litaliana in Algeri and he also wrote a string of serious operas in Italian, including works such as Tancredi, Otello and Semiramide. The semi-serious opera La Gazza Ladra has one of Rossinis most celebrated overtures, after moving to Paris in 1824, he eventually started to write in French. His last opera, the epic Guillaume Tell, replete with its iconic overture, after composing thirty-nine significant operas in nineteen years Rossini retired from the theatre in 1829. Later, he was affected by physical and mental illnesses and for decades wrote relatively little apart from a setting of the Stabat Mater. A return to Paris from Italy in 1855 was followed by better health, during these, he presented salon music in the form of songs, piano pieces and small chamber ensembles that he called Sins of Old Age. He considered the last of these Sins to be the unusually scored Petite messe solennelle that he wrote in 1863, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history, and he was one of the most renowned public figures of his time. A rapid and prolific composer, he was quoted as joking, Give me the laundress bill, a tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, earning him the nickname The Italian Mozart. Use of a build up of orchestral sound over a repeated phrase—commonly known as a Rossini crescendo—also prompted the nickname Signor Crescendo. Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro and his father, Giuseppe, was a horn player and inspector of slaughterhouses. His mother, Anna, was a singer and a bakers daughter, Rossinis father was sympathetic to the French Revolution and welcomed Napoleons troops when they arrived in northern Italy. When Austria restored the old regime, Rossinis father was sent to prison in 1799, Rossinis mother took him to Bologna, making a living as leading singer at various theatres of the Romagna region. Her husband would ultimately join her in Bologna, during this time, Rossini was frequently left in the care of his aging grandmother, who had difficulty supervising the boy. He remained at Bologna in the care of a pork butcher while his father played the horn in the orchestras of the theatres at which his wife sang and these qualities made him a subject for ridicule in the eyes of the young Rossini. He was eventually taken from Prinetti and apprenticed to a blacksmith, in Angelo Tesei, he found a congenial music master, and learned to sight-read, play accompaniments on the piano and sing well enough to take solo parts in the church when he was ten years of age. Important products of this period are six sonate a quattro, or string sonatas, the original scores, dating from 1804 when the composer was twelve, were found in the Library of Congress in Washington D. C. In 1805, he appeared at the theatre of the Commune in Ferdinando Paers Camilla and he was also a capable horn player, treading in the footsteps of his father
4.
Giuseppe Verdi
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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè
5.
Altamura
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Altamura is a city and comune of Apulia, in southern Italy. It is located on one of a hill of the Murge plateau in the province of Bari,45 kilometres southwest of Bari, as of 2011 its population was 70,288. The city is known for its quality of bread called Pane di Altamura. The 130, 000-year-old calcified Altamura Man was discovered in the limestone cave called the grotta di Lamalunga. The area of modern Altamura was densely inhabited in the Bronze Age, the region contains some fifty tumuli. Between the 6th and the 3rd century BC a massive line of walls was erected. It was inhabited until around the tenth century AD, then it was reportedly looted by Saracens. There are no sources confirming what the original name of Altamura was. Inside the Tabula Peutingeriana, only Sublupatia occurs, which may refer either to Santeramo in Colle, according to an ancient legend, appearing for the first time in the 13th century AD, Altamuras former name was Altilia, from Alter Ilium, the other Troy. According to a legend, it was founded by a friend of Aeneas, Antellus, another legend attributes the foundation to Althea, queen of the Myrmidons. Ottavio Serena, as early as in 1880, rejected the above legends as well as the belief that the ancient name of Altamura was Altilia, as it lacked reliable sources. Ottavio Serena suggested that name may have originated with an unknown High Middle Ages scholar who tried to provide an explanation of the ruins found in that place. During the 15th and 16th centuries AD, Altamura was also mistaken for the ancient city of Petilia, the hypothesis that Altamura was the ancient city of Petilia probably originated with Raffaello Maffei, as he was the first known author that suggested it. Leandro Alberti, instead, was the first scholar who dismissed that Altamura was Petilia in his work Descrittione di tutta Italia, according to modern scholars, Petilia probably refers to the archeological remains found on Monte Stella. In 1248, under pressure from Frederick, Pope Innocent IV declared Altamura exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Bari, making it a palatine church, that is the equivalent of a palace chapel. Altamura was ruled by feudal families, including the Orsini del Balzo and the Farnese. In 1748 Charles VII of Naples had a university built in the city, during the Risorgimento, Altamura was the seat of the Insurrection Bari Committee and, after the unification, the provisional capital of Apulia. During World War II, the camp known as P. G.51 was located at Villa Serena in Altamura
6.
Bari
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Bari is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, the city itself has a population of about 326,799, as of 2015, over 116 square kilometres, while the urban area has 700,000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area has 1.3 million inhabitants, Bari is made up of four different urban sections. To the south is the Murat quarter, the heart of the city, which is laid out on a rectangular grid-plan with a promenade on the sea. Modern residential zones surrounding the centre of Bari were built during the 1960s and 1970s replacing the old suburbs that had developed along roads splaying outwards from gates in the city walls, in addition, the outer suburbs developed rapidly during the 1990s. The city has an airport named after Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła Airport. The city was founded by the Peucetii. Its harbour, mentioned as early as 181 BC, was probably the one of the districts in ancient times, as it is at present. The first historical bishop of Bari was Gervasius who was noted at the Council of Sardica in 347, the bishops were dependent on the Patriarch of Constantinople until the 10th century. Until the arrival of the Normans, Bari continued to be governed by the Byzantines, throughout this period, and indeed throughout the Middle Ages, Bari served as one of the major slave depots of the Mediterranean, providing a central location for the trade in Slavic slaves. The city was conquered and the Emirate extinguished in 871, due to the efforts of Emperor Louis II, in 885, Bari became the residence of the local Byzantine catapan, or governor. In 1025, under the Archbishop Byzantius, Bari became attached to the see of Rome and was granted provincial status, in 1071, Bari was captured by Robert Guiscard, following a three-year siege. Maio of Bari, a Lombard merchants son, was the third of the admirals of Norman Sicily. The Basilica di San Nicola was founded in 1087 to receive the relics of this saint, the saint began his development from Saint Nicholas of Myra into Saint Nicholas of Bari and began to attract pilgrims, whose encouragement and care became central to the economy of Bari. In 1095 Peter the Hermit preached the first crusade there, the Greeks were not brought over to the Latin way of thinking, and the Great Schism was inevitable. A civil war broke out in Bari in 1117 with the murder of the archbishop, control of Bari was seized by Grimoald Alferanites, a native Lombard, and he was elected lord in opposition to the Normans. By 1123, he had increased ties with Byzantium and Venice, Grimoald increased the cult of St Nicholas in his city. He later did homage to Roger II of Sicily, but rebelled and was defeated in 1132, Bari was occupied by Manuel I Komnenos between 1155 and 1158
7.
Apulia
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Apulia is a region of Italy in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southernmost portion, known as the Salento peninsula, forms a stiletto on the boot of Italy, the region comprises 19,345 square kilometers, and its population is about 4 million. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, across the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, it faces Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, and Montenegro, The Apulia region extends as far north as Monte Gargano. Puglias coastline is longer than any other mainland Italian region, in the north, the Gargano promontory extends out into the Adriatic, while in the south, the flat and dry Salento peninsula forms the heel of Italys boot. It is home to the Alta Murgia and Gargano National Parks, see also, History of Apulia Apulia is one of the richest archaeological regions in Italy. It was first colonized by Mycenaean Greeks, a number of castles were built in the area by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, including Castel del Monte, sometimes called the Crown of Apulia. After 1282, when the island of Sicily was lost, Apulia was part of the Kingdom of Naples, as a result of the French–Spanish war of 1501–1504, Naples again came under the rule of Aragon and the Spanish Empire from 1504 to 1714. When Barbary pirates of North Africa sacked Vieste in 1554, they took an estimated 7,000 slaves, in 1861 the region became part of the Kingdom of Italy, with the new capital city at Turin. In the words of one historian, Turin was so far away that Otranto is today closer to seventeen foreign capitals than it is to Turin, the regions contribution to Italys gross value added was around 4. 6% in 2000, while its population was 7% of the total. The per capita GDP is low compared to the national average, in comparison with the country as a whole, the economy of Apulia is characterised by a greater emphasis on agriculture and services and a smaller part played by industry. In the last 20 years the base of the regions economy has changed radically. The majority of firms are financed by local capital. In certain of these sectors – especially textiles, clothing, footwear, vehicles, the region has a good network of roads but the railway network is somewhat inadequate, particularly in the south. Apulias 800 kilometers of coastline is studded with ports, which make this region an important terminal for transport and tourism to Greece, between 2007 and 2013 the economy of Apulia expanded more than that of the rest of southern Italy. Such growth, over decades, is a severe challenge to the hydrogeological system. Emigration from the depressed areas to northern Italy and the rest of Europe was very intense in the years between 1956 and 1971. Subsequently, the trend declined as economic conditions improved, to the point where there was net immigration in the years between 1982 and 1985, since 1986 the stagnation in employment has led to a new inversion of the trend, caused by a decrease in immigration. Since 1 June 2015, former judge and mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano of the Democratic Party has served as President, Apulia is divided into five administrative provinces and one metropolitan city, Cuisine plays an important role throughout Apulia
8.
Wexford Festival Opera
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The Wexford Festival Opera is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in south-eastern Ireland during the months of October and November. The festival began in 1951 under Tom Walsh and a group of opera lovers who quickly generated considerable interest by programming unusual and rare works and this concept has been maintained over the companys history under the direction of seven different artistic directors. From the beginning, the company embraced new and upcoming singers, many of whom were Irish. The current artistic director since 2005, David Agler, oversaw the creation of a new house with enhanced facilities on the site of the original theatre. Under its founding director, Tom Walsh, Wexford began a climb to international success. He was succeeded by a variety of talented individuals who maintained and expendaded upon the basic philosophy. Mackenzie suggested the group should stage an opera in their own theatre, the Theatre Royal, the result was that a group of opera lovers planned a Festival of Music and the Arts from 21 October to 4 November 1951. Bryan Balkwill, Charles Mackerras and John Pritchard were among the young conductors, for the time, the results were astounding, and the festival was soon attracting leading operatic talent, both new and established. Due to the renovation of the Theatre, the 1960 season did not take place, massenets Don Quichotte was another standout in 1965 with the veteran bass Miroslav Cangalovic as Cervantes old knight. Albert Rosen, a conductor from Prague, began a long association with the company in 1965. He was later appointed Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra and was Conductor Laureate at the time of his death in 1997, the 26-year-old former Trinity College student Brian Dickie took over the running of the Festival. Dickie was persuaded to return to Glyndebourne, but his successor in 1974 was Thomson Smillie who came from the Scottish Opera, in 1976, Brittens The Turn of the Screw was presented along with a rarity in Cimarosas one-man piece Il maestro di cappella. Other rare Italian operas of the 18th century were presented in 1979, adrian Slack concentrated on mainly Italian opera. There were some exception such as Handels Orlando, Floyds Of Mice and Men, spontinis La vestale was memorable for the incident involving the entire company slipping on a steeply raked, smoothly finished stage, as described by Bernard Levin. Sergei Leiferkus was introduced to audiences outside Russia along with other newcomers such as the American dramatic soprano Alessandra Marc during her era. Other outstanding productions included new-comer Francesca Zambellos two productions, the first of Donizettis Lassedio di Calais in 1991 and Tchaikovskys Cherevichki in 1993, a new idea introduced by Padmore in 1982 was the Operatic Scenes, the presentation of excerpts from operas. This provided a lower-cost alternative for younger members as well as offering more work to the chorus. In 1995, Padmore was succeeded as director by Luigi Ferrari, then director of the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro
9.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
10.
Madrid
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Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile
11.
Lisbon
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Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km². Its urban area extends beyond the administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and it is continental Europes westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean, the westernmost areas of its metro area is the westernmost point of Continental Europe. Lisbon is recognised as a city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education. It is one of the economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector. Humberto Delgado Airport serves over 20 million passengers annually, as of 2015, and the motorway network, the city is the 7th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Milan, with 1,740,000 tourists in 2009. The Lisbon region contributes with a higher GDP PPP per capita than any region in Portugal. Its GDP amounts to 96.3 billion USD and thus $32,434 per capita, the city occupies 32nd place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinationals in the country are located in the Lisbon area and it is also the political centre of the country, as its seat of Government and residence of the Head of State. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, in 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbons status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal. It has one of the warmest winters of any metropolis in Europe, the typical summer season lasts about four months, from June to September, although also in April temperatures sometimes reach around 25 °C. Although modern archaeological excavations show a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, another conjecture based on ancient hydronymy suggests that the name of the settlement derived from the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus, Lisso or Lucio. Lisbons name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by the geographer Pomponius Mela and it was later referred to as Olisippo by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. The Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population and this indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects
12.
Giulia Grisi
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Giulia Grisi was an Italian opera singer. She performed widely in Europe, the United States and South America and is considered to be one of the leading sopranos of the 19th century. Her second husband was Giovanni Matteo Mario de Candia, scion of a family of the Kingdom of Sardinia. She is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and her grave is marked Juliette de Candia, using the de Candia name. Born in Milan, Giulia Grisi was the daughter of Gaetano Grisi, one of Napoleons Italian officers and she came from a musically-gifted family, her maternal aunt Giuseppina Grassini being a favourite opera singer both on the continent and in London. Her older sister, Giuditta and her cousin Carlotta were both artistes, the former as a singer and the latter as a ballet dancer, Giuditta was the creator of the pants role of Romeo in Bellinis I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Grisi was trained for a career, making her stage debut as Emma in Rossinis Zelmira in Bologna in 1828. Rossini and Bellini both took an interest in her, she was the first to play the part of Adalgisa in Bellinis Norma in Milan, in which the dramatic soprano Giuditta Pasta took the title role. In 1842, Donizetti wrote the parts of Norina and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for Grisi and Giovanni Matteo De Candia, usually known by his stage-name of Mario, who was to become the love of her life. Her voice was described as a dramatic soprano which, during her prime, was praised by critics for its exceptional beauty. Her career spanned 30 years in total and she was a noted actress, appearing regularly in London with such eminent singers as Luigi Lablache, Giovanni Battista Rubini and Antonio Tamburini, not to mention her husband, Mario. Indeed, the prickly press commentator Henry Chorley praised both her and Mario for their success in establishing Italian opera as an important component of the London music scene. In 1854, after they were married, Giulia and Mario undertook a tour of the United States of America. Grisi married Count Gérard de Melcy in 1836, the marriage was unhappy but he refused her a divorce for some years. In 1838, her husband discovered a letter written to her by Frederick Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry, Lord Castlereagh was wounded in the wrist, the Count was uninjured. After the duel, Grisi left her husband and began an affair with Lord Castlereagh and their son, George Frederick Ormsby, was born in November 1838 and brought up by his father, who had no legitimate children by his wife. After Grisi and Lord Castlereaghs relationship ended, he brought their son to see her whenever she was in England, whilst living with Mario Count Giovanni de Candia before their marriage, Giulia and Mario kept homes in Paris and London. Eventually, Grisi obtained her divorce and married Mario, with whom she had six daughters, once married, they returned to Italy and lived at the Villa Salviati in Florence, a property Mario had purchased in 1849
13.
Giovanni Battista Rubini
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Giovanni Battista Rubini was an Italian tenor, as famous in his time as Enrico Caruso in a later day. His ringing and expressive coloratura dexterity in the highest register of his voice, as a singer Rubini was the major early exponent of the Romantic style of the bel canto era of Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti. Rubini is remembered as a bel canto singer, one of the most famous in Europe in the 1820s to 1840s. He also popularized the use of a pervasive vibrato as a means of heightening the impact of his operatic performances. However, if his upper register was exceptional—he could effortlessly go up to a ringing high F --, he was reported as barely audible in the parts of his voice. He also had a volume control, struggling to produce mezzo-forte or mezzo-piano dynamics. On the other hand, he was admired for the joy he took to sing, his great agility. Born in Romano di Lombardia, Rubini began as a violinist at twelve years of age at the Teatro Riccardi in Bergamo and his first appearance as singer was 1814 in Pavia in Le lagrime duna vedova by Pietro Generali. He divided his time between Paris and London and his special relation with Vincenzo Bellini began with Bianca e Fernando and continued until I puritani, when he was one of the long-remembered Puritani quartet for whose voices the opera was written. Rubini was admitted as a member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. He died in his hometown of Romano in 1854, and is buried in the cemetery there, notes Sources Budden, Julian, Rubini, Giovanni Battista in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Four, pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Cassinelli, Bruno, Antonio Maltempi, Mario Pozzoni, Rubini, comune di Romano di Lombardia, Cassa Rurale ed Artigiana di Calcio e di Covo, Vol. Gara, Eugênio, Giovan Battista Rubini nel Centenario della Morte, green, Geoffrey, Voices in a Mask, Stories, Triquarterly/Northwestern University Press. Giovanni Battista Rubini and the Bel Canto Tenors, History and Technique, Scarecrow Press ISBN9780810886674 Osborne, Richard, Rossini, Ithaca, New York, pleasants, Henry, The Great Singers, From the Dawn of Opera to Caruso, Callas and Pavarotti. ISBN 0-671-42160-3 Traini, Carlo, Il Cigno di Romano, bérgamo, Committee for the Centenary celebrations 1954. Zucker, Stefan, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Opera News, Volume 46,12, February 13,1982 Gori, Hélio, Giovanni Battista Rubini, An Abridged Biography. Escola Livre de Canto Lirico G. B, Rubini Circolo Amici della Lirica G. B. Rubini La Scuola Libera di Canto Lirico Giovan Battista Rubini in Brazil
14.
Antonio Tamburini
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Antonio Tamburini was an Italian operatic baritone. He went on to one of the finest baritones of his age. He had a beautiful, smooth and flexible voice the quality of which is indicated by the bel canto music written for him. Castil-Blaze described his voice in The Harmonicon of May 1833, His voice is a baritone, well defined, extending from A to F, occasionally reaching G#. I might have allotted to him the two full octaves without reserve, but I prefer to retrench the semitone, above and below, that I may give to his voice and tone the full praise it merits. It is round, rich, and clear, of wonderful flexibility, and such astonishing firmness and he has the neatness and precision of execution that Ber and Barizel have acquired on the clarionet or bassoon. The tone is equal in its extent, taking and holding F# with as much ease as a tenor voice would do. However, it is apparent from several comments in the English and Irish press that, certainly by 1847 and he was renowned also for his good looks and impressive stage presence, often working with the tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini and soprano Giulia Grisi. Tamburini is famous for his association with the operas of Bellini such as I Puritani, indeed, he was one of the so-called Puritani Quartet of leading international singers, along with Grisi, Rubini and the bass Luigi Lablache. The quartet was reunited on stage, albeit with Giovanni Mario replacing Rubini, a particular favourite with London and Paris audiences, Tamburini was married to the contralto Marietta Gioia-Tamburini. He died at Nice in 1876, aged 76, notes Sources Ashbrook, William, Donizetti and His Operas, Cambridge University Press,1983. A Biographical Notice of Tamburini, pp. 125–126. The Harmonicon Randel, Don Michael, Tamburini, Antonio, The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, Harvard University Press,1996. ISBN 0-674-37299-9 Rosselli, John, Singers of Italian Opera, The History of a Profession, Cambridge University Press,1995, ISBN 0-521-42697-9 Works by or about Antonio Tamburini at Internet Archive
15.
Luigi Lablache
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Luigi Lablache was an Italian opera singer of French and Irish heritage. He was most noted for his performances, possessing a powerful and agile bass voice, a wide range. Luigi Lablache was born in Naples, the son of Nicolas Lablache and he fled the Conservatorio five times in order to pursue an acting career, but each time he was brought back in disgrace. His voice was a contralto, and just before it broke he sang the solos in Mozarts Requiem on the death of Joseph Haydn in 1809. In 1812, when only eighteen, he was engaged at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, from 1812 to 1817 he sang at Palermo. In 1817, at La Scala in Milan, he took the part of Dandini in Rossinis La Cenerentola, the opera Elisa e Claudio was written for him in 1821 by Saverio Mercadante and his position was assured. From Milan he went to Turin, returned to Milan in 1822, then appeared at Venice, going back to Naples after an absence of twelve years, he created a great sensation as Assur in Rossinis Semiramide. In 1827 Franz Schubert wrote three songs in Italian for Lablache, marvellous exercises in Rossinian pastiche, they are among the last songs he ever wrote. A physically imposing man, his voice was at all times extraordinarily powerful, as an actor, he excelled equally in comic and tragic parts. His chief rôles were Leporello, Geronimo the Podestà in La gazza ladra, Dandini in La Prova d un Opera Seria, Henry VIII in Anna Bolena the Doge in Marino Faliero and he created the title role in Donizettis Don Pasquale in 1843. Towards the close of his career he played two new characters of different types with great success, Shakespeares Caliban and Gritzenko, the Kalmuck, in Scribes. At the funeral of Beethoven in 1827 he was one of the thirty-two torchbearers who surrounded the coffin and he sang the same Requiem at Chopins funeral in 1849. He was the soloist, singing a Lacrimosa, at Bellinis funeral in 1835, in 1836/37 he taught singing to Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, the later Queen Victoria. Luigi Lablache died at Naples on 23 January 1858, and was buried at Maisons-Laffitte and he had married the singer Teresa Pinotti in 1813, and they had thirteen children, several of them, notably Frederick Lablache, were also singers. His eldest daughter, Francesca, married the pianist Sigismond Thalberg in 1843, the actor Stewart Granger was his great-great-grandson and the BBC TV Antiques Roadshow expert Bunny Campione is also a descendant. Notes Sources This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Lablache
16.
Vincenzo Bellini
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Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer, who was known for his long-flowing melodic lines for which he was named the Swan of Catania. Other sources of information come from correspondence saved by other friends, C Bellini was the quintessential composer of the Italian bel canto era of the early 19th century, and his work has been summed up by the London critic Tim Ashley as. Also hugely influential, as much admired by composers as he was by the public. Verdi raved about his long, long, long melodies, wagner, who rarely liked anyone but himself, was spellbound by Bellinis almost uncanny ability to match music with text and psychology. Liszt and Chopin professed themselves fans, of the 19th-century giants, only Berlioz demurred. Those musicologists who consider Bellini to be merely a melancholic tunesmith are now in the minority, the genuine triumph of I puritani in January 1835 in Paris capped a significant career. Certainly, Capuleti, La sonnambula, Norma, and I puritani are regularly performed today, only nine months later, Bellini died in Puteaux, France at the age of 33. Born in Catania, at the part of the Kingdom of Sicily. His grandfather, Vincenzo Tobia Bellini, had studied at the conservatory in Naples and, in Catania from 1767 forward, had been an organist and teacher, as had Vincenzos father, by the age of five, he could apparently play marvelously. The document states that Bellinis first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old and at seven he was taught Latin, modern languages, rhetoric, and philosophy. Author Herbert Weinstock regards some of these accounts as no more than myths, not being supported from other, additionally, he makes the point in regard to Bellinis apparent knowledge of languages and philosophy, Bellini never became a well-educated man. After 1816, Bellini began living with his grandfather, from whom he received his first music lessons, soon after, the young composer began to write compositions. Among them were the nine Versetti da cantarsi il Venerdi Santo, by 1818, Bellini had independently completed several additional orchestral pieces. He was ready for further study, for well-off students, this would include moving to Naples. While his family wasnt wealthy enough to support that lifestyle, Bellinis growing reputation could not be overlooked and his break came when Stefano Notabartolo, the duca di San Martino e Montalbo and his duchess, became the new intendente of the province of Catania. They encouraged the man to petition the city fathers for a stipend to support his musical studies. This was successfully achieved in May 1819 with unanimous agreement for a pension to allow him to study at the Real Collegio di Musica di San Sebastiano in Naples. The young Bellini was to live in Naples for the eight years
17.
Giacomo Meyerbeer
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Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera decisive character, Meyerbeers grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra and they set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a very wealthy Berlin family, Meyerbeer began his career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera. His 1824 opera Il crociato in Egitto was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation and he was at his peak with his operas Les Huguenots and Le prophète, his last opera was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. He was a supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of the latters opera. He was commissioned to write the patriotic opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien to celebrate the reopening of the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1844, apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. Meyerbeers works are infrequently performed today. Meyerbeers birthname was Jacob Liebmann Beer, he was born in Tasdorf, near Berlin, then the capital of Prussia, to a Jewish family. His father was the wealthy financier Judah Herz Beer and his mother, Amalia Wulff, to whom he was particularly devoted. Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer and he was to adopt the surname Meyerbeer on the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer Wulff and the first name Giacomo during his period of study in Italy, around 1817. Judah Beer was a leader of the Berlin Jewish community and maintained a synagogue in his house which leaned towards reformist views. Jacob Beer wrote a cantata for performance at this synagogue. The brothers Alexander von Humboldt, the renowned naturalist, geographer and explorer, beers first keyboard instructor was Franz Lauska, a pupil of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and a favoured teacher at the Berlin court. Beer also became one of Muzio Clementis pupils while Clementi was in Berlin, the boy made his public debut in 1801 playing Mozarts D minor Piano Concerto in Berlin. Beer, as he named himself, studied with Antonio Salieri. Louis Spohr organised a concert for Beer at Berlin in 1804 and continued his acquaintance with the lad later in Vienna, beers first stage work, the ballet Der Fischer und das Milchmädchen was produced in March 1810 at the Court Opera in Berlin
18.
La Juive
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La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe, it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on 23 February 1835. La Juive was one of the most popular and admired operas of the 19th century and its libretto was the work of Eugène Scribe, the prolific dramatic author. In addition to this, there could be choral interludes, ballet, at the time of composition, the July Monarchy had liberalised religious practices in France. Meyerbeer and Halévy were both Jewish, and storylines dealing with topics of tolerance were common in their operas, some believe that the libretto of La Juive has a goal of reconsidering the status of Jews in French society. Others believe that the portrayal of the Jew Eléazar as secretive, vengeful. The operas first, ornate production, costing 150,000 francs, was conducted by François Habeneck, the performances of the soprano Cornélie Falcon in the title role and the dramatic tenor Adolphe Nourrit as Eléazar were particularly noted. The production was notable for its lavishness, including the organ in Act I, the enormous supporting cast. La Juive enjoyed a success comparable to that of Meyerbeers grand operas. It made its American premiere at the Théâtre dOrléans on 13 February 1844, the work was also used for the inaugural performance at the newly constructed Palais Garnier in Paris on 5 January 1875. Richard Wagner, who admired La Juive, may have borrowed from it the Act I organ effect, moreover, Eléazars tapping at his goldsmiths work is echoed by Hans Sachss cobbling during Die Meistersinger. The opera was produced by New Yorks Metropolitan Opera in 1919 as a vehicle for its star tenor, Eléazar was the last role Caruso added to his repertoire, as well as the last he sang in performance prior to his death in 1921. Giovanni Martinelli succeeded Caruso in the role at the Met and both he and Caruso recorded the operas best known aria, Rachel, the opera was programmed regularly until the 1930s. In Zurich, the action was changed from the 15th century to late 19th century France when anti-Semitism was rampant during the Dreyfus affair. In addition, the Royal Opera, London presented concert performances at The Barbican in 2006, with Dennis ONeill and Marina Poplavskaya singing the roles of Eléazar, the synopsis below reflects the original version of the opera. Modern performing versions often somewhat adapt this storyline for convenience, when he was young, the Jew Eléazar had lived in Italy near Rome and witnessed the condemnation and executions of his sons as heretics by Count Brogni. Eléazar himself was banished and forced to flee to Switzerland, during his journey, Eléazar found a baby near death, abandoned inside a burnt-out house which turned out to be the home of the Count. Bandits had set fire to the house, attempting to kill the family of Brogni. Eléazar took the child, a girl, and raised her as his own daughter, Brogni discovered the ruins of his house and the bodies of his family upon his return
19.
Poliuto
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Poliuto is a three-act tragedia lirica by Gaetano Donizetti from the Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, which was based on Pierre Corneilles play Polyeucte written in 1641–42. It reflected the life of the early Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus, however, close to the time for rehearsals to begin, King Ferdinand II refused to allow the martyrdom of a Christian saint to be seen on stage and forbade the production. It was presented in Paris on 10 April 1840, when eventually given in Italy, it was initially presented in a translation from the French version under the title of I martiri. It took until 30 November 1848, months after the composers death, however, by the late 1830s, Nourrit’s popularity in Paris was in decline, and he was in danger of being supplanted in the publics affections by rising star Gilbert Louis Duprez. Donizetti returned to Naples, arriving by February 24, where he began planning for the production of Poliuto, however, he had also hoped for a permanent supervisory appointment at the Collegio di San Pietro a Maiella. Instead, it went to the composer, Saverio Mercadante, the composer began work by 10 May on the music for the opera, which appears to have been planned for the autumn season. Barbaja backed up Cammaranos objection, which included his inability to meet with the newly appointed censor, Royer. Finally, the completed libretto moved up the chain of command with Royers support until it reached the King, on 8 March 1839 he jumped to his death from a window of his apartment in Naples. For his part, Cammarano re-used some of the verses he had set for Poliuto in other librettos, including Mercadantes La Vestale, Donizetti offered his Poliuto to the Académie Royale de Musique and it was accepted for performances to begin in April 1840. This commission, which known as Le duc dAlbe, was never completed. During 1839, Lucia di Lammermoor, after being translated into French, became Lucie de Lammermoor, and this version was presented in August. With rehearsals for Les martyrs not planned until early 1840, the composer had time to yet another opera, La fille du régiment. It received its premiere on 11 February 1840, by which time Les martyrs was in rehearsal for performances in April. 19th century Prior to the original Poliuto being presented in Italy, however, the more compact, three-act Poliuto was generally preferred and under its original title, it was given its premiere on 30 November 1848, a few months after Donizettis death. As Poliuto, it was not until 25 May 1859 that it was given in New York, 20th century and beyond Productions of Poliuto staged from 1940 onward have included those at La Scala, Milan in 1940. It was also given at the Roman Baths of Caracalla with Giacomo Lauri-Volpi in 1948, at that point in her career, Callas was at the height of her fame, albeit having been absent from La Scala for two years. However, her performances were regarded as triumphs with the public, another Rome Opera production followed in 1989 with Nicola Martinucci and Elizabeth Connell and two productions were presented by the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo in 1993 and 2010. Other concert performances were given in the 1990s in cities such as Vienna, Montpelier, the ABAO company in Bilbao staged the work in February 2008 with Francisco Casanova and Fiorenza Cedolins in the two principal roles
20.
Teatro Regio (Turin)
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The Teatro Regio is a prominent opera house and opera company in Turin, Italy. Its season runs from October to June with the presentation of eight or nine operas given from five to twelve performances of each, however, the cornerstone was not laid until the reign of Charles Emmanuel III in 1738 after Juvarras death. The work was supervised by Benedetto Alfieri until the theatre was completed, the Teatro Regio was inaugurated on 26 December 1740 with Francesco Feos Arsace. It was a sumptuously built facility, seating 1,500, however, the theatre was closed on royal order in 1792 and it became a warehouse. With the French occupation of Turin during the Napoleonic War the theatre was renamed the Teatro Nazionale and finally, after Napoleons ascent to Emperor, Napoleons fall in 1814 saw the theatre returned to its original name, the Regio. In the following years the house went through several periods of financial crisis. Other theatres were built and presented seasons of opera in Turin, among them was the restored Teatro Carignano in 1824. Even before it burnt down, discussions about whether to rebuild the Regio or create a new theatre preoccupied Turin in the early twentieth century. Two plans were presented and the one selected expanded the capacity to 2,415 by removing the fourth and fifth levels of boxes. Work was completed in 1905 but the theatre closed during the First World War, until February 1936, seasons of opera were presented until fire destroyed all but the facade of the Teatro Regio. It remained closed for thirty-seven years, arturo Toscanini was the conductor of the Turin Opera from 1895 to 1898, during which time several productions of the works of Wagner were given Italian premieres. Following the fire, a competition was launched to find an architect. However, due to the war and the financial situation. Even then, work did not start until September 1967 under architect Carlo Mollino, the new house seats 1,750 and is elliptical in shape with a large orchestra level and 37 boxes around its perimeter. An acoustic shell was added to improve its sound, lynn, Karyl Charna, Italian Opera Houses and Festivals, Lanham, Maryland, The Scarecrow Press, Inc.2005. ISBN 0-8108-5359-0 Plantamura, Carol, The Opera Lovers Guide to Europe, New York, ISBN 0-8065-1842-1 Teatro Regio Torino website Category, Opera world premieres at the Teatro Regio
21.
Turin
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Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region and was the first capital city of Italy. The city is located mainly on the bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley and surrounded by the western Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 892,649 while the population of the area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million, in 1997 a part of the historical center of Torino was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, many of Turins public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy was moved to Turin from Chambery as part of the urban expansion, the city used to be a major European political center. Turin was Italys first capital city in 1861 and home to the House of Savoy, from 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy and finally the first capital of the unified Italy. Turin is sometimes called the cradle of Italian liberty for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour. The city currently hosts some of Italys best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, in addition, the city is home to museums such as the Museo Egizio and the Mole Antonelliana. Turins attractions make it one of the worlds top 250 tourist destinations, Turin is ranked third in Italy, after Milan and Rome, for economic strength. With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power, as of 2010, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is also home to much of the Italian automotive industry, the Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibals forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established in 27 BC under the name of Castra Taurinorum, both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurinis country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times. In the 1st century BC, the Romans created a military camp, the typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city, especially in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the path of the Roman citys decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani. The Porta Palatina, on the side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral
22.
Giuseppe Mazzini
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Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy and spearheaded the Italian revolutionary movement. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the separate states, many dominated by foreign powers. He also helped define the modern European movement for democracy in a republican state. S. President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, but also post-colonial leaders such as Gandhi, Savarkar, Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mazzini was born in Genoa, then part of the Ligurian Republic, under the rule of the French Empire. His father, Giacomo Mazzini, originally from Chiavari, was a university professor who had adhered to Jacobin ideology, his mother, Maria Drago, was renowned for her beauty, from a very early age, Mazzini showed good learning qualities. He was admitted to the University at only 14, graduating in law in 1826 and he also hoped to become a historical novelist or a dramatist, and in the same year he wrote his first essay, Dellamor patrio di Dante, which was published in 1837. In 1828–29 he collaborated with a Genoese newspaper, Lindicatore genovese and he then became one of the leading authors of LIndicatore Livornese, published at Livorno by F. D. Guerrazzi, until this paper was closed down by the authorities, too. In 1827 Mazzini travelled to Tuscany, where he became a member of the Carbonari, on 31 October of that year he was arrested at Genoa and interned at Savona. In early 1831, he was released from prison, but confined to a small hamlet and he chose exile instead, moving to Geneva in Switzerland. In 1831 Mazzini went to Marseille, where he became a figure among the Italian exiles. He was a frequent visitor to the apartment of Giuditta Bellerio Sidoli, the Olliviers took care of the child in June 1833 when Giuditta and Mazzini left for Switzerland. The child died in February 1835, Mazzini organized a new political society called La giovane Italia. Young Italy was a society formed to promote Italian unification. Mazzini believed that an uprising would create a unified Italy. The new nation had to be, One, Independent, Free Republic, Mazzinis political activism met some success in Tuscany, Abruzzi, Sicily, Piedmont, and his native Liguria, especially among several military officers. Young Italy counted about 60,000 adherents in 1833, with branches in Genoa, in that year Mazzini first attempted insurrection, which would spread from Chambéry, Alessandria, Turin, and Genoa. However, the Savoy government discovered the plot before it could begin, the repression was ruthless,12 participants were executed, while Mazzinis best friend and director of the Genoese section of the Giovine Italia, Jacopo Ruffini, killed himself. Mazzini was tried in absentia and sentenced to death, despite this setback, he organized another uprising for the following year
23.
Il giuramento
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Il giuramento is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Saverio Mercadante. The libretto, by Gaetano Rossi, is based on Victor Hugos play Angelo, the opera was first performed at La Scala, Milan on 11 March 1837 and was quickly taken up by other theatres throughout Italy. Mercadante uses the not as a pale accompaniment to dramatic action. 19th century After the mid-19th century the opera dropped in popularity, 20th century and beyond Occasional performances have been given in modern times, beginning with revivals in the 1950s. The opera was presented at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in June 1970 with Thomas Schippers conducting, german conductor Gerd Albrecht gave a concert performance in Berlin in 1974 and three further performances in 1979, one of which was recorded. It was also given at the Festival della Valle dItria in Martina Franca, Italy in the summer of 1984, conducted by Bruno Campanella, there were four staged performances given by the Angers-Nantes Opéra in France in November 1993, conducted by Giuliano Carella. It was also performed at the Wexford Festival Opera in December 2002 under Paolo Arrivabeni, the Washington Concert Opera in the US capital presented a concert version in May 2009 with Antony Walker conducting. Setting, Syracuse Time, 14th century Bianca has been married against her will to Count Manfredo, Elaisa, a young woman in search of the daughter of her benefactor, and Viscardo arrive in the city. The disgraced courtier Brunoro discovers that Viscardo is the knight loved by Bianca and he tells Elaisa in order to make her jealous but she finds out that Bianca was the very woman she had been looking for. The count suspects Bianca of infidelity and locks her in the family tomb, but Elaisa, who is loved by the count, manages to substitute a strong narcotic for the poison. Viscardo believes that Elaisa is responsible for Biancas death and stabs her just as Bianca wakes from her deep sleep, notes Sources Rose, Michael, “Mercandante, Saverio in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Three, pp. 334—339. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Rose, Michael, in Holden, Amanda, the New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam, Inc. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Del Teatro Amadeus Online
24.
La Scala
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La Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala. The premiere performance was Antonio Salieris Europa riconosciuta, most of Italys greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala during the past 200 years. The theatre is regarded as one of the opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet. The theatre also has a school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy. La Scalas season traditionally opens on 7 December, Saint Ambroses Day, all performances must end before midnight, and long operas start earlier in the evening when necessary. La Scala also hosts the Accademia dArti e Mestieri dello Spettacolo and its goal is to train a new generation of young musicians, technical staff, and dancers. A fire destroyed the theatre, the Teatro Regio Ducale, on 25 February 1776. The neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini produced a design but it was rejected by Count Firmian. A second plan was accepted in 1776 by Empress Maria Theresa, the new theatre was built on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, from which the theatre gets its name. The church was deconsecrated and demolished, and over a period of two years the theatre was completed by Pietro Marliani, Pietro Nosetti and Antonio and Giuseppe Fe. The theatre had a total of 3,000 or so seats organized into 678 pit-stalls and its stage is one of the largest in Italy. Building expenses were covered by the sale of palchi, which were decorated by their owners. La Scala soon became the preeminent meeting place for noble and wealthy Milanese people, in the tradition of the times, the platea had no chairs and spectators watched the shows standing up. The orchestra was in sight, as the golfo mistico had not yet been built. Above the boxes, La Scala has a gallery—called the loggione—where the less wealthy can watch the performances, the gallery is typically crowded with the most critical opera aficionados, known as the loggionisti, who can be ecstatic or merciless towards singers perceived successes or failures. As with most of the theatres at that time, La Scala was also a casino, conditions in the auditorium, too, could be frustrating for the opera lover, as Mary Shelley discovered in September 1840, At the Opera they were giving Otto Nicolais Templario. La Scala was originally illuminated with 84 oil lamps mounted on the palcoscenico, to prevent the risks of fire, several rooms were filled with hundreds of water buckets
25.
Elena da Feltre
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The premiere took place at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 1 January 1839 as part of the Carnival Season. While not successful at the time, the opera was revived at La Scala in 1843 with twenty performances, the story is tragic and violent, filled with romantic intrigues and twisted passions. The part of Elena is one of Mercadantes outstanding soprano vocal roles and her opening romanza is one of the operas finest highlights, although he later replaced it with an equally brilliant florid cavatina. The finale to the act is another extremely strong number. The skillfully wrought ensemble reflects the tension of the script. It has the overall coherence one looks for and finds in middle and late Verdi – a surprising anticipation, for Elena da Feltre dates from 1838 and it was performed at Covent Garden in London in January 1842 and in Dublin that July. But, like most of Mercadantes operas, Elena da Feltre had disappeared from the repertory by the late 19th century. It was not until the mid-1900s that his operas began to see the light of day, Guido asks Ubaldo to help him, Boemondo wishes him to marry his daughter Imberga, but his heart belongs to another. Ubaldo points out that, if Guido defies Boemondo, his chances of regaining the position held by his ancestors will be ruined. Guido, nevertheless, is prepared to renounce everything for love and he reveals that his lover is Elena, daughter of the outlawed Sigifredo, and that he plans to secretly leave the town with her. Ubaldo is aghast, as he realises why Elena has rejected his own declaration of love, left alone, Ubaldo first considers betraying Guido to Ezzelino, but then resolves to abduct Elena instead. Scene 2, Sigifredos palace Elena is overjoyed to hear that her father has escaped to nearby Belluno and her servant Gualtiero tells her that a pilgrim who is approaching the palace is her father in disguise. Sigifredo and Elena embrace, and he tells her that Belluno has fallen to Ezzelino and he hides as Ubaldo enters to tell Elena that he and his men are about to carry her off. Sigifredo emerges to protect Elena, but Ubaldos followers appear and drag Sigifredo away to prison, Ubaldo reluctantly goes with them, and Elena, left behind, falls into a faint. The town hall Boemondo tells Ubaldo that Sigifredo is now held in a secret location, Boemondo says that Ubaldo will explain what she must do to save her fathers life, and leaves. Ubaldo informs Elena that, if Sigifredo is not to be executed, Guido must marry Imberga and she gives in, and they leave together. Guido is brought in under guard and left alone and his sense of foreboding is confirmed when Boemondo tells him that Elena has betrayed him, and that this will be confirmed before long. Guido is distraught and longs for death, boemondos adherents arrive to celebrate the fall of Belluno to Ezzelino
26.
Francesco Florimo
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Francesco Florimo was an Italian librarian, musicologist, historian of music, and composer. Florimo was born in San Giorgio Morgeto in Calabria and enrolled at the age of 12 at the Naples Conservatory, there he studied with Nicola Antonio Zingarelli and Giacomo Tritto and met Vincenzo Bellini, a student companion who became a lifelong friend and the recipient of Florimos fervent devotion. Florimo later dedicated works to Bellini, including his Traslazione delle ceneri di Vincenzo Bellini, memorie e impressioni. These errors have caused difficulties for subsequent Bellini scholars. At the conservatory Florimo became an instructor and director of vocal concerts. His conservative Metodo di canto was influential and widely praised, in his youth Florimo composed cantatas and masses. Among his later compositions, most notable are the Sinfonia funebre per la morte di Bellini and his songs, several collections of his songs appeared in the series Collezione completa delle canzoncine nazionali napoletane and some songs were reprinted by Ricordi in Milan. These may contain genuine transcriptions of material, but to what degree. Florimos enlargement of this collection may be his most enduring and important legacy, upon sending the first volume to Verdi in 1869, Florimo wrote, Without being either a man of science or a man of letters, I have ventured to write a book. If the world only regards my good intentions, then it will have indulgence for me, despite Florimos significant shortcomings as a historian, much of his work remains unique and irreplaceable. He accomplished this in many places by simply adding the word not and he also attempted, unsuccessfully, to recruit Verdi as Mercadantes successor as director. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, works by or about Francesco Florimo at Internet Archive Free scores by Francesco Florimo at the International Music Score Library Project Cenno storico sulla scuola musicale di Napoli. 2,1873 edition at Google Books, la scuola musicale di Napoli e i suoi conservatori. Vol.1 and vol.4 at Google Books, autographed copy of Vicenzo Bellini, biografia ed anedddoti at Google Books. Riccardo Wagner ed i wagneristi View at Google Books, playbill feature article on Golden Age, a play by Terrence McNally which has Bellini and Francesco Florimo as characters
27.
Giovanni Pacini
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Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, the family was of Tuscan origin, and just happened to be in Catania when the composer was born. His first 25 or so operas were written when Gioachino Rossini dominated the Italian operatic stage, but Pacinis operas were rather superficial, a fact which, later, he candidly admitted in his Memoirs. For some years he held the post of director of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Pacinis work is largely forgotten today, although some recordings do exist. During his lifetime, Pacini wrote some 74 operas and this is less than earlier estimates, which ranged from 80 to 90, since it has now been ascertained that many were just alternate titles for other works. It has been noted that he bothered little about harmony and instrumentation, orchestration became heavier, coloratura was reduced, especially for mens voices, and more importance was placed on lyrical pathos. While there were exceptions, romantic leads were assigned to tenors, villains became basses or later baritones. Over time, far more emphasis was placed on the drama, the role that Pacini played in instituting these changes is only now beginning to be recognized. There is little doubt that Pacini and his contemporary Nicola Vaccai exerted an influence on Bellini than has been credited before. This change in attitude can be credited to the revival of two key works, Vaccais Giulietta e Romeo and Pacinis Lultimo giorno di Pompei, both composed in 1825 within a few weeks of each other. The success of many of Pacinis lighter operas especially Il Barone di Dolsheim, La sposa fedele and his position was greatly enhanced by the rapid-fire successes of Alessandro nelle Indie, Amazilia, and the previously mentioned LUltimo giorno di Pompei. Arabi nelle Gallie reached many of the worlds most important stages and was the first Pacini opera to be given in the United States. It was staged frequently in Italy, and it was not until 1830 that Bellinis first success, while this is not generally recognized, it was Pacini, rather than Donizetti, Mercadante or Bellini, who gave Rossini the stiffest competition in Italy during the 1820s. Many operas followed that are almost completely forgotten, however, one of these, Il corsaro was revived 173 years later, in 2004, albeit only with piano accompaniment. This work is different in many ways from Verdis later opera by the same name, the title role, Corrado, is a musico role for an alto, and the villainous Seid is a tenor. However, first Bellini and then Donizetti outstripped Pacini in fame, many of his later operas, such as Carlo di Borgogna of 1835, were failures, but this is one of the few Pacini operas currently available on CD, and it has received many warm reviews. Pacini himself was the first to recognize his apparent defeat noted in memoirs, Bellini, the divine Bellini, has surpassed me. Some years later, he resumed composing, and, after one more setback, after Saffo, Pacini entered into another period of prominence
28.
Saffo (opera)
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Saffo is an opera in three acts by Giovanni Pacini set to a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, which was based on a play by Franz Grillparzer, after the legend of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 29 November 1840 and it was frequently performed during the 19th century. Its first UK presentation was on 1 April 1843 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London and and it saw occasional revivals during the 20th century. Notable ones took place at the San Carlo on 7 April 1967, with Leyla Gencer, the priest come upon Faone, a suitor of Saffo given to jealousy. At Alcandros prompting, Faone denounces Saffo for preferring the poet Alceo to himself, later, with Saffo and Apollo being in conflict, she cultivates a friendship with Climene, the daughter of Alcandro, in order to seek the priests intercession with the god. Saffo turns up on the clifftop at Leucadia, convinced that her love for Faone is a curse from Apollo. She intends to throw herself off the cliff in the hope that the god will catch her, as required by custom, she identifies herself to Ippias, the curator of the Leap. He gives her the go-ahead to jump but an old man idling nearby has heard everything and he recognizes Saffo as Alcandros long-lost daughter and therefore Climenes sister. There is a reunion until Ippias points out that Saffo has made an agreement with Apollo from which she cannot back out. Saffo accepts her fate, bids farewell to everybody, and jumps, Faone has to be restrained from jumping, too. Apollo, still angry with her, allows Saffo to drown, ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2 Mancini & Rouveroux, Le guide de lopéra, Fayard
29.
Orazi e Curiazi
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Orazi e Curiazi is an opera by the Italian composer Saverio Mercadante. It takes the form of a tragedia lirica in three acts, the libretto, by Salvadore Cammarano is based on the Roman legend of the fight between the Horatii and the Curiatii. It was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 10 November 1846, ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Rose, Michael, in Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam, Inc
30.
Jean-Pierre Rampal
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Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century. His father was taught by Hennebains, who also taught Rene le Roy and his playing style was characterised by a bright sound, a sonorous elegance of phrasing lit up by a rich palette of subtle tone colours. He exuded a dashing, lightly articulated virtuosity that thrilled audiences in his heyday, additionally, Rampal was able to breathe in the middle of extended rapid passages without losing the sweep of his rendition. His upper register and wide range were particularly notable, as was the lightness and crispness of his staccato articulation heard on his early recordings. Under the tutelage of his father, who was professor of flute at the Marseille Conservatoire and Principal Flute of the Marseille Symphony Orchestra, Rampal began playing the flute at the age of 12. He studied the Altès method at the Conservatoire, where he went on to win first prize in the schools annual flute competition in 1937 at age 16 and this was also the year of his first public recital at the Salle Mazenod in Marseille. By then, Rampal was playing second flute alongside his father in the Orchestre des Concertes Classiques de Marseille, privately, however, his remarkable career in music—which was to span more than half a century—began without the full encouragement of his parents. Rampals mother and father encouraged him to become a doctor or surgeon, at the beginning of the Second World War, Rampal duly entered medical school in Marseille, studying there for three years. In 1943, authorities of the Nazi Occupation of France drafted him for forced labour in Germany, to avoid this, he fled to Paris, where it was easier to avoid detection, by frequently changing his lodgings. While in Paris, Rampal auditioned to study flute at the Paris Conservatoire and it launched his concert career overnight and was the first of many such broadcasts. In promoting the flute as a concert instrument at this time. Moyse himself had enjoyed considerable popularity between the wars, although not on an international scale. Nevertheless, he was a model in that he had definitely established a tradition for the solo flute, Moyse, Rampal said. With the war over, Rampal embarked on a series of performances, at first, within France, and then, in 1947, in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Almost from the beginning, he was accompanied by pianist and harpsichordist Robert Veyron-Lacroix, the appearance of this duo after the war has been described as a complete novelty, allowing them to make a rapid impact on the music-going public in France and elsewhere. In March 1949, in the face of scepticism, they hired the Salle Gaveau in Paris to perform what then seemed the radical idea of a recital programme made up solely of chamber music for flute. It was one of the first flute/piano recitals the city had seen, the success encouraged Rampal to continue along that track
31.
Teatro di San Carlo
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The Real Teatro di San Carlo, its original name under the Bourbon monarchy but known today as simply the Teatro di San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is located adjacent to the central Piazza del Plebiscito, and it is the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in the world, opening in 1737, decades before both the Milans La Scala and Venices La Fenice theatres. The opera season runs from late January to May, with the season taking place from April to early June. The house once had a capacity of 3,285. Given its size, structure and antiquity was the model for the theatres in Europe. As was customary, the role of Achilles was played by a woman, Vittoria Tesi, called Moretta, sarro also conducted the orchestra in two ballets as intermezzi, created by Gaetano Grossatesta, with scenes designed by Pietro Righini. The first seasons highlighted the royal preference for numbers. The new opera house was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano, an architect, and Angelo Carasale. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium is the oldest in the world and it was built at a cost of 75,000 ducats. Including standing room, the theatre could hold over 3,000 people, military movements of infantry and cavalry, battles, and storms at sea can be represented here without falling into the ludicrous. But for opera, itself, the house is too large, although the singers, Signora Isabella Colbran, and the Signori Nozzari, Benedetti, etc. have very strong voices, only their highest and most stentorian tones could be heard. Any kind of tender utterance was lost, much admired for its architecture, its gold decorations, and the sumptuous blue upholstery, the San Carlo was now the biggest opera house in the world. In 1809 Domenico Barbaia was appointed manager of the opera houses in Naples. He soon established a reputation for innovative and dazzling productions, which attracted both the public and leading singers to the opera house, on 13 February 1816 a fire broke out during a dress-rehearsal for a ballet performance and quickly spread to destroy a part of building. On the orders of King Ferdinand IV, another Bourbon monarch and son of Charles III and it was rebuilt as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats, and a proscenium,33. 5m wide and 30m high. Niccolini embellished in the inner of the bas-relief depicting Time and the Hour, the central frescoed ceiling painting of Apollo presenting to Minerva the greatest poets of the world was painted by Antonio, Giuseppe e Giovanni Cammarano. On 12 January 1817, the theatre was inaugurated with Johann Simon Mayrs Il sogno di Partenope. Stendhal attended the night of the inauguration and wrote, There is nothing in all Europe, I won’t say comparable to this theatre
32.
Teatro Valle
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The Teatro Valle is a theatre and former opera house in Rome, Italy. Commissioned by the Capranica family, the architect Tommaso Morelli designed the theatre which was built in 1726 and it was inaugurated with the staging of the tragedy Matilde by Simon Falconio Pratoli. It was the theatre in Rome in 1782, and after 1786. Throughout the early 19th century, the Valle was regularly staging opera buffa and opera semiseria as well as comedies and, increasingly after 1830. Beginning from the middle of the 19th century, the Teatro Valle has staged only spoken drama, pirandellos Six Characters in Search of an Author had its world premiere in the theatre in 1921. The seating in the Teatro Valle initially consisted of five tiers of 27 boxes and it underwent renovation in by Mauro Fontana in 1765 and was restored again in 1791. The theatre was rebuilt in 1821 to the design of Valadier, completed by Salvi, today, it contains four tiers of boxes and a gallery. As of June 2012, the theatre remained occupied by the group
33.
Jacopo Ferretti
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Jacopo Ferretti was an Italian writer, poet and opera librettist. His name is written as Giacomo Ferretti. He is most famous for having supplied the libretti for two operas composed by Rossini and for five operas composed by Donizetti and his first big success was La Cenerentola, written at great speed for Rossini over Christmas in 1816. Ferretti wrote afterwards how he had agreed to write a libretto on a subject which the censor vetoed, so he met the composer and he struggled to find a new subject that appealed, but about two dozen were rejected for one reason or another. Early on during the production there were problems, but Rossini predicted that it would be a success in the long term. They became good friends after the composers arrival in Rome in October 1821 for the preparation of the production of his Zoraida di Granata. Ferretti worked on revising Bartolomeo Merellis libretto for the opera, altogether, Ferretti wrote about 70 librettos, the majority of which were for operas presented in Rome. Notes Other sources Allitt, John Stewart, Donizetti, in the light of Romanticism, bini, Analisa, Jacopo Ferretti e la cultura del suo tempo, Skira. ISBN 88-8118-599-7 Black, John, Ferretti, Jacopo, in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Two, ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam,2001
34.
Teatro Argentina
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The Teatro Argentina is an opera house and theatre located in Largo di Torre Argentina, a square in Rome, Italy. One of the oldest theatres in Rome, it was constructed in 1731 and it is built over part of the curia section of the Theatre of Pompey. This curia was the location of the assassination of Julius Caesar, the house was commissioned by the Sforza-Cesarini family and designed by the architect Gerolamo Theodoli with the auditorium laid out in the traditional horseshoe shape. Duke Francesco Sforza-Cesarini, who ran the Argentina Theatre from 1807 to 1815, was a fanatic who continued until his death to run up debts. From 1919 to 1944, more musical offerings than dramatic ones were presented, although the theatre premiered works by Luigi Pirandello, Henrik Ibsen, as well, a series of operas was presented in the winter of 1944-45 in honor of the American and British troops. In 1994, the became the home of the Teatro Stabile company of Rome. It offers a variety of programmes, some being large-scale productions, the inside of the theatre is constructed of wood with six levels of boxes characterizing the design, and has been restored many times. It seats 696 people, including 344 in the stalls and with 40 boxes on five levels seating an additional 352, in the novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas the Teatro Argentina was the setting for an important scene during a performance of Parisina by Gaetano Donizetti. List of theatres and opera houses in Rome Notes Sources Plantamura, Carol, Teatro Argentina, in The Opera Lovers Guide to Europe
35.
Teatro Comunale di Bologna
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The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy, and is one of the most important opera venues in Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season, while there had been various theatres presenting opera in Bologna since the early 17th century, they had either fallen into disuse or burnt down. However, from the early 18th century, the Teatro Marsigli-Rossi had been presenting operatic works by composers of the day including Vivaldi, Gluck. However, much work remained unfinished, the facade in particular which was not completed until 1936, also, many of the backstage facilities which would allow for the presentations of operas were unfinished and only completed due to competition from another theatre in 1805. It was to be the first major house to be constructed with public funds. Various renovations were undertaken between 1818 and 1820 and also in 1853/54, after fire destroyed much of the stage area in 1931, the theatre was closed, and it did not re-open until 14 November 1935. By that date, the original bell-shaped auditorium had given way to a horseshoe-shaped one seating 1,034 people, the 19th century saw the presentation of twenty operas by Gioacchino Rossini, while seven of Vincenzo Bellinis ten operas were presented in the 1830s. Works by Giuseppe Verdi and, later in 1871, the Italian premiere of Richard Wagners Lohengrin, in fact, Bologna became the location for several other Wagner opera premieres in Italy, notably with the composer present for his Rienzi and the Parsifal premiere on 1 January 1914. Dottore Giulio Ferrario, ed. Storia e Descrizione de Principali Teatri Antichi e Moderni, tipografia del Dottor Giulio Ferrario, Contrada del Bocchetto N.2465. Lynn, Karyl Charna, Italian Opera Houses and Festivals, Lanham, Maryland, The Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8108-5359-0 Teatro Comunale of Bolognas website
36.
Elisa e Claudio
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It received its premiere performance at La Scala in Milan on 30 October 1821. Mercadante began to compose operas in 1819, and Elisa was his seventh and it was his first great success, and his only comedy to maintain its place alongide the serious works of his later years. Initially successful, the opera was given at His Majestys Theatre in London in April 1823, the US premiere occurred on 18 October 1832 in New York City. Elisa is the only Mercadante comic opera to have presented in recent years. The Wexford Festival in Ireland has been instrumental in featuring Mercadantes work, place, Tuscany Time, early nineteenth century Scene 1, Inside Count Arnoldos villa The Marquis Tricotazio and his daughter Silvia have arrived to visit the Count a day earlier than expected. The Marquis is looking forward to Silvias marriage with the Counts son Claudio, but Silvia is in love with Celso, a former fellow-student of Claudio who has joined the Marquiss retinue. The Count suspects that Claudio wishes to marry someone else, and has confined him to his room for a year and this is a ruse which allows him to move more freely and, in particular, to visit Elisa, whom he has secretly married. However, the Counts servant, Luca, has discovered the existence of Elisa, Scene 2, Carlottas cottage Elisa and the children are staying with her friend Carlotta. She is longing to be reunited with Claudio, Carlotta arrives, indignant that Claudio is apparently to marry Silvia. Claudio appears and is reproached by the women, but he convinces them that his consent to the marriage is a pretence, after he has left, Luca and a gang of ruffians arrive and carry off the children, to the great distress of Elisa and Carlotta. Scene 3, The gallery in the Counts villa Silvia and Celso plan to elope, the Marquis appears, but gets angry when no-one tells him what is going on. The arrival of Luca and the servants does not improve his temper, Scene 4, The Counts garden The bewildered Marquis is taking the air when he is confronted by a furious Elisa, who accuses him of ordering the kidnapping. He has no idea who she is or what she is talking about, Carlotta arrives, distressed because she has been unable to find Elisa, but the servants cannot help. Scene 5, Inside the villa Luca and the Count are discussing what to do with the children when the Marquis, still pursued by Elisa, arrives. Silvia, Claudio, Carlotta and Celso now appear, and when the Count orders the servants to throw Elisa out, she realises that he, the others plead with the Count, but he is adamant. Scene 1, The Counts garden Luca refuses to tell the servants exactly what is going on, the Count reveals that he plans to offer Elisa a dowry if she finds someone to marry. The Marquis tries to persuade the Count to abandon the marriage of Silvia and Claudio, Celso tells Silvia and Carlotta that he has acquired a key to a secret door through which Elisa and Claudio can escape. He has also had an idea about how to find where the children are being kept, Carlotta reflects that love has its sorrows as well as its enchantments
37.
La Fenice
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Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre, however, the third fire was the result of arson. It destroyed the house in 1996 leaving only the exterior walls, in 1774, the Teatro San Benedetto, which had been Venices leading opera house for more than forty years, burned to the ground. By 1789, with interest from a number of opera lovers who wanted a spectacular new house. The house would face on one side a campo, or small plaza, however, the process was not without controversy especially in regard to the aesthetics of the building. Some thirty responses were received and, as Romanelli accounts, Selvas was designated as the design to be constructed, the actual award for best design went to his chief rival, Pietro Bianchi. However, Selvas design and finished opera house appears to have been of high quality, construction began in June 1790, and by May 1792 the theatre was completed. It was named La Fenice, in reference to the survival, first of the fire. La Fenice was inaugurated on 16 May 1792, with an opera by Giovanni Paisiello entitled I giuochi dAgrigento set to a libretto by Alessandro Pepoli. But no sooner had the house been rebuilt than a legal dispute broke out between the company managing it and the owners, the Venier family. The issue was decided in favor of the Veniers, at the beginning of the 19th century, La Fenice acquired a European reputation. Rossini mounted two major productions there, Tancredi in 1813 and Semiramide in 1823, two of Bellinis operas were given their premieres there, I Capuleti e i Montecchi in March 1830 and Beatrice di Tenda in March 1833. Donizetti, fresh from his triumphs at La Scala in Milan and at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, returned to Venice in 1836 with his Belisario, in December 1836, disaster struck again when the theatre was destroyed by fire. However, it was rebuilt with a design provided by the architect-engineer team of the brothers, Tommaso. The interior displays a late-Empire luxury of gilt decorations, plushy extravagance, La Fenice once again rose from its ashes to open its doors on the evening of 26 December 1837. Giuseppe Verdis association with La Fenice began in 1844, with the performance of Ernani during the carnival season. Over the next 13 years, the premieres of Attila, Rigoletto, La traviata, during the First World War, La Fenice was closed, but it reopened to become the scene of much activity, attracting many of the worlds greatest singers and conductors. On 29 January 1996, La Fenice was completely destroyed by fire, only its acoustics were preserved, since Lamberto Tronchin, an Italian acoustician, had measured the acoustics two months earlier
38.
Felice Romani
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Felice Romani was an Italian poet and scholar of literature and mythology who wrote many librettos for the opera composers Donizetti and Bellini. Romani was considered the finest Italian librettist between Metastasio and Boito, born Giuseppe Felice Romani to a bourgeois family in Genoa, he studied law and literature in Pisa and Genoa. At the University of Genoa he translated French literature and, with a colleague, prepared a six-volume dictionary of mythology and antiquities, including the history of the Celts in Italy. Romanis expertise in French and antiquity is reflected in the libretti he wrote, after refusing a post at the University of Genoa, he appears to have travelled to France, Spain, Greece and Germany before returning to Milan in either 1812 or 1813. There he became friends with important figures in the literary and musical world and he turned down the post of court poet in Vienna, and began instead a career as opera librettist. He wrote two librettos for the composer Simon Mayr, which resulted in his appointment as the librettist for La Scala, Romani became the most highly regarded of all Italian librettists of his age, producing nearly one hundred. In spite of his interest in French literature, he refused to work in Paris and he also wrote a libretto that Verdi used for his early comedy Un giorno di regno. Romani was considered a match for Bellini, who is quoted as having said, Give me good verses. The two, however, had a falling out over missed deadlines for Beatrice di Tenda, after setting I puritani to a libretto by Carlo Pepoli, Bellini was determined not to compose any more Italian operas with anyone but Romani. I puritani was his last opera, he died less than a year after its première, Romani mourned him deeply and wrote an obituary in which he expressed his profound regrets over their disagreement. In 1834 Romani became editor of the Gazzetta Ufficiale Piemontese to which he contributed literary criticism and he retained the post, with a break 1849–1854, until his death, in Moneglia. A volume of his poems was published in 1841. For each libretto the composer/s are listed who set it to music, the date of the first performance, and the new title where applicable
39.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
40.
Hamlet
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlets father, Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brothers widow. It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and he almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeares time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The plays structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny, the protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his fathers brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlets widow, Gertrude, Hamlets mother, Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, which culminated when King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway, and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbrass infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian kings son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle and they vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, after the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his fathers death and his mothers hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself, as Poloniuss son Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in the ironic maxim to thine own self be true. Poloniuss daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, and that night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees and the ghost vanishes, the prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to put an antic disposition on and forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret. Privately, however, he remains uncertain of the ghosts reliability, soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving crazily. Polonius blames love for Hamlets madness and resolves to inform Claudius, as he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlets mood, additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard, messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the King of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his fathers battles. The forces that Fortinbras conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlets behavior, and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information. Hamlet feigns madness but subtly insults Polonius all the while, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies
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Vittorio Alfieri
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Count Vittorio Alfieri was an Italian dramatist and poet, considered the founder of Italian tragedy. Alfieri was born at Asti, Kingdom of Sardinia, now in Piedmont. His father died when he was young, and he was brought up by his mother. After a year at the academy, he went on a visit to a relative at Coni. During his stay there he composed a sonnet chiefly borrowed from lines in Ariosto and Metastasio, at thirteen, Alfieri began the study of civil and canonical law, but this only made him more interested in literature, particularly French romances. The death of his uncle, who had charge of his education and conduct, left him free, at the age of fourteen, to enjoy his paternal inheritance. He began to attend a riding-school, where he acquired an enthusiasm for horses, having obtained permission from the king to travel abroad, he departed in 1766, under the care of an English preceptor. In the Netherlands he fell in love with a married woman, Alfieri, depressed by the incident, returned home and again began studying literature. Plutarchs Lives inspired him with a passion for freedom and independence, in search of an ideal world, Alfieri passed quickly through various countries. During a journey to London he engaged in an intrigue with Lady Penelope Ligonier, the affair became a widely publicised scandal and ended in a divorce that ruined Lady Ligonier and forced Alfieri to leave the country. He then visited Spain and Portugal, where he acquainted with the Abbe Caluso. In 1772, Alfieri returned to Turin and this time he fell for the Marchesa Turinetti di Prie, but it was another doomed affair. When she fell ill, he spent his time dancing attendance on her, and one day wrote a dialogue or scene of a drama, which he left at her house. When the couple quarreled, the piece was returned to him, from this moment Alfieri was seized with an insatiable thirst for theatrical fame, to which he devoted the remainder of his life. His first two tragedies, Filippo and Polinice, were written in French prose. When he came to them in Italian, he found that, because of many dealings with foreigners. With the view of improving his Italian, he went to Tuscany and, during a residence at Florence and Siena, he completed Filippo and Polinice. While thus employed, he acquainted with Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, also known as the Countess of Albany
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Reggio Emilia
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Reggio Emilia is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia. The town is referred to by its more official name of Reggio nellEmilia listen. The inhabitants of Reggio nellEmilia usually call their town by the name of Reggio. In some ancient maps the town is also named Reggio di Lombardia, the old town has an hexagonal form, which derives from the ancient walls, and the main buildings are from the 16th–17th centuries. The comunes territory is totally on a plain, crossed by the Crostolo stream, Reggio began as a historical site with the construction by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus of the Via Aemilia, leading from Piacenza to Rimini. Reggio became an administration centre, with a forum called at first Regium Lepidi, then simply Regium. During the Roman age Regium is cited only by Festus and Cicero, however, it was a flourishing city, a Municipium with its own statutes, magistrates and art collegia. Apollinaris of Ravenna brought Christianity in the 1st century CE, the sources confirm the presence of a bishopric in Reggio after the Edict of Milan. In 440 the Reggio diocese was placed under the jurisdiction of Ravenna by Western Roman Emperor Valentinianus III, at the end of the 4th century, however, Reggio had decayed so much that Saint Ambrose included it among the dilapidated cities. Further damage occurred with the Barbarian invasions, after the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 Reggio was part of Odoacers realm. In 489 it came under Ostrogothic control, from 539 it was part of the Roman Empire, Reggio was chosen as Duchy of Reggio seat. In 773 the Franks took Reggio, charlemagne gave the bishop the authority to exercise royal authority over the city and established the diocese limits. In 888 Reggio was handed over to the Kings of Italy, in 899 the Magyars heavily damaged it, killing Bishop Azzo II. As a result of new walls were built. On 31 October 900 Emperor Louis III gave authority for the erection of a castrum in the citys centre. In 1002 Reggios territory, together with that of Parma, Brescia, Modena, Mantua and Ferrara, were merged into the March of Tuscany, Reggio became a free commune around the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. In 1167 it was a member of the Lombard League and took part in the Battle of Legnano, in 1183 the city signed the Treaty of Konstanz, from which the citys consul, Rolando della Carità, received the imperial investiture
