VERDI DAY - MAYBE

Bust of Verdi outside
Teatro Massimo, Palermo
Image: Wikimedia Commons

I am not going to say, "Happy birthday, Verdi" as I abhor the online habit of wishing the dead a happy birthday / Christmas / weekend / everything but I am going to mark the composer's  bicentenary on this blog. Actually, there is some doubt as to whether Giuseppe Verdi was born on the 9th or 10th October 1813 but let's do it today. Italy is doing it tomorrow.  The Guardian has already asked its music writers for their favourite "Verdi moments" and you will find mine at the end of this post.

First, though, I want to tell you that when I spent some time in the Emilia-Romagna in 1981, I visited the region's Verdi locations with an Italian friend. The following is copied verbatim from my travel diary of that period:

Yesterday we went to seek out "Verdi land" which is near Parma.  We started at Roncole Verdi [formerly Le Roncole] to see the composer's birthplace. It's such a modest little house for someone who was to become so famous! It has a stone floor and walls and no lining of the roof. It was an inn and changing station for horses and Verdi's father ran a small grocery store next to it. Nearby is San Michele Church where Verdi learned to play the organ.

My souvenir booklet of the Verdi locations

We went on to Busseto. Here there is a Civic Museum, housed in the Villa Pallavicino: it has letters written by the master, manuscripts, opera posters and portraits of the Verdi family. The painter is usually Levi, born in Busseto. You can see Verdi's spinet, which his father saved up for. Verdi received it when he was nine. There is also a double bass which he played.  In Busseto, Verdi was encouraged by a local businessman, Antonio Barezzi and he later married Barezzi's daughter Margherita. The couple had two children, who died young. Margherita died after only four years of marriage. Now I understand how Verdi came to write so much sad and moving music. 

The Milan Conservatory said that Verdi had no musical talent!

Verdi's second wife was the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi but they had no children and the couple adopted a girl - the daughter of a cousin - from Roncole.

When Verdi was 55, the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi was opened in Busseto. It is a lovely theatre - very intimate and familiar, but with wonderful accoustics. Busseto is only a little town, but the love of its people for the "maestro" is evident in the way the theatre and museum are kept. I really think it's the nicest little theatre I've ever seen. Toscanini conducted there twice. Concerts are also held in the piazza in Busseto. 

Further on, in Villanova sull'Arda in Piacenza Province, is the Villa Sant'Agata or Villa Verdi. This is preserved much as Verdi left it and the guide there really knows her stuff. [You have to ring and wait for her - we nearly went away as we thought no one was coming!] She referred to Verdi as "il maestro" throughout her talk and you felt that she knew him - which, in a way, she does, living among all his belongings and telling his life story every day.

The first room you see is the one in which Giuseppina died and the second is the room where Verdi worked and slept. 

There are two pianos in the house - one that the composer used up to "Aida", and the other one that he used afterwards. There are portraits of his parrot and a little dog - he loved animals and the guide assured us that when he went hunting, he never killed.

We were shown the glove that Verdi used to conduct the Requiem for Manzoni - the only time he conducted in public. A bust of Manzoni is on display.

There are two small studies and then a room which contains the furniture from the Milan hotel room where Verdi died. It was all donated to the villa by the hotel.

It was a very rainy day and we'd had difficulty in finding the villa and then there was the wait in the cold for the guide but it was worth it! It was the 24th April, the anniversary of my Dad's funeral. I so wanted him to know I was in Verdi's house! What beauty Verdi brought to this earth, and from such humble beginnings, yet he was true to his origins to the last.

Incidentally, part of Bertolucci's "La Luna" was filmed in the countryside surrounding the villa.

If you go to the Villa Verdi, I can't promise that you will get the same, knowledgeable guide as I did all those years ago but it is possible in Italy!

Now here are some of my favourites:

Nabucco:  Anch'io dischiuso un giorno - Mirella Parutto

Un Ballo in maschera: Preludio - Claudio Abbado
 

La Traviata: Parigi, o cara - Callas e Kraus
  

The work of immortal artists can be reinterpreted down the ages so that it speaks to us all and this is certainly the case here:

Nabucco: Va, pensiero - Pavarotti e Zucchero

Happy Verdi Day, wherever you are!

HOORAY FOR SAN MARINO!

Monte Titano, San Marino
Image:  Wikimedia Commons

This is not a post about Sicily, but the Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, which I have visited only once and loved.

In Italy for Beginners, the humourist George Mikes wrote,

"The Italians cannot - and do not even try to - spoil the fun San Marino has with postage stamps.  A treaty exists between Italy and San Marino, under which Italy makes an annual payment ..... and in return San Marino forgoes her right to print money, grow tobacco, distil alcohol or impose duties of any kind.  She is, however, allowed to print her own stamps..... Magnificent and impressive stamps pour from the printing presses every month or so to the delight and despair of collectors." 

Mikes was writing in 1956 and Italy and, no doubt, San Marino are very different today but the book still contains nuggets of truth that anyone who has had an extended stay in Italy will recognise with a wry smile.  I particularly recommend the last section of Mikes's chapter on San Marino, in which he is mistaken for a spokesperson for the Duke of Gloucester, to you. 

The Sammarinesi continue to produce beautiful stamps and this week they have unveiled a special edition which will be sold in order to raise funds for reconstruction work in the areas affected by the Emilia-Romagna earthquake earlier this year.

Image: via Meteoweb

The slogan for the edition reads, "Hold your hand out to rebirth" and, as you see, the leaf resembles a hand.  It is holding a brick, which symbolises reconstruction.  The release date for the stamp is 30th August but it can be purchased on the internet from 20th August.

Let's hear it for San Marino!

SABATO MUSICALE

From the Concerto per l'Emilia, held in Bologna on 25th June to raise funds for the earthquake-stricken region, a return to the stage after 42 years for Modena-born Caterina Caselli.  Here she joins Francesco Guccini in singing his song, Per fare un uomo:

Concerto per l'Emilia: Francesco Guccini e Caterina Caselli - Per fare un uomo

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY SAINTS

St Anthony of Padua with the child Jesus
by Antonio de Pereda
Image: Wikipedia

Yesterday there was a good development in my personal life.  I can't go into detail here yet but believe me, it's been a long time coming and the past couple of months have been particularly difficult.

"Ah, it's because it's Saint Anthony's Day", said a close friend here and as I was grateful and continue to need all the help I can get, I determined to find out more about St Anthony of Padua [ Fernando Martins de Bulhões, 15.8.1195 - 13.6.1231]:

Fernando was not from Padua at all but was born in Lisbon.  As a young man, he entered Augustine Canons but afterwards became a Franciscan, having met and been impressed by some Franciscan friars who were on their way to Morocco, where they were later martyred.  It was their simplicity that appealed to Anthony, as he became in his Franciscan order.

Anthony wanted to go and preach the Gospel in Morocco too but was unable to complete his journey because of illness. He therefore decided to visit Italy, the centre of his order but, in another turn of fate, his ship was driven towards Sicily in a storm and he landed at Messina.  I was delighted to discover this Sicilian connection!  Anthony travelled to Tuscany and then to San Paolo near Forli [Romagna], where he worked in a hospice and studied.  Then one day he was called upon to preach a sermon and he did this so eloquently that he was sent to preach all around Lombardy.  He even came to the attention of St Francis of Assisi himself, who gave Anthony teaching duties.  Anthony continued to preach but also served as an envoy to Pope Gregory IX and taught at several European universities.  He died on his way to Padua at the age of 36. He was canonized just eleven months after his death and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1946.  

During my research I learned that Saint Anthony is called upon to find missing objects [which could be very handy]  and you can also enlist his help in finding a husband [wish I'd known before].  He is the protector of orphans, prisoners, the shipwrecked, pregnant women, infertile women, glaziers and new recruits of all kinds.

To bring this back to the personal, I wasn't infertile but life did not bless me with circumstances in which I might have had children.  Few women in this position talk about it and the fact that it is a loss - of hope and so much more - does not seem to be recognised by society.  Whether or not, had I been born in the UK 30 years later than I was, I would have skipped along to the sperm clinic is a question I cannot answer, nor is it the point here. I'm just going to  assume that St Anthony's compassion extends to those of us who did not conceive for other reasons and from today he joins my list of favourite saints.

Now, where did I put my keys?

LAMPEDUSA REACHES OUT

As I said yesterday, no country is better than Italy at its best and the people of Lampedusa have been demonstrating this in recent days:

At the weekend, around 200 students, children and elderly people from the earthquake-stricken areas of the Emilia-Romagna were welcomed to the island for a free holiday so that, away from the constant tremors which continue to shake and terrify their region, they can rest in the sun and recuperate a little.  Some of the students are preparing for their maturità [pre-university] examinations and it is hoped that their stay on the island will enable them to study in an environment in which they can be free of fear.

The idea is the initiative of Antonio Martello of the Lampedusa Hoteliers' Consortium and the Sogni nel Blu travel company, Riccardo Toto of the New Livingston airline company and members of the Lampedusa Business Association.  Mr Martello said that they wanted to show the people of the Emilia-Romagna that the islanders feel close to them in their time of trouble.

I'm sure you will all join me in congratulating the companies who have sponsored the trip and the people of Lampedusa and in wishing the Emilian group a very happy holiday.

AGAIN

Most of you will have read or seen by now that there has been another strong earthquake in Northern Italy, just eight days after the 6.0 quake that terrorised the people of the Province of Modena and displaced thousands, many of whom are being accommodated in tents.  Imagine their fear, then, when a 5.8 quake struck at 9 am today.

The epicentre this time was between Carpi, Medolla and Mirandola, still in the Province of Modena and the quake was felt in parts of  Lombardy, Trentino, Tuscany and even Austria. At 12.56 there was a further, 5.3 quake.

As I write 16 people are reported dead, one person is missing, at least 350 have been injured and 8,000 people are estimated to have been made homeless. The brings the total number of people made homeless by the earthquakes of 20th May and today to a staggering 14,000.  Premier Monti has promised that everything possible will be done to help them.

In such circumstances we must take comfort where we can and at 21.00, exactly twelve hours after this morning's quake, a 60-year-old woman was pulled out of the rubble injured but alive.  The headboard of her bed had protected her as her home collapsed around her.

The University of Bologna, together with the city's schools, will be closed tomorrow whilst safety checks are carried out.  In the city of Modena, where some public buildings have been slightly damaged, schools, cemeteries, museums, swimming pools and theatres will be closed.  I have spent some time in Modena so was sorry to learn that some of the buildings in its lovely historic centre may also have been damaged.

Italians pull together magnificently at times like these and modern technology has also played its part:  when mobile networks in the earthquake-hit area became overloaded this morning, messages asking people to remove their passwords from their wifi systems to enable the rescue services to find people and communicate with each other more efficiently quickly circulated on twitter.  Also on twitter, the singer Laura Pausini urged people in the area whose houses were intact to open up their homes to less fortunate citizens.  If I know Italians, they did not need to be told to do that.

Monday 4th June is to be a national day of mourning in Italy.

A MIRACLE IN THE RUBBLE

If the fates were not smiling upon Italy this weekend, someone or something was looking out for little Vittoria Vultaggio from Obici, a hamlet of Finale Emilia [Province of Modena], yesterday:  At 4.04 am, when the quake struck, the five-year-old was sleeping in her room in a house which comprised some restored seventeenth century structures, including a tower. As the tower collapsed onto the roof of Vittoria's room, it seems that two beams protected the little girl's body.  

Vittoria's father, who, with her mother and two-year-old brother, had been able to exit the house, searched for her frantically with the help of neighbours, among them a Mr Ziosi.  Mr Vultaggio climbed onto the remains of the roof, calling Vittoria's name all the time.  Suddenly he heard her respond.  He and Mr Ziosi managed to locate her and remove rubble from her face but they could not free her body.  

Power lines were down and cellphones were not working so the family were unable to contact the emergency services but Vittoria's mother,  hardly aware of what she was doing in her anxiety and distress, kept tapping numbers on her cellphone. At last, a call somehow got through and was answered by a doctor she knew. Unbeknown to Vittoria's mother, the doctor was on a trip to New York but he immediately grasped the situation and called the emergency services in Rome, who in turn passed on the information to their colleagues in Modena.  Thus the rescue and ambulance teams knew exactly where to go and within another half an hour they managed to pull Vittoria out of the rubble.

In the meantime, Mr Ziosi's son Marcello, who was also in New York, had called his father to find out if he had been injured and for a little while, in the confusion, the Vultaggio family thought that it was Marcello who had made that vital call to Rome.  But Marcello said later that the fact that he had called from New York was just a coincidence and that it was definitely the good doctor, whose name Mr and Mrs Vultaggio cannot quite recall, who had made the call.

Vittoria has suffered some injuries to a leg and is obviously still very frightened but has no fractures.

Today we are thinking of all who have been affected by the two terrible events in Italy over the weekend and of the members of the emergency services, hospital staff and others who are helping them.  Let us also salute the courage of the students of the Istituto Morvillo Falcone in Brindisi, who went back to school this morning, two days after a bomb outside the building killed one of their fellow-students and injured ten others.  Like Vittoria's father, the neighbours who came to his aid and our as yet unnamed doctor, these are the people who represent the real Italy.