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Il Turco In Italia

Il Turco in Italia

Il turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy) is an opera in two acts by Gioacchino Rossini. The Italian-language libretto was written by Felice Romani. It was a re-working of a libretto by Caterino Mazzolà set as an opera (with the same title) by the German composer Frans Seydelmann in 1788. It was first performed in La Scala, Milan on August 14, 1814. An opera buffa, it was influenced by Mozart's Così fan tutte, which was being performed at the same theatre shortly before Rossini's work.

Characters


- Principle roles
  - Don Geronio - Bass
  - Fiorilla - Soprano
  - Selim, the Turk - Bass
  - Narciso - Tenor
  - Zaida - Mezzo-soprano
  - Poet - Bass
- Other
  - Albazar - Tenor
  - Gypies, Turks, people - Chorus

Synopsis

Act 1 By the sea shore near Naples. A poet (baritone) is searching for a plot for a drama buffo. He meets a band of gypsies, including the beautiful but unhappy Zaida (mezzo-soprano) and her confidant Albazar (tenor). Perhaps the gypsies can provide some ideas? The poet's friend, the obstinate and sometimes foolish Geronio (bass), is looking for a fortune teller to advise him on his marital problems, but the gypsies tease him. Zaida tells the poet that she is from a Turkish harem. She and her master prince Selim were in love, but jealous rivals accused her of infidelity and she had to flee for her life, accompanied by Albazar. Nevertheless she still loves only one man and that man is Selim. The poet knows that a Turkish prince will shortly be arriving in Italy. Perhaps he can help? Geronio's capricious young wife Fiorilla (soprano) enters singing (in contrast to Zaida) of the joys of free and unfettered love. A Turkish ship arrives and the prince disembarks. It is Selim (bass) himself. Fiorilla is immediately attracted to the handsome Turk, and a romance rapidly develops. Narciso (tenor) appears in her pursuit. He is an ineffectual admirer of Fiorilla posing as a friend of her husband. Geronio follows, horrified to learn that Fiorilla is taking the Turk home to drink his coffee! The scene changes to Geronio's house where Fiorilla and Selim are flirting. Geronio enters timidly and Selim is initially impressed by his unexpected meekness, however Narciso noisily scolds Geronio. The domestic menage irritates Selim and he leaves after quietly arranging to meet Fiorilla again by his ship. Geronio tells Fiorilla he will not allow any more Turks - or Italians - in his house. She sweetly undermines his complaints, and then, when he softens, threatens to punish him by enjoying herself even more wildly. Back at the sea shore, it is now night. Selim is waiting for Fiorilla. Instead he meets Zaida. The former lovers are shocked, delighted, and declare once more their mutual love. Narciso re-appears, followed by Fiorilla in disguise, with Geronio in pursuit. Selim confuses the veiled Fiorilla with Zaida and the two women come suddenly face to face. Fiorilla accuses Selim of betrayal. Zaida confronts Fiorilla. Geronio tells his wife to go home. There is a stormy finale. Act 2 At an inn. Selim approaches Geronio amicably, offering to buy Fiorilla. That way Geronio can be rid of his problems and also make some money. Geronio refuses. Selim vows to steal her instead. After they leave, Fiorilla and a group of her friends appear, followed by Zaida. Fiorilla has set up a meeting between them and Selim, so that the Turk will be forced to decide between the two women. In the event he is indecisive, not wishing to lose either of them. Zaida leaves in disgust. Selim and Fiorilla quarrel but are eventually reconciled. As the poet tells Geronio, there is going to be a party. Fiorilla will be there to meet Selim, who will be masked. Geronio should also go - disguised as a Turk! Narciso overhears this, he will take advantage of the situation to take Fiorilla himself, in revenge for her former indifference. Geronio laments his destiny, that he should have such a terrible, crazy wife. Albazar passes by holding a costume - for Zaida! The scene changes to a ballroom with masqueraders and dancers. Fiorilla mistakes Narciso for Selim and Narciso leads her away. Meanwhile Selim enters with Zaida, under the impression that she is Fiorilla. Geronio is in utter despair at finding two couples and two Fiorillas! Narciso and Selim both entreat their partners to leave with them. Confused and angry, Geronio attempts to stop both couples, but they eventually escape. Back at the inn, the poet meets Geronio. They now know that Selim was with Zaida and guess that Fiorilla was with Narciso. Albazar confirms that Selim will definitely stay with Zaida. The poet advises Geronio to have his revenge on Fiorilla by pretending to divorce her and threatening to send her back to her family. Having discovered Narciso's deception, Fiorilla tries to find Selim, but he has already left with Zaida. She returns home only to find the divorce letter and her belongings being removed from the house. She is devastated by shame, and promptly deserted by her friends. Returning again to the beach, Selim and Zaida are about to set sail for Turkey, while Fiorilla is looking for a boat to take her back to her home town. Geronio finds and forgives her. They are affectionately reconciled. Both couples are now reunited and the poet is delighted with his happy ending. [This synopsis by Simon Holledge was first published on Opera japonica http://www.operajaponica.org and appears here by permission.] Turco in Italia Turco in Italia Turco in Italia Turco in Italia

Opera

's Opéra, Paris, opened 1875]] Opera refers to a dramatic art form, originating in Europe, in which the emotional content is conveyed to the audience as much through music, both vocal and instrumental as it is through the lyrics. From the beginning of the form about 1600, there has been contention whether the music is paramount, or the words, a theme that Richard Strauss took up in his final opera, Capriccio (1942). By contrast, in musical theater an actor's dramatic performance is primary, and the music plays a lesser role. Comparable art forms from various parts of the world are usually prefaced with an adjective indicating the region; examples include Chinese opera and Beijing opera. The drama is presented using the primary elements of theatre such as scenery, costumes, and acting. However, the words of the opera, or libretto, are sung rather than spoken. The singers are accompanied by a musical ensemble ranging from a small instrumental ensemble to a full symphonic orchestra. Besides words and music, opera draws from many other art forms. The visual arts, such as painting, are employed to create the visual spectacle on the stage, which is considered an important part of the performance, in the Baroque "English opera" or Restoration spectacular even the dominant aspect of it. Finally, dancing is often part of an opera performance, particularly in France. Singers and the roles they play are classified according to their vocal ranges. A particular singer's classifications change drastically over his or her lifetime, rarely reaching vocal maturity until the third decade, and sometimes not until middle age. Male singers are classified as bass, bass-baritone, baritone, tenor and countertenor. Female singers are classified, as contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano. Each of these classifications has subcategories, such as lyric soprano, coloratura, soubrette, spinto, and dramatic soprano, which associate the singer's voice with the roles most suitable to the vocal timbre and quality and its range, or tessitura. The German Fach system is an especially organized system of classification. Traditional opera consists of two modes of singing: recitative, the dialogue and plot-driving passages often sung in a non-melodic style characteristic of opera, and aria, during which the movement of the plot often pauses, with the music becoming more melodic in character and the singer focusing on one or more topics or emotional affects. Short melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of what is otherwise recitative are also referred to as arioso; in the late 19th century, many composers abolished much of the distinction between recitative and aria, writing opera which is essentially presented in a restlessly melodic arioso style throughout. All types of singing in opera are accompanied by musical instruments, though until the late 18th century generally, and persisting until even later in some regions, recitative was accompanied by only the continuo group (harpsichord and 'cello or bassoon). During the period when composers often used both methods of recitative accompaniment in the same opera, the continuo-only practice was referred to as "secco" (dry) recitative, while orchestral-accompanied recitative was called "accompagnato" or "stromentato." Some genres of opera use spoken dialogue accompanied or unaccompanied by an orchestra rather than recitative. Such dialogue also is the essential feature of melodrama, in its original 19th century sense. Such melodrama grew partly from the practice that seems to have originated in the 16th century of writing incidental music to stage plays, either those already existing or newly composed. The most familiar example of such to most readers will probably be Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream; this work is almost certainly the most frequently performed of the genre in a context separate from its accompanying play, and has been transcribed for nearly all imaginable chamber combinations, as well as concert band. The pit orchestra underscoring the dramatic action in 19th century melodrama survives in today's tradition of film scores, and spectacular films incorporating serious music can be considered the direct heirs of melodrama. Perhaps such film scores can in some sense even be considered both the heirs and the competitors of grand opera.

History

Origins

The word opera means simply "works" in Latin, the plural of opus suggesting that it combines the arts of solo & choral singing, declamation, and dancing in a staged spectacle. The earliest work considered an opera in the currently used sense of the word dates from around 1597. It is Dafne, (now lost) written by Jacopo Peri largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the "Camerata". Significantly Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. In this case, members of the Camerata felt certain that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas had been originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. A later work by Peri, Euridice, dating from 1600, is the first opera score to have survived to the present day. Peri's works, however, did not arise out of a creative vacuum in the area of sung drama. An underlying prerequisite for the creation of opera proper was the practice of monody. Monody is the solo singing/setting of a dramatically conceived melody, designed to express the emotional content of the text it carries, which is accompanied by a relatively simple sequence of chords rather than other polyphonic parts. Italian composers began composing in this style late in the 16th century, and it grew in part from the long-standing practise of performing polyphonic madrigals with one singer accompanied by an instrumental rendition of the other parts, as well as the rising popularity of more popular, more homophonic vocal genres such as the frottola and the villanella. In these latter two genres, the increasing tendency was toward a more homophonic texture, with the top part featuring an elaborate, active melody, and the lower ones (usually these was three-part compositions, as opposed to the four-or-more-part madrigal) a less active supporting structure. From this, it was only a small step to fully-fledged monody. All such works tended to set humanist poetry of a type that attempted to imitate Petrarch and his Trecento followers, another element of the period's tendency toward a desire for restoration of principles it associated with a mixed-up notion of antiquity. The solo madrigal, frottola, villanella and their kin featured prominently in semi-dramatic spectacles that were funded in the last seventy years of the 16th century by the opulent and increasingly secular courts of Italy's city-states. Such spectacles, called intermedi, were usually staged to commemorate significant state events; weddings, military victories, and the like, and alternated in performance with the acts of plays. Like the later opera, an intermedi featured the aforementioned solo singing, but also madrigals performed in their typical multi-voice texture, and dancing accompanied by the present instrumentalists. The intermedi tended not to tell a story as such, although they occasionally did, but nearly always focused on some particular element of human emotion or experience, expressed through mythological allegory. Another popular court entertainment at this time was the "madrigal drama," later also called "madrigal opera" by musicologists familiar with the later genre. This, as can probably be guessed, consisted of a series of madrigals strung together to suggest a dramatic narrative. In addition to opera in Italy, developing concurrently in the late 16th-early 17th centuries were the English masque and the French ballet au court, which were similar to the Italian intermedi in many respects. In both cases, the main difference apart from local musical style was a greater degree of audience (at this time, of course, the audience consisted only of invited nobles and courtiers) participation in the form of staged or processional dances. The English masque also featured a culminating "revel," in which the performers drifted into and cavorted with the audience. Opera was imported into both countries before the middle of the 17th century, where it fused with the local incipient genres. This led to the dominance of ballet in opera of the French tradition, while the thriving English tradition of incidental music, as well as the totalitarian Cromwell regime at mid-century, made it difficult for Italian-style opera to take hold there. In earlier times, music had been part of medieval mystery plays, with the composer of these best-known to modern audiences being Hildegard of Bingen. Whether these are to be regarded as possible progenitors of opera is highly debatable. At the time of their original performance, they were easily regarded as liturgical accretions. Such accretions to the generally prescribed system of chants were quite common, and the liturgical ceremony was itself dramatic to a degree, often featuring elaborate processions, to which the actions associated with liturgical drama may have been considered merely a minor addition. A new, 17th century form of religious drama, the oratorio did arise shortly after the advent of opera, though it owes at least as much to the (originally secular) non-dramatic recititive-aria form of the cantata.

Baroque opera

Opera did not remain confined to court audiences for long; in 1637 the idea of a "season" (Carnival) of publicly-attended operas supported by ticket sales emerged in Venice. Influential 17th century composers of opera included Francesco Cavalli and Claudio Monteverdi whose Orfeo (1607) is the earliest opera still performed today. Monteverdi's later Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1640) is also seen as a very important work of early opera. In these early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities, sparking the first of opera's many reform movements, sponsored by Venice's Arcadian Academy (not a physical school, but rather a group of like-minded aristocrats and pedants), but which came to be associated with the poet Pietro Trapassi, called Metastasio, whose librettos helped crystallize so-called opera seria's moralizing tone. Once the Metastasian ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera was reserved for what came to be called opera buffa. Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many librettos had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an "opera-within-an-opera." One reason for this was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly wealthy, but still less cultured than the nobility, to the public opera houses. These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from the commedia dell'arte, (as indeed, such plots had always been) a long-flourishing improvisitory stage tradition of Italy. Just as intermedi had once been performed in-between the acts of stage plays, operas in the new comic genre of "intermezzi", which developed largely in Naples in the 1710s and '20s, were initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria. They became so popular, however, that they were soon being offered as separate productions. Italian opera set the Baroque standard. Italian libretti were the norm, even when a German composer like Handel found himself writing for London audiences. Italian libretti remained dominant in the classical period as well, for example in the operas of Mozart, who wrote in Vienna near the century's close.

Bel canto and Italian nationalism

The bel canto opera movement flourished in the early 19th century and is exemplified by the operas of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Literally "beautiful singing", bel canto opera derives from the Italian stylistic singing school of the same name. Bel canto lines are typically florid and intricate, requiring supreme agility and pitch control. Following the bel canto era, a more direct, forceful style was rapidly popularized by Giuseppe Verdi, beginning with his biblical opera Nabucco. Verdi's writing demanded vocal endurance and strength more than the agility required in bel canto; his works were also more demanding dramatically. Verdi's operas resonated with the growing spirit of Italian nationalism in the post-Napoleonic era, and he quickly became an icon of the nationalist movement (although his own politics were perhaps not quite so radical).

French opera

In rivalry with imported Italian opera productions, a separate French tradition, sung in the French, was founded by Italian Jean-Baptiste Lully. Lully arrived at court as a dancer and companion for young Louis XIV, that he might practice his Latin by conversing with a native speaker. Despite his foreign origin, he established an Academy of Music and monopolized French opera from 1672; this is rendered ironic by the later struggle for supremecy between the French and Italian operatic styles that raged in the former country's press for over a century. Lully's overtures, fluid and disciplined recitatives, danced interludes, divertissements and orchestral entr'actes between scenes, set a pattern that Gluck struggled to "reform" almost a century later. The text was as important as the music: royal propaganda was expressed in elaborate allegories, generally with affirmatory endings. Opera in France has continued to include ballet interludes and feature elaborate scenic machinery. Baroque French opera, elaborated by Rameau, (though Rameau was opposed by many French critics of his own day for altering any of Lully's practises; others, on the other hand, saw him as a champion of French sensibilities against the rising popularity of Italian opera in the country) was in some sense simplified by the reforms associated with Gluck (Alceste and Orfee) in the 1760s. Gluck composed arias and choruses that moved the plot forward, rather than being nearly irrelevant as had by this time become common. Choruses, indeed, were only just now coming back into opera of any style after a long hiatus. While the methods of Gluck were partially derived from those of the more progressive Italians (particularly in comic operas such as Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, which had been influential in France since its performance there in 1752), he also desired to strip opera from some Italian characteristics he considered superfluous and confusing. In this effort, he took many of his cues from such French tendencies as more syllabic text-setting, use of the chorus (which the French had at least kept tepidly alive while it had been almost completely dropped in Italy) and less adherence to the standard da capo aria form. Because Gluck combined Italian and French methods of undermining opera seria, his "reform" can be seen as a (to some degree conscious) uniting of those styles, his response to an ever-continuing controversy. Later in the century and early in the first half of the 18th, French opera was influenced by the bel canto of Rossini and other Italians (though sung in French). This international synthesis of styles leads directly into 19th century French "Grand Opera," the most sophisticated operatic genre of the 19th century until Wagner.

Other Comic Styles

French opera with spoken dialogue is referred to as opéra comique, irrespective of its subject matter. German opera of this type is called Singspiel. Depending on the weight of its subject matter, opera comique shades into operetta, which arose as a wildly popular form of entertainment in the second half of the 19th century. Along with the music-hall potpourri called vaudeville, this gave rise to the 20th century genre of musical comedy, perfected in New York and London between the wars.

Romantic opera and French grand opera

The synthesis of elements that is French grand opéra first appeared in Rossini's Guillaume Tell (1829) and Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable (1831). Grand opera is usually in five acts and includes dance interludes for complete ballet company. While this genre reached its apotheosis in Hector Berlioz's masterpiece Les Troyens, the most famous opera in the French grand opera tradition may be Gounod's Faust, particularly in the United States where it was a favorite at the Met for the better half of the 20th century. By mid-century, opera practically meant Grand Opera; the works of Verdi, supposedly a quintessential Italian composer, owe much to this genre, as do those of Wagner, who was both influenced and made acceptable by the sheer extravagance of scale involved in such productions. The similarly extravagant production, including ballet set pieces, of such Russian works as Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin can probably be traced back to the grand opera tradition as well.

German-language opera

Before the late 18th century, German-language opera was largely a copy of the Italian, although in early-century works of such composers as Reinhard Keiser, the German-speakers achieved a seriousness of tone and grandeur of scale rarely approached in Italy. The above-mentioned singspiel also flourished at this time, being descended from the school dramas with interpolated songs that the students in Lutheran church-schools often produced. Mozart's German Singspiel Die Zauberflöte (1791) stands at the head of a German opera tradition that was developed in the 19th century by Beethoven (who wrote only one, which actually stands more in the French Revolutionary "rescue opera" tradition of Balfe and Gretry), Heinrich Marschner, Weber (composer of the great Der Freischütz, containing elements of both singspiel and melodrama, and a major influence on several Romantic composers) and eventually Wagner. Before Wagner, there had been little all-sung German language opera of any account for several decades. Though very much inspired by the works of Weber, Wagner pioneered a through-composed style, in which recitative and aria blend into one another and are constantly accompanied by the orchestra; this results in a sort of endless melody, which is perpetuated by the avoidance of any clear cadence until moments of great articulation. Wagner also made copious use of the leitmotif (Weber had used a similar device earlier, and was hardly the first to do so; Wagner's, however, are a main building-block of his scores, rather than mere recurring motives), a dramatic device which associates a musical line with each character or idea in the story.

Other national operas

Spain also produced its own distinctive form of opera, known as zarzuela, which had two separate flowerings: one in the 17th century, and another beginning in the mid-19th century. During the 18th century, Italian opera was immensely popular in Spain, supplanting the native form. Just as it was in Spain, Italian opera was highly popular in Russia. In the 19th century, Russian composers also began to write important operas based on nationalist themes, national literature, and folk tales, beginning with Mikhail Glinka (e.g. Ruslan and Lyudmila) and followed by Alexander Borodin (Prince Igor), Modest Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Sadko), and Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Eugene Onegin). These developments mirrored the growth of Russian nationalism across the artistic spectrum, in part as a function of the more general Slavophilism movement. Czech composers also developed a thriving national opera movement of their own in the 19th century. Antonín Dvořák, most famous for Rusalka, wrote 13 operas; Bedřich Smetana wrote eight (The Bartered Bride being the most famous); and Leoš Janáček wrote ten, including Jenůfa, The Cunning Little Vixen, and Katyá Kabanová. The key figure of Hungarian national opera in the 19th century was Ferenc Erkel, mostly dealing with historical themes. Among his most often performed operas are Hunyadi László and Bánk bán.

After Wagner: verismo and modernism

Ferenc Erkel (1923).]] After Wagner, all opera for many decades laboured in his gigantic shadow. Nearly all composers felt they must react or respond to him in some way, and opera in the early 20th century took several paths. One fairly short-lived path was manifested in the sentimental "realistic" melodramas of verismo operas, a style introduced by Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, Ruggiero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and such popular operas of Giacomo Puccini as La Boheme and Tosca. Another reaction to Wagner's mythic medievalizing can be seen in the psychological intensity and social commentary of Richard Strauss (e.g. Salome, Elektra). Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, opera has enjoyed tremendous appeal and has been performed around the world. Despite this, seemingly but a handful of modern operas have joined the standard repertory: Berg's Wozzeck, Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, Glass's Einstein on the Beach and Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites are among these.

Contemporary trends

Sociology of opera

All art forms have a social context, and opera likewise cannot exist in a vacuum. A string quartet exists in manuscript and printed score, and a truly musical person, playing one part, or seated at a keyboard, can hear the intent of the music, but the printed score for an opera must be realized in a production, even a slender one, for its impact. Thus there exists a "sociology of opera", which would be as interesting to general social historians (who are unaware of it, on the whole) as it is to opera buffs. Operas have always been written with a specific audience in mind, whether more aristocratic or more popular, expressing their local prejudices and expectations, and even taking account of the vocal character of certain singers' voices. Operas have also been affected behind the scenes, by opera house politics and sometimes government censors. But, the idea that there is a canon of operas, an opera repertory which is reflected in a "List of famous operas," for example, is a late entry in the sociology of opera. Indeed, for most of opera's history, only new works were acceptable to audiences; an opera house that mounted productions of twenty year-old operas (or certainly any older) would with but few exceptions have been equivalent to a modern movie house showing similarly outdated films.

Development of an opera audience

text is needed here

Development of the idea of "opera repertory"

During the lifetimes of composers up to Meyerbeer there was no "repertory" of operas. Composers like Bellini and Donizetti were expected to come up with fresh material, season after season, even if they had to cannibalize their own works for material that had not been offered to that city's audience. (Compare pastiche). One common strategy was to imitate the work of other composers, especially when such work had achieved considerable success. The idea of an opera repertory originated with Richard Wagner, in his Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. Wikipedia's list of famous operas is a good guide to the standard operatic repertory reflected in contemporary productions and recordings.

Media

See also

list of famous operas
- List of opera houses
- List of notable opera companies
- List of opera composers
- List of opera singers' classifications
- List of movies based on classical operas
- List of operas by Handel
- List of operas by Mozart
- Genres
  - Folk opera
  - Opera seria
  - Opera buffa
  - Operetta
  - Rock opera
  - Operatic pop
  - Rap opera
  - Metal opera
  - Musical theater
  - Singspiel
  - Zarzuela
  - Grand Opera
  - Opéra comique
  - Rescue opera
  - Science-fiction operas
  - Opera electronica
  - Wagnerian rock
- From non-European regions:
  - Chinese opera
  - Beijing opera

Further reading


- DiGaetani, John Louis, An Invitation to the Opera (ISBN 0-385-26339-2)
- Andersen, H. C., Opera and Evil Kings (ISBN 0-325-25779-7)

External links


- [http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html OperaGlass, a resource at Stanford University]
- [http://www.operabase.com/ Operabase.com, a database of current, past and upcoming singers and productions]
- [http://www.musicomh.com/opera/index.htm musicOMH.com, reviewing UK opera productions and recordings] Category:Arts Opera Category:Musical forms ja:オペラ ko:오페라 simple:Opera th:อุปรากร

Gioacchino Rossini

Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 — November 13, 1868) was an Italian musical composer who wrote more than 30 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), and "Guillaume Tell" William Tell (the end of the overture of is popularly known for being the theme song for The Lone Ranger).

Biography

Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro, a small town on the Adriatic coast of Italy. His father Giuseppe was town trumpeter and inspector of slaughterhouses, his mother Anna a singer and baker's daughter. Rossini's parents began his musical training early, and by the age of six he was playing the triangle in his father's band. Rossini's father was sympathetic to the French, and welcomed Napoleon's troops when they arrived in Northern Italy. This became a problem when in 1796, the Austrians restored the old regime. Rossini's father was sent to prison, and his wife took Gioacchino to Bologna, earning her living as lead singer at various theatres of the Romagna region, where she was ultimately joined by her husband. During this time, Gioacchino was frequently left in the care of his aging grandmother, who was unable to effectively control the boy. Gioacchino remained at Bologna in the care of a pork butcher, while his father played the horn in the bands of the theatres at which his mother sang. The boy had three years instruction in the harpsichord from Prinetti of Novara, but Prinetti played the scale with two fingers only, combined his profession of a musician with the business of selling liquor, and fell asleep while he stood, so that he was a fit subject for ridicule by his critical pupil. Gioacchino was taken from Prinetti and apprenticed to a smith. In Angelo Tesei he found a congenial master, and learned to sight-read, to play accompaniments on the pianoforte, and to sing well enough to take solo parts in the church when he was ten years of age. At thirteen he appeared at the theatre of the Commune in Paër’s Camilla — his only public appearance as a singer (1805). He was also a capable horn player in the footsteps of his father. In 1807 the young Rossini was admitted to the counterpoint class of Padre P. S. Mattei, and soon after to that of Cavedagni for the cello at the Conservatorio of Bologna. He learned to play the cello with ease, but the pedantic severity of Mattei's views on counterpoint only served to drive the young composer's views toward a freer school of composition. His insight into orchestral resources is generally ascribed not to the strict compositional rules he learned from Mattei, but to knowledge gained independently while scoring the quartets and symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. At Bologna he was known as "il Tedeschino" on account of his devotion to Mozart. Through the friendly interposition of the Marquis Cavalli, his first opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, was produced at Venice when he was a youth of eighteen. But two years before this he had already received the prize at the Conservatorio of Bologna for his cantata Il piantô d'armonia per la morte d’Orfeo. Between 1810 and 1813, at Bologna, Rome, Venice and Milan, Rossini produced operas of varying success. All memory of these works is eclipsed by the enormous success of his opera Tancredi. The libretto was an arrangement of Voltaire’s tragedy by A. Rossi. Traces of Paër and Paisiello were undeniably present in fragments of the music. But any critical feeling on the part of the public was drowned by appreciation of such melodies as "Mi rivedrai, ti rivèdrô" and "Di tanti palpiti," the former of which became so popular that the Italians would sing it in crowds at the law courts until called upon by the judge to desist. Rossini continued to write operas for Venice and Milan during the next few years, but their reception was tame and in some cases unsatisfactory after the success of Tancredi. In 1815 he retired to his home at Bologna, where Barbaja, the impresario of the Naples theatre, concluded an agreement with him by which he was to take the musical direction of the Teatro San Carlo and the Teatro Del Fondo at Naples, composing for each of them one opera a year. His payment was to be 200 ducats per month; he was also to receive a share of Barbaja's other business, popular gaming-tables, amounting to about 1000 ducats per annum. Some older composers in Naples, notably Zingarelli and Paisiello, were inclined to intrigue against the success of the youthful composer; but all hostility was made futile by the enthusiasm which greeted the court performance of his Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra, in which Isabella Colbran, who subsequently became the composer’s wife, took a leading part. The libretto of this opera by Schmidt was in many of its incidents an anticipation of those presented to the world a few years later in Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth. The opera was the first in which Rossini wrote the ornaments of the airs instead of leaving them to the fancy of the singers, and also the first in which the recitativo secco was replaced by a recitative accompanied by a string quartet. In Il barbiere di Siviglia, produced in the beginning of the next year in Rome, the libretto, a version of Beaumarchais' Barbier de Seville by Sterbini, was the same as that already used by Giovanni Paisiello in his own Barbiere, an opera which had enjoyed European popularity for more than a quarter of a century. Paisiello’s admirers were extremely indignant when the opera was produced, but the opera was so successful that the fame of Paisiello's opera was transferred to his, to which the title of Il barbiere di Siviglia passed as an inalienable heritage. Between 1815 and 1823 Rossini produced twenty operas. Of these Otello formed the climax to his reform of serious opera, and offers a suggestive contrast with the treatment of the same subject at a similar point of artistic development by the composer Giuseppe Verdi. In Rossini’s time the tragic close was so distasteful to the public of Rome that it was necessary to invent a happy conclusion to Otello. Giuseppe Verdi Conditions of stage production in 1817 are illustrated by Rossini’s acceptance of the subject of Cinderella for a libretto only on the condition that the supernatural element should be omitted. The opera La Cenerentola was as successful as Barbiere. The absence of a similar precaution in the construction of his Mosè in Egitto led to disaster in the scene depicting the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, when the defects in stage contrivance always raised a laugh, so that the composer was at length compelled to introduce the chorus "Dal tuo stellato Soglio" to divert attention from the dividing waves. In 1822, four years after the production of this work, Rossini married singer Isabella Colbran. In the same year, he directed his Cenerentola in Vienna, where Zelmira was also performed. After this he returned to Bologna; but an invitation from Prince Metternich to come to Verona and "assist in the general re-establishment of harmony" was too tempting to be refused, and he arrived at the Congress in time for its opening on October 20, 1822. Here he made friends with Chateaubriand and Madame de Lieven. In 1823, at the suggestion of the manager of the King’s Theatre, London, he came to England, being much fêted on his way through Paris. In England he was given a generous welcome, which included an introduction to King George IV and the receipt of £7000 after a residence of five months. In 1824 he became musical director of the Théatre Italien in Paris at a salary of £800 per annum, and when the agreement came to an end he was rewarded with the offices of chief composer to the king and inspector-general of singing in France, to which was attached the same income. The production of his Guillaume Tell in 1829 brought his career as a writer of opera to a close. The libretto was by Etienne Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, but their version was revised by Armand Marrast. The music is remarkable for its freedom from the conventions discovered and utilized by Rossini in his earlier works, and marks a transitional stage in the history of opera. In 1829 he returned to Bologna. His mother had died in 1827, and he was anxious to be with his father. Arrangements for his subsequent return to Paris on a new agreement were upset by the abdication of Charles X and the July Revolution of 1830. Rossini, who had been considering the subject of Faust for a new opera, returned, however, to Paris in the November of that year. Six movements of his Stabat Mater were written in 1832 and the rest in 1839, the year of his father's death. The success of the work bears comparison with his achievements in opera; but his comparative silence during the period from 1832 to his death in 1868 makes his biography appear almost like the narrative of two lives — the life of swift triumph, and the long life of seclusion, of which biographers give us pictures in stories of the composer's cynical wit, his speculations in fish culture, his mask of humility and indifference. His first wife died in 1845, and political disturbances in the Romagna area compelled him to leave Bologna in 1847, the year of his second marriage with Olympe Pelissier, who had sat to Vernet for his picture of "Judith and Holofernes." After living for a time in Florence he settled in Paris in 1855, where his house was a centre of artistic society. He died at his country house at Passy on November 13, 1868 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France. In 1887 his remains were moved to the church of Santa Croce in Florence, where they now rest. He was a foreign associate of the Institute, grand officer of the Legion of Honour, and the recipient of innumerable orders. In his compositions Rossini plagiarized even more freely from himself than from other musicians, and few of his operas are without such admixtures frankly introduced in the form of arias or overtures. A characteristic mannerism in his musical writing earned for him the nickname of "Monsieur Crescendo." Rossini is also well known for some personal qualities, which gave origin to several anecdotes. For example, he was supposed to have composed his best known opera, "Barbiere", in a very short time, because as usual he was late in respecting the delivery date. Some say he did it in seven days; others, like Lodovico Settimo Silvestri, suggest in fourteen. Whatever the precise length, it was in any case very little time for such masterpieces. He worked in his bedroom, wearing his dressing-gown. A friend pointed out that it was undoubtedly funny that he had composed the "Barber" without shaving himself for such a long time. Rossini promptly replied that if he had to get shaved, he would have had to get out of his house, and he therefore would never had completed his opera. Another story of Rossini composing in the comfort of his bed: One day an impresario went visiting him and found him writing music in his bed. Rossini, without even looking at him, begged him to collect a sheet that had fallen from the bed to the floor. When the impresario picked it, Rossini gave him the other sheet he was writing and asked him: "Which one do you think is the better?" "But... they are completely alike..." said the embarrassed impresario. "Well... you know... it was easier for me to write another one than to get off the bed and search and pick the first one and then come back to bed..." Rossini himself was very happy to describe his virtues: here is what he told about his way of composing overtures: :Wait until the evening before opening night. Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity, whether it be the presence of a copyist waiting for your work or the prodding of an impresario tearing his hair. In my time, all the impresarios of Italy were bald at 30. . . . : I wrote the overture of Otello in a small room of the Palazzo Barbaja, where the baldest and rudest of directors had shut me in. : I wrote the overture of the Gazza Ladra the day before the opening night under the roof of the Scala Theatre, where I had been imprisoned by the director and secured by four stagehands. : For the Barbiere, I did better: I did not even compose an overture, I just took one already destined for an opera called Elisabetta. Public was very pleased. His music is associated with the names of the greatest singers in lyrical drama, such as Tamburini, Mario, Rubini, Delle Sedie, Albani, Grisi, Patti and Christina Nilsson. Marietta Alboni was one of his pupils. Shortly after Rossini's death, Giuseppe Verdi suggested that all Italian musicians should assemble a Requiem in honor of the master opera composer and conductor and began the effort by submitting the "Libera me." Until the next year a Requiem for Rossini was compiled; however, this work was never performed at Verdi's lifetime. Helmuth Rilling premiered the complete Messa per Rossini 1988 in Stuttgart.

Works of Gioacchino Rossini

Opera


- La Cambiale di Matrimonio - 1810
- L'equivoco stravagante - 1811
- Demetrio e Polibio - 1812
- L'inganno felice - 1812
- Ciro in Babilonia (or La caduta di Baldassare) - 1812
- La scala di seta - 1812
- La pietra del paragone - 1812
- L'occasione fa il ladro (or Il cambio della valigia) - 1812
- Il Signor Bruschino (or Il figlio per azzardo) - 1813
- Tancredi - 1813
- L'Italiana in Algeri - 1813
- Aureliano in Palmira - 1813
- Il Turco in Italia - 1814
- Sigismondo - 1814
- Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra - 1815
- Torvaldo e Dorliska - 1815
- Almaviva (or L'inutile precauzione or Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)) - 1816
- La gazzetta (or Il matrimonio per concorso) - 1816
- Otello (or Il moro di Venezia) - 1816
- La Cenerentola (Cinderella, or La bontà in trionfo) - 1817
- La gazza ladra - 1817
- Armida - 1817
- Adelaide di Borgogna or Ottone, re d'Italia - 1817
- Mosè in Egitto - 1818
- Adina or Il califfo di Bagdad - 1818
- Ricciardo e Zoraide - 1818
- Ermione - 1819
- Eduardo e Cristina - 1819
- La donna del lago - 1819
- Bianca e Falliero (or Il consiglio dei tre) - 1819
- Maometto secondo - 1820
- Matilde Shabran (Matilde di Shabran, or Bellezza e Cuor di Ferro) - 1821
- Zelmira - 1822
- Semiramide - 1823
- Il viaggio a Reims (or L'albergo del giglio d'oro) - 1825
- Le Siège de Corinthe - 1826 (a revision of Maometto secondo)
- Moïse et Pharaon (or Le passage de la Mer Rouge) - 1827 (a revision of Mosè in Egitto)
- Le Comte Ory - 1828
- Guillaume Tell (William Tell) - 1829

Other works


- Il pianto d'armonia per la morte d’Orfeo
- Petite Messe Solennelle
- Stabat Mater
- Cats Duet (attr.)
- Bassoon concerto
- Messa di Gloria
- Péchés de vieillesse [http://www.rossinigesellschaft.de/data/pdvd.html List and text of the songs on the website of the German Rossini Society]

Media

External links


- [http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=Rossini%2C+Gioacchino&queryType=%40attr+1%3D1 Rossini cylinder recordings], from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
- [http://www.classiccat.net/rossini_g/ The Rossini page at Classic Cat - the free classical music directory] Rossini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gioacchino Rossini, Gioacchino Category:Romanticism ja:ジョアッキーノ・アントニオ・ロッシーニ

Libretto

:Libretto can also refer to a sub-notebook PC manufactured by Toshiba. A libretto is the complete body of words used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass and requiem. The libretto includes the stage directions, the lyrics to the musical numbers, and any spoken passages or pantomime, as applicable. The word libretto is an Italian word which translates literally as "little book." It is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot. The relationship of the librettist (i.e., the writer of a libretto) to the composer in the creation of a musical work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources and the writing techniques employed.

Sources of Plots

Operatic libretti have been adapted from myths and legends, historical events, biographies, plays, poems, short stories, novels, and sometimes even non-literary sources (as with Goyescas, by Enrique Granados, inspired by paintings of Francisco Goya). The librettist Francesco Maria Piave adapted works by Victor Hugo, the Duke of Rivas, and others. Many other libretti do not derive from a pre-existing work, as with the libretti Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote for Richard Strauss. The works of William Shakespeare have inspired many composers, including Purcell, Gounod, Verdi and Britten. Goethe's Faust also spawned a large number of opera adaptations. Pushkin's works have provided the source for many Russian operas. Perhaps more rare is to have an existing work of musical drama inspire other hands to write another one. Such is the case with Bizet's opera Carmen, which was refashioned as an African-American musical (with dialogue) Carmen Jones by Oscar Hammerstein II. Goethe himself wrote a libretto for a projected sequel to Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. Naturally it is easier to work with a source for a new libretto if the source is in the public domain, but even with the new work, of course, both the music and the text can be copyrighted.

Relationship of Composer and Librettist

Libretti for operas, oratorios, and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio (1698–1782) (real name Pietro Trapassi) was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe. His libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th century librettist was Lorenzo da Ponte, who wrote the libretto for three of Mozart's greatest operas. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer (with whom he had a lasting collaboration), Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers' duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a large number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet and Georges Bizet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, composed two operas of his own. The libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers, such as Mikhail Glinka, Aleksander Serov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini, and Mascagni wrote passages of music without text and subsequently had the librettist add words to the vocal melody lines. (This has often been the case with American popular song and musicals in the 20th century, as with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's collaboration, although with the later team of Rodgers and Hammerstein the lyrics were generally written first.) Some composers wrote their own libretti. Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck. Sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer; this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Bel'sky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, and the "book" (i.e., the spoken dialogue and the stage directions) may each have their own author. Thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer (Jerry Bock), a lyricist (Sheldon Harnick), and the writer of the "book" (Joseph Stein). Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. There are the preliminary steps of selecting or suggesting a subject and developing a sketch of the action in the form of a scenario, as well as revisions that might come about when the work is in production, as with out-of-town tryouts for Broadway musicals, or changes made for a specific local audience. A famous case of the latter is Wagner's 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris.

Musical Requirements

As different musical traditions developed over time in different places, libretti were sometimes subjected to changes because of local requirements of performance practice. For example, an 18th-century Italian comic opera like Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona was to be sung all the way through in Italy, but in France the recitatives had to be converted into spoken dialogue.

Literary Characteristics

The opera libretto from its inception (ca. 1600) was written in verse, and this continued well into the 19th century, although genres of musical theater with spoken dialogue have typically alternated verse in the musical numbers with spoken prose. Since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti.

Language and Translation

As the originating language of opera, Italian dominated that genre in Europe (except in France) well through the 18th century, and even into the next century in Russia, for example, when the Italian opera troupe in Saint Petersburg was challenged by the emerging native Russian repertory. Significant exceptions before 1800 can be found in Purcell's works, German opera of Hamburg during the Baroque, ballad opera and Singspiel of the 18th century, etc. Just as with literature and song, the libretto has its share of problems and challenges with translation. In the past (and even today), foreign musical stage works with spoken dialogue, especially comedies, were sometimes performed with the sung portions in the original language and the spoken dialogue in the vernacular. Availability of printed or projected translations today makes singing in the original language more practical, although one cannot discount the desire to hear a sung drama in one's own language.

Status of Librettists and the Libretto

Many writers of libretti have been sadly overlooked today in the receipt of credit for their work. Certainly some still are recognized as part of famous collaborations, as with Gilbert and Sullivan. Often in the 17th and 18th centuries the librettist was considered equal to or more important than the composer; this state of affairs was emphasized by the the fact that libretti were more easily printed then, and the music was left in manuscript or even lost. However, today the composer (past or present) of the musical score to an opera or operetta is usually given top billing for the completed work, and the writer of the lyrics relegated to second place or a mere footnote. In some cases, the operatic adaptation has become more famous than the literary text on which it was based, as with Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck. On the other hand, the affiliation of a poor libretto to great music has sometimes given the libretto's author a kind of accidental immortality. Certainly it is common for works of classical music to be admired in spite of, rather than because of, their libretti. The question of which is more important in opera -- the music or the words -- has been debated over time, and forms the basis of -- of all things -- an opera, specifically Strauss's last, Capriccio.

External links


- [http://opera.stanford.edu/iu/librettim.html Public-Domain Opera Libretti and Other Vocal Texts] Category:Opera Category:Operetta Category:Musical theatre
- ja:リブレット

Felice Romani

Felice Romani (1788 - 1865) 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 in Genoa, Romani went to study in Pisa where he said to have "studied law to please his family and literature to please himself." He later joined the faculty of the University of Genoa and, while there, translated French literature. With a colleague, he prepared at six-volume dictionary of mythology and antiquities, including the Celtic history in Italy. Romani's expertise in French and antiquity is reflected in the libretti he wrote; the majority are based on French literature and many, such as Norma, use mythological sources. Romani travelled widely in Spain, Greece, Germany and France. In 1814, he established himself in Milan, where he became friends with important figures in the literary and musical world. 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. As a rule, Romani did not create his own stories; he kept up with what was happening in the Paris theatre and adapted plays which were popular there, but this wasn't always a safe strategy, given the vague intellectual property rights legislation of the time. In one case, Romani prepared a libretto based on the play "Lucrezia Borgia" by Victor Hugo for the opera Lucrezia Borgia by Donizetti, but when it was staged in Paris in 1840, Hugo obtained an injunction against further productions. The libretto was then rewritten and retitled La Rinegata, with the Italian characters changed to Turks. Romani wrote the librettos for Bellini's Il Pirata, La Straniera, Zaira, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, La Sonnambula, Norma and Beatrice di Tenda, for Rossini's Il Turco in Italia, and Donizetti's Anna Bolena and L'elisir d'amore (which he adapted from Eugene Scribe's Le philtre). He also wrote a libretto (originally for composer Adalbert Gyrowetz) that Verdi used for his early comedy Un Giorno di regno. Romani was considered an ideal match for Bellini, who is quoted as having said: "Give me good verses and I will give you good music". Dramatic, even extravagant "situations" expressed in verses "designed to portray the passions in the liveliest manner" was what Bellini was looking for in a libretto, according to a letter to Florimo, August 4, 1834, and he found them in Romani. But the two 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 premiere. 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. He retained the post, with a break 1849 - 1854, until his death. A volume of his lyric poems was published in 1841. Romani, Felice Romani, Felice Romani, Felice Romani, Felice

1788

1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 1 - First edition of The Times, previously The Daily Universal Register, was published.
- January 2 - Georgia ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 4th U.S. state.
- January 9 - Connecticut ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 5th U.S. state.
- January 18 - Captain Arthur Phillip's ship arrives at Botany Bay
- January 26 - Captain Arthur Phillip decides to make the permanent settlement at Sydney Cove
- January 22 - Cyrus Griffin becomes the tenth and last President of the United States in Congress Assembled.
- January 26 - Australia Day: 11 ships of First Fleet from Botany Bay led by Arthur Phillip land in what would become Sydney, Australia.Great Britain establishes the prison colony of New South Wales, the first permanent European settlement on the continent.
- January 31 - Henry Benedict Stuart becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles IX and the figurehead of Jacobitism.
- February 1 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the steamboat.
- February 6 - Massachusetts ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 6th U.S. state.
- February 9 - Austria enters the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792 and attacks Moldavia.
- March 14 - The Edinburgh Evening Courant carries a notice of £200 reward for capture of William Brodie, town councilor doubling as a burglar
- March 21 - A fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans leaving most of the town in ruins and twenty five percent of the population dead.
- April 28 - Maryland ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 7th U.S. state.
- May 23 - South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 8th U.S. state.
- June 21 - New Hampshire ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 9th U.S. state.
- June 25 - Virginia ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 10th U.S. state.
- July 26 - New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th U.S. state.
- August 8 - The French king agreed to convene the Estates-General meeting in May of 1789. It was the first time since 1614.
- August 27 - Trial of William Brodie begins in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is sentenced to death by hanging
- October 1 - William Brodie hanged
- December 14 - King Charles III of Spain dies and is succeeded by his son Charles IV of Spain.
- "Battle" of Karansebes - Forces of Joseph II of Austria marching against Turks rout for nothing in Karansebes

Births


- January 22 - George Gordon, Lord Byron, English poet (d. 1824)
- February 5 - Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
- February 22 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
- March 10 - Joseph von Eichendorff, German poet (d. 1857)
- April 14 - David G. Burnet, President of the Republic of Texas (d, 1870)
- May 16 - Friedrich Rückert, German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages (d. 1866)
- September 22 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author (d. 1841)
- October 11 - Simon Sechter, Austrian music teacher
- October 24 - Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (d. 1879)

Deaths


- January 14 - François Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasetilly, comte de Grasse, French admiral (b. 1722)
- January 31 - Charles Edward Stuart, claimant to the British throne (b. 1720)
- February 18 - John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist (b. 1713)
- February 21 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- February 28 - Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (b. 1725)
- April 12 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (b. 1719)
- April 15 - Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (b. 1711)
- April 16 - Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French naturalist (b. 1707)
- May 8 - Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-born physician and naturalist (b. 1723)
- June 18 - Adam Gib, Scottish religious leader (b. 1714)
- August 2 - Thomas Gainsborough, British painter (b. 1727)
- October 13 - Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent, Irish politician and poet (b. 1702)
- December 6 - Jonathan Shipley, English bishop and politician (b. 1714)
- December 14 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (b. 1714)
- December 14 - King Charles III of Spain (b. 1716)
- December 22 - Percivall Pott, English surgeon (b. 1714) Category:1788 ko:1788년 ms:1788 simple:1788

Milan

:This is about the Italian city of Milan. For other uses, see Milan (disambiguation). Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese dialect: Milán) is the main city in northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed region in Italy. The city proper has about 1.3 million inhabitants (2004), but the population including the surrounding metropolitan area is about 4 million. Milan's name has for many centuries been recorded as Mailand, which is still the German name of the city today. It comes from the Celtic Mid-lan (meaning "in the middle of the plain") and was known as Mediolanum by the Romans. Its province lies in the western part of Lombardy; it covers an area of 1,982 km2 and has a population of 3,707,210 (2001 census); in 1991, the population was 3,738,685. The province comprises 188 communes, ranging in population (2001) from Milan Municipality (1,256,211) to Nosate (638); the city of Milan has lost 113,084 inhabitants (8.3 percent), from 1991 to 2001. The town is famous for fashion firms and shops (via Montenapoleone) and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele on the Piazza Duomo, reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall. Milan is one of the world capitals of fashion, like New York City, Paris, London and Rome, and design. Another famed product of the city is the traditional Christmas sweet cake called Panettone. Milan is also famous for the Alfa Romeo and its silk production.

History

It is presumed Milan was originally founded by the Celts of Northern Italy around 600 BC and was conquered around 222 BC by the Romans, who gave it the name of Mediolanum. In the 4th century A.D., at the time of the bishop Saint Ambrose and emperor Theodosius I, the city was briefly the capital of the Western Roman Empire. At that time Milan was the second largest city in Europe, with more than 300,000 inhabitants. In the 11th century, after the Ostrogothic and Lombard periods, the city regained its importance and led other Italian cities in gaining semi-independence from the Holy Roman Empire. During the Plague of 1349 Milan was one of the few places in Europe that was untouched by the epidemic, but it was deeply affected by the plagues of 1402 (50,000 deaths), 1542 (80,000), 1576 (17,000) and 1629 (also known as Great Plague of Milan, 70,000 deaths). During the Renaissance Milan was ruled by dukes of the Visconti and Sforza families, who had artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Bramante at their service. After trying to conquer the rest of northern Italy in the 15th century, Milan was conquered by France, and then by Spain, in the early 16th century. In the 18th century Austria replaced Spain as Milan's overlord, but the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars saw the city annexed into the French satellite states of the Cisalpine Republic, which later became the Kingdom of Italy. After this period, Milan was part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, under Austrian rule. Milan eventually became one of the main centers of Italian nationalism, claiming independence and the unification of Italy. In 1859 (after the second of the Wars of Italian Independence) Austrian rule was ended by the Kingdom of Sardinia (which transformed into the kingdom of Italy in 1861). As a critical industrial center of Italy, Milan was target of continuous carpet bombing during World War II. The city was bombed even after Pietro Badoglio surrendered to the allied forces in 1943. In fact Milan was part of Mussolini's puppet state Italian Social Republic and an important command centre of the German Army stationed in Italy. When war in Italy was finally over, April 25 1945, Milan was heavily damaged and entire neighborhoods like Precotto and Turro were destroyed. After the war the city was reconstructed and has again become an important financial and industrial centre of Italy. See also: Rulers of Milan.

Demographics

Milan is a very diverse city, because it is the second largest city in Italy but it is probably the most industrial centre in the country. Many of the immigrants are from Asian and North African nations. A small percentage comes from Latin America. The city is 91% Italian, and the remaining groups include Egyptian, Filipino, Sri Lankan, Chinese, and Albanian.

Economy

Milan is the centre of many financial businesses, and its hinterland is an avant-garde industrial area. [http://www.fieramilano.com/ Fiera Milano], the city's Exhibition Center and Trade Fair complex is one of the most important in the world. The new fairground, in the north-western suburb of Pero and Rho (opened in April 2005) is Europe's largest open construction project and makes Fiera Milano the largest trade fair complex in the world. Milan was included in a list of ten "Alpha world cities" by Peter J. Taylor and Robert E. Lang of the Brookings Institution in the economic report "'U.S. Cities in the 'World City Network'" ([http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20050222_worldcities.htm Key Findings], [http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/metro/pubs/20050222_worldcities.pdf Full Report]).

Famous Businesses of Milan


- Giorgio Armani
- Dolce & Gabbana
- Prada
- Gianni Versace
- Pirelli
- Telecom Italia
- Fiera Milano
- Alemagna
- Alfa Romeo
- Motta
- Mediaset
- Bugatti
- Corriere della Sera/RCS
- Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore
- Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
- ENI
- Ferrovie Nord Milano
- Banca Intesa
- Mediobanca
- Aermacchi

Architecture & Places

Principal churches


- Duomo (Milan cathedral)
- Sant'Alessandro
- Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio
- Santa Maria delle Grazie (with Leonardo's "Last Supper")
- San Babila
- San Bernardino alle Ossa
- Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio
- Basilica di San Lorenzo Santa Maria delle Grazie
- San Marco
- Santuario di Santa Maria dei Miracoli
- Santa Maria del Carmine
- Basilica di San Nazaro Maggiore
- Santa Maria presso San Satiro
- San Sebastiano
- San Simpliciano
- Santo Stefano Maggiore

Famous monuments


- Alessandro Manzoni in Piazza San Fedele
- Colonne di San Lorenzo
- Disc of Pomodoro
- Fontana del Piermarini in Piazza Fontana
- Mazzini's monument in Piazza della Repubblica
- Monumento Cinque Giornate
- Napoleone of Canova in Brera
- Statua di Oldrado da Trasseno del Palazzo della Ragione
- San Carlo Borromeo in Piazza Borromeo
- Leonardo's monument in Piazza della Scala
- Roman amphitheatre (scant remains)
- Archi di Porta Nuova
- Leonardo da Vinci's Horse Statue at Hippodrome
- "The Needle and the Yarn" in Piazza Cadorna

Notable architecture


- Duomo Duomo
- Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle)
- Ca' Granda (University of Milan)
- Palazzo della Ragione
- Palazzo Reale
- Teatro alla Scala
- Central Station (the biggest Italian station)
- Palazzo Serbelloni
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
- Velasca Tower
- Pirelli Tower (seat of Lombardy Region and the highest italian skyscraper)
- New Milan Fair Complex of M. Fuksas (in Rho-Pero)

Culture & Art

Pirelli Tower Milan is one of the most important centres in the world for Opera lirica, with its famous Teatro alla Scala (La Scala, theatre). The Biblioteca Ambrosiana contains drawings and notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci among its vast holdings of books, manuscripts and drawings and is one of the main repositories of European culture. The city is also the home of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. In the church Santa Maria delle Grazie can be found one of the most famous paintings of Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper (it: "Cenacolo"). Milan is well known for is its enormous graffiti problem. It is internationally regarded as having one of the worst problems in Europe, mainly caused by the city's local youth. It is layered in many parts of the towns and has made its impact throughout the city. This is believed to be caused by Milan's anti-graffiti laws, which Milan residents largely regard as a joke.

Museums & Exhibitions


- Pinacoteca di Brera
- Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
- Galleria d'Arte Moderna
- Triennale di Milano
- Castello Sforzesco
- Museo Egizio
- Museo Poldi Pezzoli
- Museo della Preistoria e Protostoria
- Museo d’Arte Antica
- Palazzo Reale
- Museo Teatro alla Scala
- Padiglione di Arte Contemporanea
- Museo di Storia Naturale
- Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica "Leonardo da Vinci"
- Galleria Vinciana
- Museo Bagatti Valsecchi
- Museo degli Strumenti Musicali
- Museo delle Arti Decorative
- Museo Archeologico
- Museo di Milano
- Museo di Storia Contemporanea
- Museo del Risorgimento

Theaters


- Teatro alla Scala
- Arcimboldi
- Piccolo teatro
- Teatro Lirico
- Teatro Carcano
- CRT - Teatro dell'Arte
- Manzoni
- Ventaglio Nazionale
- Nuovo
- Nuovo Piccolo Teatro
- Piccolo Teatro di Milano
- San Babila
- Smeraldo
- Ciak
- Della 14a
- Filodrammatici
- Litta
- Olmetto
- Out Off
- L'Elfo
- Porta Romana
- Franco Parenti
- Teatro Studio
- Verdi

Universities


- Politecnico di Milano
- Università Statale
- Università Statale Milano-Bicocca
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
- Università Bocconi
- Scuola Superiore di Direzione Aziendale - Bocconi
- Università I.U.L.M.
- Università C.Cattaneo L.I.U.C.
- Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele
- L.U.C. Beato Angelico
- Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera
- Conservatorio Superiore "G. Verdi" di Milano
- Istituto Europeo di Design
- I.S.E.F.

Transportation

Airports

The city has a large international airport known as Malpensa International Airport (MXP), located in Varese, Italy and connected at the downtown with the railway service called "Malpensa Express" (from Cadorna Station). Milan has also the Linate Airport (LIN) within the city limits (for european-national traffic) and connected with BUS line 73 (from S. Babila).

Subways, tramways, and buses

Linate Airport Linate Airport Milan has 3 subway lines (M1 - red, M2 - green, M3 - yellow) and the system, called Milan Metro - "M", runs for more than 80 km. There is also a light metro-service called "Metrò S. Raffaele", that connects the S. Raffaele Hospital with the Cascina Gobba station (M2). Extensions of line 1, 2 and 3 are under construction, giving more than 15 km of track with 10 new stations. Line 5 is also under construction and will be finished in the first half of 2008. Line 4 (link with downtown and Linate Airport) and 6 are in planning stages. Milan also has one of the most extensive tramway systems in the world, with more than 286 km of tracks and 20 lines connecting Greater Milan. There are 93 bus lines covering over 1,070 km amongst them. The local transportation authority (ATM) transported more than 600 million passengers in 2003 .

National Railway

Milan is one of the most important railway hubs of Italy, and the 5 major stations of Milan are among Italy's busiest:
- Milano Centrale (passenger station - the second italian station)
- Milano P.ta Garibaldi (passenger station)
- Milano Lambrate (passenger station)
- Milano Rogoredo (passenger station)
- Milano Greco (passenger station)
- Milano San Cristoforo (passenger and cargo station)
- Milano Porta Romana (passenger and cargo station)
- Milano Certosa (passenger station)
- Milano Smistamento/Scalo Farini (cargo-trains). Three new stations for passenger service are under construction:
- Milano Romolo
- Milano Tibaldi
- Milano/Rho Fiera High speed train lines are under contruction all across Italy, and in the next 3 years new lines will be opened from Milan to Rome and Naples and from Milan to Torino. The stations for the TAV (Treni ad Alta Velocità - High Speed Trains) will be:
- Milano Rogoredo (for the south)
- Milano Certosa and Milano/Rho Fiera (for the West) The line from Milan to Venice and then to Trieste is partially under construction. At the end of the work the station for the TAV from Milan to the East will be:
- Milano Pioltello

Regional-Metropolitan Railway services

The Suburban Railway Service (called "S" Lines, a service similar to the French RER and German S-Bahn), composed of 8 suburban lines (10 scheduled for 2008), connects the "Greater Milan" and other cities, like Como or Varese. The Regional Railway Service (called "R"), instead, links Milan with the rest of Lombardy and with the national railway system. The "Passante ferroviario" is an underground railway serving a couple of "S" lines and is very much like another subway line (and is even marked as such on subway maps), except that it is connected to the FNME and Trenitalia suburban networks.

Taxis

Milan has an efficient Taxi service, operated by private companies and licensed by the City of Milan (Comune di Milano). All taxis are the same color: white. Prices are based on time elapsed and distance traveled.

Sports

Football is the most important sport in Italy, and Milan is home of 2 world-famous football teams: A.C. Milan and Internazionale. Milan is the only city in Europe where teams have won both the Champions European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. Both teams play at Giuseppe Meazza - San Siro Stadium (85,700). Many of the strongest Italian players of Football were born in Milano or in the nerby Metropolitan Area: Valentino Mazzola, Renzo De Vecchi, Paolo Maldini, Giuseppe Meazza, Giacinto Facchetti, Gianni Rivera, Paolo Rossi, Luigi Riva, Gaetano Scirea, Giuseppe Bergomi, Walter Zenga, Antonio Cabrini, Roberto Donadoni, Gianluca Vialli, Silvio Piola, Virginio Rosetta, Giampiero Boniperti, Giuseppe Dossena, Gabriele Oriali, Giuseppe Signori, Ugo Locatelli, Giampiero Marini, Aristide Guarneri, Paolino Pulici, Marcello Lippi, Giovanni Trapattoni, Franco e Giuseppe Baresi, Luigi Cevenini, Virgilio e Giuseppe Fossati, Giovanni Ferrari... ----
- The famous Monza Formula One circuit is located in the suburbs. It one of the world's oldest car racing circuits, and one of the most famous. The capacity for the F1 races is around 137,000 people.
- Olimpia Milano is a successful European basketball team that have won 3 European Cups, a World Cup, 3 Winners' Cups, 2 Korac Cups and 25 National Championships. It is the most important Italian team and one of the top 5 in Europe. Olimpia play at Forum (capacity of 14,000 people).
- The Amatory Rugby Club Milano have won 18 National Championships and are the most famous and important Rugby team of Italy.
- Different ice hockey teams from Milan have won 30 National Championships between them. Today the Vipers Milano have won the last 4 national championships, the Alpenliga and several Coppa Italia, and are the leaders of that sport in Italy. They play at the Agora Stadium (capacity 4,500) during the regular season and at the Forum during the playoffs .
- Every year in Milan is played the Bonfiglio Trophy of Tennis for Under 18. It is the most important youth tournament in the world, and is played at the Milan Tennis Club. The Central Court has a capacity of 8000 people. (In the past it has been won by Tacchini, Kodes, Panatta, Barazzutti, Moreno, Borg, Smid, Lendl, Forget, Curier, Ivanisevic, Kafelnikov, Coira) Milan and Lombardy are candidate for the Summer Olympic Games of 2016 (Milan-L