PO VALLEY, EMILIA ROMAGNA , TOSCANA – Travel guide for opera, classical music and culture
A guide for music fans
Visit destinations to classical music and opera art with a historical reference. Learn exciting ideas and background information.
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Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi, a native of Cremona, is one of the “inventors” of modern opera and was the first important composer of this art form and is one of the very great musicians of the classical era.
Cremona
Monteverdi was born in 1567, the son of a surgeon and barber. He received a thorough musical education from the renowned director of the cathedral chapel. However, no compositions have survived from his Cremonese period.
In 1690 he left Cremona for Mantua, where he brought the madrigal to its last flowering and became one of the main bearers of one of the greatest revolutions in music. In his honor the city celebrates every year the Festival Monteverdi.[/sc_fs_faq]
Mantua
Monteverdi came to the court in Mantua at the age of 23, and his stay took on an outstanding significance in music history. The court had a well-funded singers’ society and chapel, and Monteverdi became chapel master in 1601, but he had a powerful conservative opponent in Artusi. Artusi accused Monteverdi’s madrigals of modernism, disregarding the time-honored rules of polyphony, harmony, and instrumentation.
Monteverdi defended his new monodic, text-comprehensible style as Seconda Pratica, while calling the traditional polyphonic, contrapuntal (and text-incomprehensible) style Prima Pratica. This controversy became famous because it signified the gigantic break with polyphony that still dominates our understanding of music today. Monteverdi went even further by contrasting lovely harmonies with dissonances. His operatic language wanted to express people’s feelings; Monteverdi believed that music should make people cry, not discuss. The music should not follow rigid rules, but it should give space to the human condition and express it. One of the most sensational consequences was Monteverdi’s Dissonances, monstrosities that represented extreme states of the soul and triggered fierce polemics at the time (see Lasciatemi morire below).
From his experience with the now monophonic madrigal singing, Monteverdi developed the aria, the centerpiece of the new art form of opera that emerged around the century.Monteverdi probably became acquainted with Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (possibly the first opera ever written) while in Florence with his duke. Prince Francesco Gonzaga commissioned Monteverdi to write an opera. This became Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, which in 1607 was the first work of the new genre of opera that has survived to the present day. The opera became a great success from the very beginning
In Mantua, Monteverdi married Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons but died in 1607 at the age of 18, a fact that deeply shook Monteverdi.
In 1613 Monteverdi left Mantua for Venice because of spending cuts by the court.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF MONTEVERDI
Luciano Pavarotti
A son of Modena
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena in 1935 into a family of modest means. After his education, he worked as a teacher for several years. He inherited his musical talent from his father, who sang as a tenor in his spare time.
After studying in Mantua, he won a competition and was able to make his debut as Rodolfo.
He remained faithful to Modena throughout his life, but led an artist’s life with several locations. After reducing his appearances in later years, he chose Modena again as his center of life, together with his second wife, where he regularly staged the event Pavarotti & friends, among others.
He died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.
With Elton John in Modena (Pavarotti and friends):
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago where he could pursue his favorite pastimes of hunting, driving and composing.
Lucca
Puccini was born in 1858 into a family of musicians. He grew up in Lucca and left it at the age of 22 for his education at the conservatory in Milan. He remained attached to his hometown throughout his life and built two residences outside Lucca (Chiatri and Torre di Lago). He was able to buy back his parents’ house with the money from his first successful opera “Manon Lescaut” and it still belongs to his descendants, who set up a museum in it.
After his success in Milan Puccini came back to Lucca and started an affair with his later wife Elvira, unfortunately she was married to a grocer of the village, the whole thing ended tragically, more about this in the Puccini Biography, Part: “Puccini’s affairs and his Liù”.
Torre del lago
With the small village of Torre del Lago (today Torre del Lago Puccini) and the picturesque tower on the lake, Puccini found the magical place he was looking for to let his creativity flow. He stayed in this place on Lago di Massaciuccoli until 1921. In 1921 he left the place, due to an industrial construction on the lake.
The property was turned into a museum by his granddaughter (who died in 1917), which still fascinates today. Already since 1930 the Puccini Festival takes place on the lake.
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago.
Viareggio
In 1921 Puccini left Torre del lago with a heavy heart because a huge industrial plant was under construction nearby. He moved to nearby Viareggio.
TO THE COMPLETE PUCCINI BIOGRAPHY
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini grew up in this region and spent parts of his adult life here. Unfortunately, he left the region for good in his forties because of a bitter dispute with the Garibaldi supporters.
Pesaro
Rossini is one of the few people who were born on February 29. He was the only child of two musicians, born in a troubled time of the French Revolution. Rossini spent his first 8 years in Pesaro. In 1800 Gioachino left Pesaro with his parents and returned 18 years later as an already famous 26-year-old man for a visit to inaugurate the Teatro.
The city has been intensively cultivating Rossini’s legacy for several decades, and with the Fondazione Rossini, the town has a competent steward of Rossini’s vast heritage.
Lugo
Rossini came to his father’s native town for two years when he was 10 years old. He learned the horn and harpsichord and had a beautiful voice. His uncle wanted to choose him as a castrato, but Gioachino was grateful to his mother all his life for sparing her son from the operation.
He diligently studied Mozart and Haydn in the library of an acquaintance and wrote his first works (string quartets) in Lugo at the age of 12. Two years later they moved to Bologna.
Bologna
Rossini was 12 years old when his family came to Bologna. His father, a supporter of the Revolution, came here to escape the Papal State and to give their only child a good musical education. Gioachino went on to study at what is now the Conservatorio. At 18 he had to earn money and left Bologna for Venice, where he wrote his first serious work (“La cambiale del matrimonio”).
Throughout his life, Rossini kept various houses in Bologna and lived there intermittently.
In 1822, he married the famous mezzo-soprano Isabela Colbran in Bologna (see below). They kept houses in the city (a plaque on the Strada Maggiore still commemorates it) and in the countryside.
With the assumption of responsibility for the Théâtre lyrique, the two had moved to Paris. After the end of her singing career, Colbran became erratic and addicted to gambling. In 1829 Rossini brought his wife back to Bologna, where she would henceforth live with Rossini’s parents. In letters Rossini’s father complained several times to his son, who lived in Paris, about Isabelle’s diva-like behavior, but Gioachino had already become estranged from her and separated from Colbran, who was 7 years older. He saw her only very sporadically. In 1845 she died and found her resting place in Bologna in the monumental Certosa cemetery.
Rossini met the courtesan Olympe Pélissier in Paris, but spent time and again in Bologna, as he had taken an office in Bologna in 1836 that brought him back occasionally. The highlight was the performance of his Stabat Mater, conducted by Gaetano Donizetti, but after Colbran’s death Rossini left Bologna for good, this time in anger. He was accused by some people of not supporting the Risorgimento, which infuriated him. Rossini was rather an apolitical person and it was rumored that his second wife had been a bad influence on him. A friend was able to convince him to write a freedom anthem, which was then played in the Piazza Maggiore. This was the end of the last Bolognese chapter in Rossini’s life.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi remained attached to his homeland throughout his life and stayed close to Bussetto despite the ugly hostility because of his concubinage with Giuseppina Strepponi.
Le Roncole
Verdi grew up in the hamlet of Le Roncole outside Busseto. He was educated in Busseto, where he was encouraged at an early age by his future father-in-law, Barezzi.
Bussetto
He went to school in Busseto and stayed there for a few years because he was rejected at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 23 he married the daughter of his patron Antonio Barezzi and at 25 he left his native land with his wife Margherita, but only 2 years later disaster struck him when illness and childbirth took his wife and two small children. After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of nand at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata.
After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of Nabucco and at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata where he spent the rest of his life.
Sant’Agata
A few kilometers outside Bussetto lies the stately Sant’Agata estate, originally a farm, converted by Verdi into a residence. He bought the land in 1848 and gradually extended it, with the aim of retiring there at the age of 60. He lived there from 1851 until the end of his life in 1901 with his wife Giuseppina and composed many of his works. He was protected there from the hostility of his compatriots (see the excursus on Traviata below) and appreciated life as a “peasant,” as he called himself.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE VERDI BIOGRAPHY
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi, a native of Cremona, is one of the “inventors” of modern opera and was the first important composer of this art form and is one of the very great musicians of the classical era.
Cremona
Monteverdi was born in 1567, the son of a surgeon and barber. He received a thorough musical education from the renowned director of the cathedral chapel. However, no compositions have survived from his Cremonese period.
In 1690 he left Cremona for Mantua, where he brought the madrigal to its last flowering and became one of the main bearers of one of the greatest revolutions in music. In his honor the city celebrates every year the Festival Monteverdi.[/sc_fs_faq]
Mantua
Monteverdi came to the court in Mantua at the age of 23, and his stay took on an outstanding significance in music history. The court had a well-funded singers’ society and chapel, and Monteverdi became chapel master in 1601, but he had a powerful conservative opponent in Artusi. Artusi accused Monteverdi’s madrigals of modernism, disregarding the time-honored rules of polyphony, harmony, and instrumentation.
Monteverdi defended his new monodic, text-comprehensible style as Seconda Pratica, while calling the traditional polyphonic, contrapuntal (and text-incomprehensible) style Prima Pratica. This controversy became famous because it signified the gigantic break with polyphony that still dominates our understanding of music today. Monteverdi went even further by contrasting lovely harmonies with dissonances. His operatic language wanted to express people’s feelings; Monteverdi believed that music should make people cry, not discuss. The music should not follow rigid rules, but it should give space to the human condition and express it. One of the most sensational consequences was Monteverdi’s Dissonances, monstrosities that represented extreme states of the soul and triggered fierce polemics at the time (see Lasciatemi morire below).
From his experience with the now monophonic madrigal singing, Monteverdi developed the aria, the centerpiece of the new art form of opera that emerged around the century.Monteverdi probably became acquainted with Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (possibly the first opera ever written) while in Florence with his duke. Prince Francesco Gonzaga commissioned Monteverdi to write an opera. This became Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, which in 1607 was the first work of the new genre of opera that has survived to the present day. The opera became a great success from the very beginning
In Mantua, Monteverdi married Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons but died in 1607 at the age of 18, a fact that deeply shook Monteverdi.
In 1613 Monteverdi left Mantua for Venice because of spending cuts by the court.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF MONTEVERDI
Luciano Pavarotti
A son of Modena
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena in 1935 into a family of modest means. After his education, he worked as a teacher for several years. He inherited his musical talent from his father, who sang as a tenor in his spare time.
After studying in Mantua, he won a competition and was able to make his debut as Rodolfo.
He remained faithful to Modena throughout his life, but led an artist’s life with several locations. After reducing his appearances in later years, he chose Modena again as his center of life, together with his second wife, where he regularly staged the event Pavarotti & friends, among others.
He died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.
With Elton John in Modena (Pavarotti and friends):
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago where he could pursue his favorite pastimes of hunting, driving and composing.
Lucca
Puccini was born in 1858 into a family of musicians. He grew up in Lucca and left it at the age of 22 for his education at the conservatory in Milan. He remained attached to his hometown throughout his life and built two residences outside Lucca (Chiatri and Torre di Lago). He was able to buy back his parents’ house with the money from his first successful opera “Manon Lescaut” and it still belongs to his descendants, who set up a museum in it.
After his success in Milan Puccini came back to Lucca and started an affair with his later wife Elvira, unfortunately she was married to a grocer of the village, the whole thing ended tragically, more about this in the Puccini Biography, Part: “Puccini’s affairs and his Liù”.
Torre del lago
With the small village of Torre del Lago (today Torre del Lago Puccini) and the picturesque tower on the lake, Puccini found the magical place he was looking for to let his creativity flow. He stayed in this place on Lago di Massaciuccoli until 1921. In 1921 he left the place, due to an industrial construction on the lake.
The property was turned into a museum by his granddaughter (who died in 1917), which still fascinates today. Already since 1930 the Puccini Festival takes place on the lake.
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago.
Viareggio
In 1921 Puccini left Torre del lago with a heavy heart because a huge industrial plant was under construction nearby. He moved to nearby Viareggio.
TO THE COMPLETE PUCCINI BIOGRAPHY
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini grew up in this region and spent parts of his adult life here. Unfortunately, he left the region for good in his forties because of a bitter dispute with the Garibaldi supporters.
Pesaro
Rossini is one of the few people who were born on February 29. He was the only child of two musicians, born in a troubled time of the French Revolution. Rossini spent his first 8 years in Pesaro. In 1800 Gioachino left Pesaro with his parents and returned 18 years later as an already famous 26-year-old man for a visit to inaugurate the Teatro.
The city has been intensively cultivating Rossini’s legacy for several decades, and with the Fondazione Rossini, the town has a competent steward of Rossini’s vast heritage.
Lugo
Rossini came to his father’s native town for two years when he was 10 years old. He learned the horn and harpsichord and had a beautiful voice. His uncle wanted to choose him as a castrato, but Gioachino was grateful to his mother all his life for sparing her son from the operation.
He diligently studied Mozart and Haydn in the library of an acquaintance and wrote his first works (string quartets) in Lugo at the age of 12. Two years later they moved to Bologna.
Bologna
Rossini was 12 years old when his family came to Bologna. His father, a supporter of the Revolution, came here to escape the Papal State and to give their only child a good musical education. Gioachino went on to study at what is now the Conservatorio. At 18 he had to earn money and left Bologna for Venice, where he wrote his first serious work (“La cambiale del matrimonio”).
Throughout his life, Rossini kept various houses in Bologna and lived there intermittently.
In 1822, he married the famous mezzo-soprano Isabela Colbran in Bologna (see below). They kept houses in the city (a plaque on the Strada Maggiore still commemorates it) and in the countryside.
With the assumption of responsibility for the Théâtre lyrique, the two had moved to Paris. After the end of her singing career, Colbran became erratic and addicted to gambling. In 1829 Rossini brought his wife back to Bologna, where she would henceforth live with Rossini’s parents. In letters Rossini’s father complained several times to his son, who lived in Paris, about Isabelle’s diva-like behavior, but Gioachino had already become estranged from her and separated from Colbran, who was 7 years older. He saw her only very sporadically. In 1845 she died and found her resting place in Bologna in the monumental Certosa cemetery.
Rossini met the courtesan Olympe Pélissier in Paris, but spent time and again in Bologna, as he had taken an office in Bologna in 1836 that brought him back occasionally. The highlight was the performance of his Stabat Mater, conducted by Gaetano Donizetti, but after Colbran’s death Rossini left Bologna for good, this time in anger. He was accused by some people of not supporting the Risorgimento, which infuriated him. Rossini was rather an apolitical person and it was rumored that his second wife had been a bad influence on him. A friend was able to convince him to write a freedom anthem, which was then played in the Piazza Maggiore. This was the end of the last Bolognese chapter in Rossini’s life.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi remained attached to his homeland throughout his life and stayed close to Bussetto despite the ugly hostility because of his concubinage with Giuseppina Strepponi.
Le Roncole
Verdi grew up in the hamlet of Le Roncole outside Busseto. He was educated in Busseto, where he was encouraged at an early age by his future father-in-law, Barezzi.
Bussetto
He went to school in Busseto and stayed there for a few years because he was rejected at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 23 he married the daughter of his patron Antonio Barezzi and at 25 he left his native land with his wife Margherita, but only 2 years later disaster struck him when illness and childbirth took his wife and two small children. After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of nand at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata.
After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of Nabucco and at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata where he spent the rest of his life.
Sant’Agata
A few kilometers outside Bussetto lies the stately Sant’Agata estate, originally a farm, converted by Verdi into a residence. He bought the land in 1848 and gradually extended it, with the aim of retiring there at the age of 60. He lived there from 1851 until the end of his life in 1901 with his wife Giuseppina and composed many of his works. He was protected there from the hostility of his compatriots (see the excursus on Traviata below) and appreciated life as a “peasant,” as he called himself.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE VERDI BIOGRAPHY
MUSEUMS
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi, a native of Cremona, is one of the “inventors” of modern opera and was the first important composer of this art form and is one of the very great musicians of the classical era.
Cremona
Monteverdi was born in 1567, the son of a surgeon and barber. He received a thorough musical education from the renowned director of the cathedral chapel. However, no compositions have survived from his Cremonese period.
In 1690 he left Cremona for Mantua, where he brought the madrigal to its last flowering and became one of the main bearers of one of the greatest revolutions in music. In his honor the city celebrates every year the Festival Monteverdi.[/sc_fs_faq]
Mantua
Monteverdi came to the court in Mantua at the age of 23, and his stay took on an outstanding significance in music history. The court had a well-funded singers’ society and chapel, and Monteverdi became chapel master in 1601, but he had a powerful conservative opponent in Artusi. Artusi accused Monteverdi’s madrigals of modernism, disregarding the time-honored rules of polyphony, harmony, and instrumentation.
Monteverdi defended his new monodic, text-comprehensible style as Seconda Pratica, while calling the traditional polyphonic, contrapuntal (and text-incomprehensible) style Prima Pratica. This controversy became famous because it signified the gigantic break with polyphony that still dominates our understanding of music today. Monteverdi went even further by contrasting lovely harmonies with dissonances. His operatic language wanted to express people’s feelings; Monteverdi believed that music should make people cry, not discuss. The music should not follow rigid rules, but it should give space to the human condition and express it. One of the most sensational consequences was Monteverdi’s Dissonances, monstrosities that represented extreme states of the soul and triggered fierce polemics at the time (see Lasciatemi morire below).
From his experience with the now monophonic madrigal singing, Monteverdi developed the aria, the centerpiece of the new art form of opera that emerged around the century.Monteverdi probably became acquainted with Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (possibly the first opera ever written) while in Florence with his duke. Prince Francesco Gonzaga commissioned Monteverdi to write an opera. This became Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, which in 1607 was the first work of the new genre of opera that has survived to the present day. The opera became a great success from the very beginning
In Mantua, Monteverdi married Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons but died in 1607 at the age of 18, a fact that deeply shook Monteverdi.
In 1613 Monteverdi left Mantua for Venice because of spending cuts by the court.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF MONTEVERDI
Luciano Pavarotti
A son of Modena
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena in 1935 into a family of modest means. After his education, he worked as a teacher for several years. He inherited his musical talent from his father, who sang as a tenor in his spare time.
After studying in Mantua, he won a competition and was able to make his debut as Rodolfo.
He remained faithful to Modena throughout his life, but led an artist’s life with several locations. After reducing his appearances in later years, he chose Modena again as his center of life, together with his second wife, where he regularly staged the event Pavarotti & friends, among others.
He died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.
With Elton John in Modena (Pavarotti and friends):
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago where he could pursue his favorite pastimes of hunting, driving and composing.
Lucca
Puccini was born in 1858 into a family of musicians. He grew up in Lucca and left it at the age of 22 for his education at the conservatory in Milan. He remained attached to his hometown throughout his life and built two residences outside Lucca (Chiatri and Torre di Lago). He was able to buy back his parents’ house with the money from his first successful opera “Manon Lescaut” and it still belongs to his descendants, who set up a museum in it.
After his success in Milan Puccini came back to Lucca and started an affair with his later wife Elvira, unfortunately she was married to a grocer of the village, the whole thing ended tragically, more about this in the Puccini Biography, Part: “Puccini’s affairs and his Liù”.
Torre del lago
With the small village of Torre del Lago (today Torre del Lago Puccini) and the picturesque tower on the lake, Puccini found the magical place he was looking for to let his creativity flow. He stayed in this place on Lago di Massaciuccoli until 1921. In 1921 he left the place, due to an industrial construction on the lake.
The property was turned into a museum by his granddaughter (who died in 1917), which still fascinates today. Already since 1930 the Puccini Festival takes place on the lake.
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago.
Viareggio
In 1921 Puccini left Torre del lago with a heavy heart because a huge industrial plant was under construction nearby. He moved to nearby Viareggio.
TO THE COMPLETE PUCCINI BIOGRAPHY
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini grew up in this region and spent parts of his adult life here. Unfortunately, he left the region for good in his forties because of a bitter dispute with the Garibaldi supporters.
Pesaro
Rossini is one of the few people who were born on February 29. He was the only child of two musicians, born in a troubled time of the French Revolution. Rossini spent his first 8 years in Pesaro. In 1800 Gioachino left Pesaro with his parents and returned 18 years later as an already famous 26-year-old man for a visit to inaugurate the Teatro.
The city has been intensively cultivating Rossini’s legacy for several decades, and with the Fondazione Rossini, the town has a competent steward of Rossini’s vast heritage.
Lugo
Rossini came to his father’s native town for two years when he was 10 years old. He learned the horn and harpsichord and had a beautiful voice. His uncle wanted to choose him as a castrato, but Gioachino was grateful to his mother all his life for sparing her son from the operation.
He diligently studied Mozart and Haydn in the library of an acquaintance and wrote his first works (string quartets) in Lugo at the age of 12. Two years later they moved to Bologna.
Bologna
Rossini was 12 years old when his family came to Bologna. His father, a supporter of the Revolution, came here to escape the Papal State and to give their only child a good musical education. Gioachino went on to study at what is now the Conservatorio. At 18 he had to earn money and left Bologna for Venice, where he wrote his first serious work (“La cambiale del matrimonio”).
Throughout his life, Rossini kept various houses in Bologna and lived there intermittently.
In 1822, he married the famous mezzo-soprano Isabela Colbran in Bologna (see below). They kept houses in the city (a plaque on the Strada Maggiore still commemorates it) and in the countryside.
With the assumption of responsibility for the Théâtre lyrique, the two had moved to Paris. After the end of her singing career, Colbran became erratic and addicted to gambling. In 1829 Rossini brought his wife back to Bologna, where she would henceforth live with Rossini’s parents. In letters Rossini’s father complained several times to his son, who lived in Paris, about Isabelle’s diva-like behavior, but Gioachino had already become estranged from her and separated from Colbran, who was 7 years older. He saw her only very sporadically. In 1845 she died and found her resting place in Bologna in the monumental Certosa cemetery.
Rossini met the courtesan Olympe Pélissier in Paris, but spent time and again in Bologna, as he had taken an office in Bologna in 1836 that brought him back occasionally. The highlight was the performance of his Stabat Mater, conducted by Gaetano Donizetti, but after Colbran’s death Rossini left Bologna for good, this time in anger. He was accused by some people of not supporting the Risorgimento, which infuriated him. Rossini was rather an apolitical person and it was rumored that his second wife had been a bad influence on him. A friend was able to convince him to write a freedom anthem, which was then played in the Piazza Maggiore. This was the end of the last Bolognese chapter in Rossini’s life.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi remained attached to his homeland throughout his life and stayed close to Bussetto despite the ugly hostility because of his concubinage with Giuseppina Strepponi.
Le Roncole
Verdi grew up in the hamlet of Le Roncole outside Busseto. He was educated in Busseto, where he was encouraged at an early age by his future father-in-law, Barezzi.
Bussetto
He went to school in Busseto and stayed there for a few years because he was rejected at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 23 he married the daughter of his patron Antonio Barezzi and at 25 he left his native land with his wife Margherita, but only 2 years later disaster struck him when illness and childbirth took his wife and two small children. After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of nand at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata.
After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of Nabucco and at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata where he spent the rest of his life.
Sant’Agata
A few kilometers outside Bussetto lies the stately Sant’Agata estate, originally a farm, converted by Verdi into a residence. He bought the land in 1848 and gradually extended it, with the aim of retiring there at the age of 60. He lived there from 1851 until the end of his life in 1901 with his wife Giuseppina and composed many of his works. He was protected there from the hostility of his compatriots (see the excursus on Traviata below) and appreciated life as a “peasant,” as he called himself.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE VERDI BIOGRAPHY
CHURCHES
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi, a native of Cremona, is one of the “inventors” of modern opera and was the first important composer of this art form and is one of the very great musicians of the classical era.
Cremona
Monteverdi was born in 1567, the son of a surgeon and barber. He received a thorough musical education from the renowned director of the cathedral chapel. However, no compositions have survived from his Cremonese period.
In 1690 he left Cremona for Mantua, where he brought the madrigal to its last flowering and became one of the main bearers of one of the greatest revolutions in music. In his honor the city celebrates every year the Festival Monteverdi.[/sc_fs_faq]
Mantua
Monteverdi came to the court in Mantua at the age of 23, and his stay took on an outstanding significance in music history. The court had a well-funded singers’ society and chapel, and Monteverdi became chapel master in 1601, but he had a powerful conservative opponent in Artusi. Artusi accused Monteverdi’s madrigals of modernism, disregarding the time-honored rules of polyphony, harmony, and instrumentation.
Monteverdi defended his new monodic, text-comprehensible style as Seconda Pratica, while calling the traditional polyphonic, contrapuntal (and text-incomprehensible) style Prima Pratica. This controversy became famous because it signified the gigantic break with polyphony that still dominates our understanding of music today. Monteverdi went even further by contrasting lovely harmonies with dissonances. His operatic language wanted to express people’s feelings; Monteverdi believed that music should make people cry, not discuss. The music should not follow rigid rules, but it should give space to the human condition and express it. One of the most sensational consequences was Monteverdi’s Dissonances, monstrosities that represented extreme states of the soul and triggered fierce polemics at the time (see Lasciatemi morire below).
From his experience with the now monophonic madrigal singing, Monteverdi developed the aria, the centerpiece of the new art form of opera that emerged around the century.Monteverdi probably became acquainted with Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (possibly the first opera ever written) while in Florence with his duke. Prince Francesco Gonzaga commissioned Monteverdi to write an opera. This became Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, which in 1607 was the first work of the new genre of opera that has survived to the present day. The opera became a great success from the very beginning
In Mantua, Monteverdi married Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons but died in 1607 at the age of 18, a fact that deeply shook Monteverdi.
In 1613 Monteverdi left Mantua for Venice because of spending cuts by the court.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF MONTEVERDI
Luciano Pavarotti
A son of Modena
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena in 1935 into a family of modest means. After his education, he worked as a teacher for several years. He inherited his musical talent from his father, who sang as a tenor in his spare time.
After studying in Mantua, he won a competition and was able to make his debut as Rodolfo.
He remained faithful to Modena throughout his life, but led an artist’s life with several locations. After reducing his appearances in later years, he chose Modena again as his center of life, together with his second wife, where he regularly staged the event Pavarotti & friends, among others.
He died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.
With Elton John in Modena (Pavarotti and friends):
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago where he could pursue his favorite pastimes of hunting, driving and composing.
Lucca
Puccini was born in 1858 into a family of musicians. He grew up in Lucca and left it at the age of 22 for his education at the conservatory in Milan. He remained attached to his hometown throughout his life and built two residences outside Lucca (Chiatri and Torre di Lago). He was able to buy back his parents’ house with the money from his first successful opera “Manon Lescaut” and it still belongs to his descendants, who set up a museum in it.
After his success in Milan Puccini came back to Lucca and started an affair with his later wife Elvira, unfortunately she was married to a grocer of the village, the whole thing ended tragically, more about this in the Puccini Biography, Part: “Puccini’s affairs and his Liù”.
Torre del lago
With the small village of Torre del Lago (today Torre del Lago Puccini) and the picturesque tower on the lake, Puccini found the magical place he was looking for to let his creativity flow. He stayed in this place on Lago di Massaciuccoli until 1921. In 1921 he left the place, due to an industrial construction on the lake.
The property was turned into a museum by his granddaughter (who died in 1917), which still fascinates today. Already since 1930 the Puccini Festival takes place on the lake.
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago.
Viareggio
In 1921 Puccini left Torre del lago with a heavy heart because a huge industrial plant was under construction nearby. He moved to nearby Viareggio.
TO THE COMPLETE PUCCINI BIOGRAPHY
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini grew up in this region and spent parts of his adult life here. Unfortunately, he left the region for good in his forties because of a bitter dispute with the Garibaldi supporters.
Pesaro
Rossini is one of the few people who were born on February 29. He was the only child of two musicians, born in a troubled time of the French Revolution. Rossini spent his first 8 years in Pesaro. In 1800 Gioachino left Pesaro with his parents and returned 18 years later as an already famous 26-year-old man for a visit to inaugurate the Teatro.
The city has been intensively cultivating Rossini’s legacy for several decades, and with the Fondazione Rossini, the town has a competent steward of Rossini’s vast heritage.
Lugo
Rossini came to his father’s native town for two years when he was 10 years old. He learned the horn and harpsichord and had a beautiful voice. His uncle wanted to choose him as a castrato, but Gioachino was grateful to his mother all his life for sparing her son from the operation.
He diligently studied Mozart and Haydn in the library of an acquaintance and wrote his first works (string quartets) in Lugo at the age of 12. Two years later they moved to Bologna.
Bologna
Rossini was 12 years old when his family came to Bologna. His father, a supporter of the Revolution, came here to escape the Papal State and to give their only child a good musical education. Gioachino went on to study at what is now the Conservatorio. At 18 he had to earn money and left Bologna for Venice, where he wrote his first serious work (“La cambiale del matrimonio”).
Throughout his life, Rossini kept various houses in Bologna and lived there intermittently.
In 1822, he married the famous mezzo-soprano Isabela Colbran in Bologna (see below). They kept houses in the city (a plaque on the Strada Maggiore still commemorates it) and in the countryside.
With the assumption of responsibility for the Théâtre lyrique, the two had moved to Paris. After the end of her singing career, Colbran became erratic and addicted to gambling. In 1829 Rossini brought his wife back to Bologna, where she would henceforth live with Rossini’s parents. In letters Rossini’s father complained several times to his son, who lived in Paris, about Isabelle’s diva-like behavior, but Gioachino had already become estranged from her and separated from Colbran, who was 7 years older. He saw her only very sporadically. In 1845 she died and found her resting place in Bologna in the monumental Certosa cemetery.
Rossini met the courtesan Olympe Pélissier in Paris, but spent time and again in Bologna, as he had taken an office in Bologna in 1836 that brought him back occasionally. The highlight was the performance of his Stabat Mater, conducted by Gaetano Donizetti, but after Colbran’s death Rossini left Bologna for good, this time in anger. He was accused by some people of not supporting the Risorgimento, which infuriated him. Rossini was rather an apolitical person and it was rumored that his second wife had been a bad influence on him. A friend was able to convince him to write a freedom anthem, which was then played in the Piazza Maggiore. This was the end of the last Bolognese chapter in Rossini’s life.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi remained attached to his homeland throughout his life and stayed close to Bussetto despite the ugly hostility because of his concubinage with Giuseppina Strepponi.
Le Roncole
Verdi grew up in the hamlet of Le Roncole outside Busseto. He was educated in Busseto, where he was encouraged at an early age by his future father-in-law, Barezzi.
Bussetto
He went to school in Busseto and stayed there for a few years because he was rejected at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 23 he married the daughter of his patron Antonio Barezzi and at 25 he left his native land with his wife Margherita, but only 2 years later disaster struck him when illness and childbirth took his wife and two small children. After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of nand at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata.
After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of Nabucco and at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata where he spent the rest of his life.
Sant’Agata
A few kilometers outside Bussetto lies the stately Sant’Agata estate, originally a farm, converted by Verdi into a residence. He bought the land in 1848 and gradually extended it, with the aim of retiring there at the age of 60. He lived there from 1851 until the end of his life in 1901 with his wife Giuseppina and composed many of his works. He was protected there from the hostility of his compatriots (see the excursus on Traviata below) and appreciated life as a “peasant,” as he called himself.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE VERDI BIOGRAPHY
MONUMENTS
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi, a native of Cremona, is one of the “inventors” of modern opera and was the first important composer of this art form and is one of the very great musicians of the classical era.
Cremona
Monteverdi was born in 1567, the son of a surgeon and barber. He received a thorough musical education from the renowned director of the cathedral chapel. However, no compositions have survived from his Cremonese period.
In 1690 he left Cremona for Mantua, where he brought the madrigal to its last flowering and became one of the main bearers of one of the greatest revolutions in music. In his honor the city celebrates every year the Festival Monteverdi.[/sc_fs_faq]
Mantua
Monteverdi came to the court in Mantua at the age of 23, and his stay took on an outstanding significance in music history. The court had a well-funded singers’ society and chapel, and Monteverdi became chapel master in 1601, but he had a powerful conservative opponent in Artusi. Artusi accused Monteverdi’s madrigals of modernism, disregarding the time-honored rules of polyphony, harmony, and instrumentation.
Monteverdi defended his new monodic, text-comprehensible style as Seconda Pratica, while calling the traditional polyphonic, contrapuntal (and text-incomprehensible) style Prima Pratica. This controversy became famous because it signified the gigantic break with polyphony that still dominates our understanding of music today. Monteverdi went even further by contrasting lovely harmonies with dissonances. His operatic language wanted to express people’s feelings; Monteverdi believed that music should make people cry, not discuss. The music should not follow rigid rules, but it should give space to the human condition and express it. One of the most sensational consequences was Monteverdi’s Dissonances, monstrosities that represented extreme states of the soul and triggered fierce polemics at the time (see Lasciatemi morire below).
From his experience with the now monophonic madrigal singing, Monteverdi developed the aria, the centerpiece of the new art form of opera that emerged around the century.Monteverdi probably became acquainted with Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (possibly the first opera ever written) while in Florence with his duke. Prince Francesco Gonzaga commissioned Monteverdi to write an opera. This became Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, which in 1607 was the first work of the new genre of opera that has survived to the present day. The opera became a great success from the very beginning
In Mantua, Monteverdi married Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons but died in 1607 at the age of 18, a fact that deeply shook Monteverdi.
In 1613 Monteverdi left Mantua for Venice because of spending cuts by the court.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF MONTEVERDI
Luciano Pavarotti
A son of Modena
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena in 1935 into a family of modest means. After his education, he worked as a teacher for several years. He inherited his musical talent from his father, who sang as a tenor in his spare time.
After studying in Mantua, he won a competition and was able to make his debut as Rodolfo.
He remained faithful to Modena throughout his life, but led an artist’s life with several locations. After reducing his appearances in later years, he chose Modena again as his center of life, together with his second wife, where he regularly staged the event Pavarotti & friends, among others.
He died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.
With Elton John in Modena (Pavarotti and friends):
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago where he could pursue his favorite pastimes of hunting, driving and composing.
Lucca
Puccini was born in 1858 into a family of musicians. He grew up in Lucca and left it at the age of 22 for his education at the conservatory in Milan. He remained attached to his hometown throughout his life and built two residences outside Lucca (Chiatri and Torre di Lago). He was able to buy back his parents’ house with the money from his first successful opera “Manon Lescaut” and it still belongs to his descendants, who set up a museum in it.
After his success in Milan Puccini came back to Lucca and started an affair with his later wife Elvira, unfortunately she was married to a grocer of the village, the whole thing ended tragically, more about this in the Puccini Biography, Part: “Puccini’s affairs and his Liù”.
Torre del lago
With the small village of Torre del Lago (today Torre del Lago Puccini) and the picturesque tower on the lake, Puccini found the magical place he was looking for to let his creativity flow. He stayed in this place on Lago di Massaciuccoli until 1921. In 1921 he left the place, due to an industrial construction on the lake.
The property was turned into a museum by his granddaughter (who died in 1917), which still fascinates today. Already since 1930 the Puccini Festival takes place on the lake.
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago.
Viareggio
In 1921 Puccini left Torre del lago with a heavy heart because a huge industrial plant was under construction nearby. He moved to nearby Viareggio.
TO THE COMPLETE PUCCINI BIOGRAPHY
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini grew up in this region and spent parts of his adult life here. Unfortunately, he left the region for good in his forties because of a bitter dispute with the Garibaldi supporters.
Pesaro
Rossini is one of the few people who were born on February 29. He was the only child of two musicians, born in a troubled time of the French Revolution. Rossini spent his first 8 years in Pesaro. In 1800 Gioachino left Pesaro with his parents and returned 18 years later as an already famous 26-year-old man for a visit to inaugurate the Teatro.
The city has been intensively cultivating Rossini’s legacy for several decades, and with the Fondazione Rossini, the town has a competent steward of Rossini’s vast heritage.
Lugo
Rossini came to his father’s native town for two years when he was 10 years old. He learned the horn and harpsichord and had a beautiful voice. His uncle wanted to choose him as a castrato, but Gioachino was grateful to his mother all his life for sparing her son from the operation.
He diligently studied Mozart and Haydn in the library of an acquaintance and wrote his first works (string quartets) in Lugo at the age of 12. Two years later they moved to Bologna.
Bologna
Rossini was 12 years old when his family came to Bologna. His father, a supporter of the Revolution, came here to escape the Papal State and to give their only child a good musical education. Gioachino went on to study at what is now the Conservatorio. At 18 he had to earn money and left Bologna for Venice, where he wrote his first serious work (“La cambiale del matrimonio”).
Throughout his life, Rossini kept various houses in Bologna and lived there intermittently.
In 1822, he married the famous mezzo-soprano Isabela Colbran in Bologna (see below). They kept houses in the city (a plaque on the Strada Maggiore still commemorates it) and in the countryside.
With the assumption of responsibility for the Théâtre lyrique, the two had moved to Paris. After the end of her singing career, Colbran became erratic and addicted to gambling. In 1829 Rossini brought his wife back to Bologna, where she would henceforth live with Rossini’s parents. In letters Rossini’s father complained several times to his son, who lived in Paris, about Isabelle’s diva-like behavior, but Gioachino had already become estranged from her and separated from Colbran, who was 7 years older. He saw her only very sporadically. In 1845 she died and found her resting place in Bologna in the monumental Certosa cemetery.
Rossini met the courtesan Olympe Pélissier in Paris, but spent time and again in Bologna, as he had taken an office in Bologna in 1836 that brought him back occasionally. The highlight was the performance of his Stabat Mater, conducted by Gaetano Donizetti, but after Colbran’s death Rossini left Bologna for good, this time in anger. He was accused by some people of not supporting the Risorgimento, which infuriated him. Rossini was rather an apolitical person and it was rumored that his second wife had been a bad influence on him. A friend was able to convince him to write a freedom anthem, which was then played in the Piazza Maggiore. This was the end of the last Bolognese chapter in Rossini’s life.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi remained attached to his homeland throughout his life and stayed close to Bussetto despite the ugly hostility because of his concubinage with Giuseppina Strepponi.
Le Roncole
Verdi grew up in the hamlet of Le Roncole outside Busseto. He was educated in Busseto, where he was encouraged at an early age by his future father-in-law, Barezzi.
Bussetto
He went to school in Busseto and stayed there for a few years because he was rejected at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 23 he married the daughter of his patron Antonio Barezzi and at 25 he left his native land with his wife Margherita, but only 2 years later disaster struck him when illness and childbirth took his wife and two small children. After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of nand at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata.
After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of Nabucco and at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata where he spent the rest of his life.
Sant’Agata
A few kilometers outside Bussetto lies the stately Sant’Agata estate, originally a farm, converted by Verdi into a residence. He bought the land in 1848 and gradually extended it, with the aim of retiring there at the age of 60. He lived there from 1851 until the end of his life in 1901 with his wife Giuseppina and composed many of his works. He was protected there from the hostility of his compatriots (see the excursus on Traviata below) and appreciated life as a “peasant,” as he called himself.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE VERDI BIOGRAPHY
PALAZZI AND OTHER BUILDINGS
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi, a native of Cremona, is one of the “inventors” of modern opera and was the first important composer of this art form and is one of the very great musicians of the classical era.
Cremona
Monteverdi was born in 1567, the son of a surgeon and barber. He received a thorough musical education from the renowned director of the cathedral chapel. However, no compositions have survived from his Cremonese period.
In 1690 he left Cremona for Mantua, where he brought the madrigal to its last flowering and became one of the main bearers of one of the greatest revolutions in music. In his honor the city celebrates every year the Festival Monteverdi.[/sc_fs_faq]
Mantua
Monteverdi came to the court in Mantua at the age of 23, and his stay took on an outstanding significance in music history. The court had a well-funded singers’ society and chapel, and Monteverdi became chapel master in 1601, but he had a powerful conservative opponent in Artusi. Artusi accused Monteverdi’s madrigals of modernism, disregarding the time-honored rules of polyphony, harmony, and instrumentation.
Monteverdi defended his new monodic, text-comprehensible style as Seconda Pratica, while calling the traditional polyphonic, contrapuntal (and text-incomprehensible) style Prima Pratica. This controversy became famous because it signified the gigantic break with polyphony that still dominates our understanding of music today. Monteverdi went even further by contrasting lovely harmonies with dissonances. His operatic language wanted to express people’s feelings; Monteverdi believed that music should make people cry, not discuss. The music should not follow rigid rules, but it should give space to the human condition and express it. One of the most sensational consequences was Monteverdi’s Dissonances, monstrosities that represented extreme states of the soul and triggered fierce polemics at the time (see Lasciatemi morire below).
From his experience with the now monophonic madrigal singing, Monteverdi developed the aria, the centerpiece of the new art form of opera that emerged around the century.Monteverdi probably became acquainted with Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (possibly the first opera ever written) while in Florence with his duke. Prince Francesco Gonzaga commissioned Monteverdi to write an opera. This became Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, which in 1607 was the first work of the new genre of opera that has survived to the present day. The opera became a great success from the very beginning
In Mantua, Monteverdi married Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons but died in 1607 at the age of 18, a fact that deeply shook Monteverdi.
In 1613 Monteverdi left Mantua for Venice because of spending cuts by the court.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF MONTEVERDI
Luciano Pavarotti
A son of Modena
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena in 1935 into a family of modest means. After his education, he worked as a teacher for several years. He inherited his musical talent from his father, who sang as a tenor in his spare time.
After studying in Mantua, he won a competition and was able to make his debut as Rodolfo.
He remained faithful to Modena throughout his life, but led an artist’s life with several locations. After reducing his appearances in later years, he chose Modena again as his center of life, together with his second wife, where he regularly staged the event Pavarotti & friends, among others.
He died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.
With Elton John in Modena (Pavarotti and friends):
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago where he could pursue his favorite pastimes of hunting, driving and composing.
Lucca
Puccini was born in 1858 into a family of musicians. He grew up in Lucca and left it at the age of 22 for his education at the conservatory in Milan. He remained attached to his hometown throughout his life and built two residences outside Lucca (Chiatri and Torre di Lago). He was able to buy back his parents’ house with the money from his first successful opera “Manon Lescaut” and it still belongs to his descendants, who set up a museum in it.
After his success in Milan Puccini came back to Lucca and started an affair with his later wife Elvira, unfortunately she was married to a grocer of the village, the whole thing ended tragically, more about this in the Puccini Biography, Part: “Puccini’s affairs and his Liù”.
Torre del lago
With the small village of Torre del Lago (today Torre del Lago Puccini) and the picturesque tower on the lake, Puccini found the magical place he was looking for to let his creativity flow. He stayed in this place on Lago di Massaciuccoli until 1921. In 1921 he left the place, due to an industrial construction on the lake.
The property was turned into a museum by his granddaughter (who died in 1917), which still fascinates today. Already since 1930 the Puccini Festival takes place on the lake.
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago.
Viareggio
In 1921 Puccini left Torre del lago with a heavy heart because a huge industrial plant was under construction nearby. He moved to nearby Viareggio.
TO THE COMPLETE PUCCINI BIOGRAPHY
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini grew up in this region and spent parts of his adult life here. Unfortunately, he left the region for good in his forties because of a bitter dispute with the Garibaldi supporters.
Pesaro
Rossini is one of the few people who were born on February 29. He was the only child of two musicians, born in a troubled time of the French Revolution. Rossini spent his first 8 years in Pesaro. In 1800 Gioachino left Pesaro with his parents and returned 18 years later as an already famous 26-year-old man for a visit to inaugurate the Teatro.
The city has been intensively cultivating Rossini’s legacy for several decades, and with the Fondazione Rossini, the town has a competent steward of Rossini’s vast heritage.
Lugo
Rossini came to his father’s native town for two years when he was 10 years old. He learned the horn and harpsichord and had a beautiful voice. His uncle wanted to choose him as a castrato, but Gioachino was grateful to his mother all his life for sparing her son from the operation.
He diligently studied Mozart and Haydn in the library of an acquaintance and wrote his first works (string quartets) in Lugo at the age of 12. Two years later they moved to Bologna.
Bologna
Rossini was 12 years old when his family came to Bologna. His father, a supporter of the Revolution, came here to escape the Papal State and to give their only child a good musical education. Gioachino went on to study at what is now the Conservatorio. At 18 he had to earn money and left Bologna for Venice, where he wrote his first serious work (“La cambiale del matrimonio”).
Throughout his life, Rossini kept various houses in Bologna and lived there intermittently.
In 1822, he married the famous mezzo-soprano Isabela Colbran in Bologna (see below). They kept houses in the city (a plaque on the Strada Maggiore still commemorates it) and in the countryside.
With the assumption of responsibility for the Théâtre lyrique, the two had moved to Paris. After the end of her singing career, Colbran became erratic and addicted to gambling. In 1829 Rossini brought his wife back to Bologna, where she would henceforth live with Rossini’s parents. In letters Rossini’s father complained several times to his son, who lived in Paris, about Isabelle’s diva-like behavior, but Gioachino had already become estranged from her and separated from Colbran, who was 7 years older. He saw her only very sporadically. In 1845 she died and found her resting place in Bologna in the monumental Certosa cemetery.
Rossini met the courtesan Olympe Pélissier in Paris, but spent time and again in Bologna, as he had taken an office in Bologna in 1836 that brought him back occasionally. The highlight was the performance of his Stabat Mater, conducted by Gaetano Donizetti, but after Colbran’s death Rossini left Bologna for good, this time in anger. He was accused by some people of not supporting the Risorgimento, which infuriated him. Rossini was rather an apolitical person and it was rumored that his second wife had been a bad influence on him. A friend was able to convince him to write a freedom anthem, which was then played in the Piazza Maggiore. This was the end of the last Bolognese chapter in Rossini’s life.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi remained attached to his homeland throughout his life and stayed close to Bussetto despite the ugly hostility because of his concubinage with Giuseppina Strepponi.
Le Roncole
Verdi grew up in the hamlet of Le Roncole outside Busseto. He was educated in Busseto, where he was encouraged at an early age by his future father-in-law, Barezzi.
Bussetto
He went to school in Busseto and stayed there for a few years because he was rejected at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 23 he married the daughter of his patron Antonio Barezzi and at 25 he left his native land with his wife Margherita, but only 2 years later disaster struck him when illness and childbirth took his wife and two small children. After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of nand at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata.
After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of Nabucco and at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata where he spent the rest of his life.
Sant’Agata
A few kilometers outside Bussetto lies the stately Sant’Agata estate, originally a farm, converted by Verdi into a residence. He bought the land in 1848 and gradually extended it, with the aim of retiring there at the age of 60. He lived there from 1851 until the end of his life in 1901 with his wife Giuseppina and composed many of his works. He was protected there from the hostility of his compatriots (see the excursus on Traviata below) and appreciated life as a “peasant,” as he called himself.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE VERDI BIOGRAPHY
TOMBS AND GRAVES OF FAMOUS MUSICIANS
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi, a native of Cremona, is one of the “inventors” of modern opera and was the first important composer of this art form and is one of the very great musicians of the classical era.
Cremona
Monteverdi was born in 1567, the son of a surgeon and barber. He received a thorough musical education from the renowned director of the cathedral chapel. However, no compositions have survived from his Cremonese period.
In 1690 he left Cremona for Mantua, where he brought the madrigal to its last flowering and became one of the main bearers of one of the greatest revolutions in music. In his honor the city celebrates every year the Festival Monteverdi.[/sc_fs_faq]
Mantua
Monteverdi came to the court in Mantua at the age of 23, and his stay took on an outstanding significance in music history. The court had a well-funded singers’ society and chapel, and Monteverdi became chapel master in 1601, but he had a powerful conservative opponent in Artusi. Artusi accused Monteverdi’s madrigals of modernism, disregarding the time-honored rules of polyphony, harmony, and instrumentation.
Monteverdi defended his new monodic, text-comprehensible style as Seconda Pratica, while calling the traditional polyphonic, contrapuntal (and text-incomprehensible) style Prima Pratica. This controversy became famous because it signified the gigantic break with polyphony that still dominates our understanding of music today. Monteverdi went even further by contrasting lovely harmonies with dissonances. His operatic language wanted to express people’s feelings; Monteverdi believed that music should make people cry, not discuss. The music should not follow rigid rules, but it should give space to the human condition and express it. One of the most sensational consequences was Monteverdi’s Dissonances, monstrosities that represented extreme states of the soul and triggered fierce polemics at the time (see Lasciatemi morire below).
From his experience with the now monophonic madrigal singing, Monteverdi developed the aria, the centerpiece of the new art form of opera that emerged around the century.Monteverdi probably became acquainted with Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (possibly the first opera ever written) while in Florence with his duke. Prince Francesco Gonzaga commissioned Monteverdi to write an opera. This became Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, which in 1607 was the first work of the new genre of opera that has survived to the present day. The opera became a great success from the very beginning
In Mantua, Monteverdi married Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons but died in 1607 at the age of 18, a fact that deeply shook Monteverdi.
In 1613 Monteverdi left Mantua for Venice because of spending cuts by the court.
TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF MONTEVERDI
Luciano Pavarotti
A son of Modena
Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena in 1935 into a family of modest means. After his education, he worked as a teacher for several years. He inherited his musical talent from his father, who sang as a tenor in his spare time.
After studying in Mantua, he won a competition and was able to make his debut as Rodolfo.
He remained faithful to Modena throughout his life, but led an artist’s life with several locations. After reducing his appearances in later years, he chose Modena again as his center of life, together with his second wife, where he regularly staged the event Pavarotti & friends, among others.
He died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.
With Elton John in Modena (Pavarotti and friends):
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago where he could pursue his favorite pastimes of hunting, driving and composing.
Lucca
Puccini was born in 1858 into a family of musicians. He grew up in Lucca and left it at the age of 22 for his education at the conservatory in Milan. He remained attached to his hometown throughout his life and built two residences outside Lucca (Chiatri and Torre di Lago). He was able to buy back his parents’ house with the money from his first successful opera “Manon Lescaut” and it still belongs to his descendants, who set up a museum in it.
After his success in Milan Puccini came back to Lucca and started an affair with his later wife Elvira, unfortunately she was married to a grocer of the village, the whole thing ended tragically, more about this in the Puccini Biography, Part: “Puccini’s affairs and his Liù”.
Torre del lago
With the small village of Torre del Lago (today Torre del Lago Puccini) and the picturesque tower on the lake, Puccini found the magical place he was looking for to let his creativity flow. He stayed in this place on Lago di Massaciuccoli until 1921. In 1921 he left the place, due to an industrial construction on the lake.
The property was turned into a museum by his granddaughter (who died in 1917), which still fascinates today. Already since 1930 the Puccini Festival takes place on the lake.
Puccini remained connected to his homeland throughout his life. As an adult he found his dream place in Torre del lago.
Viareggio
In 1921 Puccini left Torre del lago with a heavy heart because a huge industrial plant was under construction nearby. He moved to nearby Viareggio.
TO THE COMPLETE PUCCINI BIOGRAPHY
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini grew up in this region and spent parts of his adult life here. Unfortunately, he left the region for good in his forties because of a bitter dispute with the Garibaldi supporters.
Pesaro
Rossini is one of the few people who were born on February 29. He was the only child of two musicians, born in a troubled time of the French Revolution. Rossini spent his first 8 years in Pesaro. In 1800 Gioachino left Pesaro with his parents and returned 18 years later as an already famous 26-year-old man for a visit to inaugurate the Teatro.
The city has been intensively cultivating Rossini’s legacy for several decades, and with the Fondazione Rossini, the town has a competent steward of Rossini’s vast heritage.
Lugo
Rossini came to his father’s native town for two years when he was 10 years old. He learned the horn and harpsichord and had a beautiful voice. His uncle wanted to choose him as a castrato, but Gioachino was grateful to his mother all his life for sparing her son from the operation.
He diligently studied Mozart and Haydn in the library of an acquaintance and wrote his first works (string quartets) in Lugo at the age of 12. Two years later they moved to Bologna.
Bologna
Rossini was 12 years old when his family came to Bologna. His father, a supporter of the Revolution, came here to escape the Papal State and to give their only child a good musical education. Gioachino went on to study at what is now the Conservatorio. At 18 he had to earn money and left Bologna for Venice, where he wrote his first serious work (“La cambiale del matrimonio”).
Throughout his life, Rossini kept various houses in Bologna and lived there intermittently.
In 1822, he married the famous mezzo-soprano Isabela Colbran in Bologna (see below). They kept houses in the city (a plaque on the Strada Maggiore still commemorates it) and in the countryside.
With the assumption of responsibility for the Théâtre lyrique, the two had moved to Paris. After the end of her singing career, Colbran became erratic and addicted to gambling. In 1829 Rossini brought his wife back to Bologna, where she would henceforth live with Rossini’s parents. In letters Rossini’s father complained several times to his son, who lived in Paris, about Isabelle’s diva-like behavior, but Gioachino had already become estranged from her and separated from Colbran, who was 7 years older. He saw her only very sporadically. In 1845 she died and found her resting place in Bologna in the monumental Certosa cemetery.
Rossini met the courtesan Olympe Pélissier in Paris, but spent time and again in Bologna, as he had taken an office in Bologna in 1836 that brought him back occasionally. The highlight was the performance of his Stabat Mater, conducted by Gaetano Donizetti, but after Colbran’s death Rossini left Bologna for good, this time in anger. He was accused by some people of not supporting the Risorgimento, which infuriated him. Rossini was rather an apolitical person and it was rumored that his second wife had been a bad influence on him. A friend was able to convince him to write a freedom anthem, which was then played in the Piazza Maggiore. This was the end of the last Bolognese chapter in Rossini’s life.
TO THE FULL ROSSINI BIOGRAPHY
Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi remained attached to his homeland throughout his life and stayed close to Bussetto despite the ugly hostility because of his concubinage with Giuseppina Strepponi.
Le Roncole
Verdi grew up in the hamlet of Le Roncole outside Busseto. He was educated in Busseto, where he was encouraged at an early age by his future father-in-law, Barezzi.
Bussetto
He went to school in Busseto and stayed there for a few years because he was rejected at the Milan Conservatory. At the age of 23 he married the daughter of his patron Antonio Barezzi and at 25 he left his native land with his wife Margherita, but only 2 years later disaster struck him when illness and childbirth took his wife and two small children. After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of nand at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata.
After a huge crisis Verdi could regain his composure with the triumphant success of Nabucco and at the age of 32 was able to buy a beautiful residence in Busseto (the Palazzo Orlando in today’s Via Roma), but the people of Busseto did not approve of his partner Giuseppina Strepponi at all and thus drove the maestro first to Paris and later to Sant’ Agata where he spent the rest of his life.
Sant’Agata
A few kilometers outside Bussetto lies the stately Sant’Agata estate, originally a farm, converted by Verdi into a residence. He bought the land in 1848 and gradually extended it, with the aim of retiring there at the age of 60. He lived there from 1851 until the end of his life in 1901 with his wife Giuseppina and composed many of his works. He was protected there from the hostility of his compatriots (see the excursus on Traviata below) and appreciated life as a “peasant,” as he called himself.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE VERDI BIOGRAPHY
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