Verdi and Wagner in early Victorian London : the viewpoint of The Musical World

As early as 1844, Henry Fothergill Chorley, one of the most authoritative figures of Victorian journalism, drew attention to two young composers, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, whose recent success could not escape the critic’s attention.. However, while Verdi’s operas made their regular appearance in London over the decades following Ernani’s premier at Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1845, it was not until 1870 (with L’Olandese Dannato, alias Der Fliegende Holländer) that the first full performance of a dramatic work by Wagner was given in the English capital city. Notwithstanding this disparity, a first glance at the reviews that appeared in The Times, The Musical World, The Athenaeum, The Sunday Times and The Spectator, and that were then reproduced in the columns of The Musical World, shows the extent to which, between 1845 and 1855, both composers became object of severe critical scrutiny. By the mid-1850s Wagner’s figure was conceptualized on the basis of factors that only in part depended on the quality of his music; yet, the manner in which his controversial writings impinged on the Victorian musical milieu benefitted Verdi’s image, who came to be understood as a more reassuring popular composer

Giuseppe Verdi in victorian London

Despite the vast research on Verdi’s compositional as well as dramatic achievements, little attention seems to have been paid to the early reception of his works in Victorian London. A review of such periodicals as The Times, The Musical Times, The Athenaeum has drawn attention to two particular aspects of relevance; Verdi’s first operas impinged upon the model represented by Rossini’s light-spirited melodiousness and provoked a sense of general bewilderment; even when opera-goers began to show clear signs of appreciation and to crowd the theatres where Verdi’s operas were performed, critics continued to object to their value and to ascribe their success to the singers’ new vocal and dramatic skills. Keywords: Verdi; Opera; Reception; Victorian London

Verdi in Victorian London

"Now a byword for beauty, Verdi’s operas were far from universally acclaimed when they reached London in the second half of the nineteenth century. Why did some critics react so harshly? Who were they and what biases and prejudices animated them? When did their antagonistic attitude change? And why did opera managers continue to produce Verdi’s operas, in spite of their alleged worthlessness? Massimo Zicari’s Verdi in Victorian London reconstructs the reception of Verdi’s operas in London from 1844, when a first critical account was published in the pages of The Athenaeum, to 1901, when Verdi’s death received extensive tribute in The Musical Times. In the 1840s, certain London journalists were positively hostile towards the most talked-about representative of Italian opera, only to change their tune in the years to come. The supercilious critic of The Athenaeum, Henry Fothergill Chorley, declared that Verdi’s melodies were worn, hackneyed and meaningless, his harmonies and progressions crude, his orchestration noisy. The scribes of The Times, The Musical World, The Illustrated London News, and The Musical Times all contributed to the critical hubbub. Yet by the 1850s, Victorian critics, however grudging, could neither deny nor ignore the popularity of Verdi’s operas. Over the final three decades of the nineteenth century, moreover, London’s musical milieu underwent changes of great magnitude, shifting the manner in which Verdi was conceptualized and making room for the powerful influence of Wagner. Nostalgic commentators began to lament the sad state of the Land of Song, referring to the now departed ""palmy days of Italian opera."" Zicari charts this entire cultural constellation. Verdi in Victorian London is required reading for both academics and opera aficionados. Music specialists will value a historical reconstruction that stems from a large body of first-hand source material, while Verdi lovers and Italian opera addicts will enjoy vivid analysis free from technical jargon. For students, scholars and plain readers alike, this book is an illuminating addition to the study of music reception.

EVENTI: un’indagine sulla resilienza delle istituzioni musicali della Svizzera italiana in tempi di pandemia

Nel quadro di una più ampia riflessione sulle ragioni della persistente segmentazione del pubblico degli eventi culturali, questo contributo nasce da un progetto strategico di ricerca sostenuto dalla Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI) con il quale si intende indagare come le istituzioni culturali e artistiche attive nella Svizzera italiana stiano affrontando la fase seguita al lock down imposto dalla pandemia di COVID-19. Un team multidisciplinare, in collaborazione con le principali istituzioni culturali attive sul territorio, intende identificare i fattori, le variabili e le soluzioni imposte dalla nuova situazione, allo scopo di mettere a disposizione dei differenti attori strumenti di conoscenza e di lavoro aggiornati. Nella prima fase del progetto, i rappresentanti di cinque enti attivi nella produzione di eventi di musica classica e jazz sono stati intervistati allo scopo di raccogliere informazioni sulla maniera in cui è stato vissuto e gestito il periodo tra la primavera del 2020 e quella del 2021. I primi risultati indicano un paradossale aumento del lavoro organizzativo e degli oneri amministrativi causato dalle procedure per la richiesta di fondi compensativi e dalla necessità di aggiornare costantemente l’offerta. Allo stesso tempo si registra una forte accelerazione nell’uso delle tecnologie digitali e dei social network. Tuttavia, l’ibridazione dei modelli performativi dovuta a questa accelerazione sembra rispondere ad una funzione palliativa, piuttosto che all’esigenza sentita di ridefinire i tradizionali modelli di consumo musicale.Within a broader reflection on the reasons for the persistent segmentation of the audience of cultural events, this contribution stems from a strategic research project supported by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI). The project investigates how cultural and artistic institutions active in Italian-speaking Switzerland have been coping with the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A multidisciplinary team, in collaboration with the main cultural stakeholder in the region, intends to identify the factors, variables and solutions imposed by the new situation, and provide the various actors with up-to-date knowledge and working tools. Representatives of five organisations active in the production of classical and jazz music events were interviewed in order to collect information on how the period between spring 2020 and spring 2021 was experienced and managed. First results indicate a paradoxical increase in organisational work and administrative burdens caused by the procedures for applying for compensatory funds and the need to constantly update the offer. At the same time, there is a strong acceleration in the use of digital technologies and social networks. However, the hybridisation of performance models related to this acceleration seems to respond to a palliative function, rather than to the felt need to redefine traditional patterns of music consumption.Nel quadro di una più ampia riflessione sulle ragioni della persistente segmentazione del pubblico degli eventi culturali, questo contributo nasce da un progetto strategico di ricerca sostenuto dalla Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI) con il quale si intende indagare come le istituzioni culturali e artistiche attive nella Svizzera italiana stiano affrontando la fase seguita al lock down imposto dalla pandemia di COVID-19. Un team multidisciplinare, in collaborazione con le principali istituzioni culturali attive sul territorio, intende identificare i fattori, le variabili e le soluzioni imposte dalla nuova situazione, allo scopo di mettere a disposizione dei differenti attori strumenti di conoscenza e di lavoro aggiornati. Nella prima fase del progetto, i rappresentanti di cinque enti attivi nella produzione di eventi di musica classica e jazz sono stati intervistati allo scopo di raccogliere informazioni sulla maniera in cui è stato vissuto e gestito il periodo tra la primavera del 2020 e quella del 2021. I primi risultati indicano un paradossale aumento del lavoro organizzativo e degli oneri amministrativi causato dalle procedure per la richiesta di fondi compensativi e dalla necessità di aggiornare costantemente l’offerta. Allo stesso tempo si registra una forte accelerazione nell’uso delle tecnologie digitali e dei social network. Tuttavia, l’ibridazione dei modelli performativi dovuta a questa accelerazione sembra rispondere ad una funzione palliativa, piuttosto che all’esigenza sentita di ridefinire i tradizionali modelli di consumo musicale.Nel quadro di una più ampia riflessione sulle ragioni della persistente segmentazione del pubblico degli eventi culturali, questo contributo nasce da un progetto strategico di ricerca sostenuto dalla Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI) con il quale si intende indagare come le istituzioni culturali e artistiche attive nella Svizzera italiana stiano affrontando la fase seguita al lock down imposto dalla pandemia di COVID-19. Un team multidisciplinare, in collaborazione con le principali istituzioni culturali attive sul territorio, intende identificare i fattori, le variabili e le soluzioni imposte dalla nuova situazione, allo scopo di mettere a disposizione dei differenti attori strumenti di conoscenza e di lavoro aggiornati. Nella prima fase del progetto, i rappresentanti di cinque enti attivi nella produzione di eventi di musica classica e jazz sono stati intervistati allo scopo di raccogliere informazioni sulla maniera in cui è stato vissuto e gestito il periodo tra la primavera del 2020 e quella del 2021. I primi risultati indicano un paradossale aumento del lavoro organizzativo e degli oneri amministrativi causato dalle procedure per la richiesta di fondi compensativi e dalla necessità di aggiornare costantemente l’offerta. Allo stesso tempo si registra una forte accelerazione nell’uso delle tecnologie digitali e dei social network. Tuttavia, l’ibridazione dei modelli performativi dovuta a questa accelerazione sembra rispondere ad una funzione palliativa, piuttosto che all’esigenza sentita di ridefinire i tradizionali modelli di consumo musicale

Inter-society consensus for the use of inhaled corticosteroids in infants, children and adolescents with airway diseases

Background: In 2019, a multidisciplinary panel of experts from eight Italian scientific paediatric societies developed a consensus document for the use of inhaled corticosteroids in the management and prevention of the most common paediatric airways disorders. The aim is to provide healthcare providers with a multidisciplinary document including indications useful in the clinical practice. The consensus document was intended to be addressed to paediatricians who work in the Paediatric Divisions, the Primary Care Services and the Emergency Departments, as well as to Residents or PhD students, paediatric nurses and specialists or consultants in paediatric pulmonology, allergy, infectious diseases, and ear, nose, and throat medicine. Methods: Clinical questions identifying Population, Intervention(s), Comparison and Outcome(s) were addressed by methodologists and a general agreement on the topics and the strength of the recommendations (according to the GRADE system) was obtained following the Delphi method. The literature selection included secondary sources such as evidence-based guidelines and systematic reviews and was integrated with primary studies subsequently published. Results: The expert panel provided a number of recommendations on the use of inhaled corticosteroids in preschool wheezing, bronchial asthma, allergic and non-allergic rhinitis, acute and chronic rhinosinusitis, adenoid hypertrophy, laryngitis and laryngospasm. Conclusions: We provided a multidisciplinary update on the current recommendations for the management and prevention of the most common paediatric airways disorders requiring inhaled corticosteroids, in order to share useful indications, identify gaps in knowledge and drive future research

Operationalizing mild cognitive impairment criteria in small vessel disease: The VMCI-Tuscany Study

Introduction Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) prodromic of vascular dementia is expected to have a multidomain profile. Methods In a sample of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) patients, we assessed MCI subtypes distributions according to different operationalization of Winblad criteria and compared the neuroimaging features of single versus multidomain MCI. We applied three MCI diagnostic scenarios in which the cutoffs for objective impairment and the number of considered neuropsychological tests varied. Results Passing from a liberal to more conservative diagnostic scenarios, of 153 patients, 5% were no longer classified as MCI, amnestic multidomain frequency decreased, and nonamnestic single domain increased. Considering neuroimaging features, severe medial temporal lobe atrophy was more frequent in multidomain compared with single domain. Discussion Operationalizing MCI criteria changes the relative frequency of MCI subtypes. Nonamnestic single domain MCI may be a previously nonrecognized type of MCI associated with SVD

17. Aida (1876)

On 4 March 1876, Gye announced that the opera season at Covent Garden would begin on 28 March with Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. As usual, the manager was eager to inform the public that he had secured a true parade of star artists for his establishment; this year, the cast included Adelina Patti, Ernest Nicolini and Francesco Tamagno among others. In addition to a selection of works from the traditional repertoire, a couple of novelties were promised that would not fail to attract the public’s i..

15. The Late 1860s and Wagner’s L’Olandese dannato (1870)

The year 1867 came to an end with a terrible catastrophe striking Her Majesty’s Theatre: on 6 December, a Friday night, the theatre was totally destroyed by a fire the cause of which was not possible to ascertain. By January 1868, a property fund had already been announced and the patrons of the theatre were invited to subscribe in order to raise the money necessary for a speedy reopening, notwithstanding the dramatic financial losses incurred. In February, rumour had it that the two great op..

14. Don Carlos and La forza del destino (1867)

Finally, after five fairly uneventful years, 1867 saw two new operas staged in London that bore the name of the only Italian composer who was able to attract the attention of the international public. On 4 June Don Carlos was performed at Covent Garden and conducted by Michael Costa, while on 22 June La forza del destino was produced at Her Majesty’s Theatre, the conducting duties assumed by Luigi Arditi. News of the Paris premiere, on 11 March, of Verdi’s new grand opera Don Carlos began cir..

Verdi in Victorian London

Now a byword for beauty, Verdi’s operas were far from universally acclaimed when they reached London in the second half of the nineteenth century. Why did some critics react so harshly? Who were they, and what biases and prejudices animated them? When did their antagonistic attitude change? And why did opera managers continue to produce Verdi’s works? Massimo Zicari’s Verdi in Victorian London reconstructs the reception of Verdi’s operas in London from 1844, when a first critical account was published in the pages of The Athenaeum, to 1901, when Verdi’s death received extensive tribute in The Musical Times. In the 1840s, certain journalists were positively hostile. The supercilious critic of The Athenaeum, Henry Fothergill Chorley, declared that Verdi’s melodies were worn, hackneyed and meaningless, his harmonies and progressions crude, his orchestration noisy. The scribes of The Times, The Musical World, The Illustrated London News, and The Musical Times all contributed to the critical hubbub. Over the final three decades of the nineteenth century, however, London’s musical milieu underwent changes of great magnitude, shifting the manner in which Verdi was conceptualised and making room for the powerful influence of Wagner. Nostalgic commentators began to lament the sad state of “the Land of Song,” referring to the now departed “palmy days of Italian opera.” Zicari charts this entire cultural constellation. Verdi in Victorian London is required reading for both academics and opera aficionados. Music specialists will value a historical reconstruction that stems from a large body of first-hand source material, while Verdi lovers and Italian opera addicts will enjoy vivid analysis free from technical jargon. For students, scholars and plain readers alike, this book is an illuminating addition to the study of music reception