Casa di Riposo per Musicisti
Encyclopedia
The Casa di Riposo per Musicisti is a rest home for retired opera singers and musicians in Milan
, northern Italy
, founded by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi
in 1896. The building was designed in the neo-Gothic style
by Italian architect, Camillo Boito
. Both Verdi and his wife, Giuseppina Strepponi
are buried there. A documentary film about life in the Casa di Riposo, Il Bacio di Tosca
(Tosca's Kiss in the US), was made in 1984
by the Swiss director Daniel Schmid.
:
In 1888, Verdi had already built, equipped and managed a hospital in Villanova sull'Arda
, a town bordering the fields of his estate
. The following year, he turned to his next philanthropic project, a home for retired opera singers and musicians who had fallen on hard times. In 1889, he wrote to Giulio Ricordi
that he had acquired a large piece of empty land in Milan outside the Porta Garibaldi on which he planned to build his Casa di Riposo. He then announced his plans publicly in an 1891 interview in the Gazetta musicale di Milano. Construction did not begin until 1896, but in the intervening years Verdi and wife, Giuseppina Strepponi
, met frequently with the architect, Camillo Boito
to plan the project. (Camillo Boito was the brother of Verdi's friend and librettist
, Arrigo Boito
.) He also sought out information on how other hospices for the elderly were run. In 1895, Verdi made provisions in his will to fund the Casa after his death, bequeathing the future royalties from his operas to the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti - Fondazione Giuseppe Verdi. Construction was completed in 1899, but Verdi did not want any residents to move in until after his death.
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, founded by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
in 1896. The building was designed in the neo-Gothic style
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
by Italian architect, Camillo Boito
Camillo Boito
Camillo Boito was an Italian architect and engineer, and a noted art critic, art historian and novelist.-Biography:...
. Both Verdi and his wife, Giuseppina Strepponi
Giuseppina Strepponi
Clelia Maria Josepha Strepponi was a nineteenth century Italian operatic soprano of great renown and the second wife of composer Giuseppe Verdi...
are buried there. A documentary film about life in the Casa di Riposo, Il Bacio di Tosca
Il Bacio di Tosca
Il Bacio di Tosca is a 1984 film directed by Daniel Schmid, a documentary of life in the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti of Milan, the world's first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896...
(Tosca's Kiss in the US), was made in 1984
1984 in film
-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
by the Swiss director Daniel Schmid.
History
In the last years of his life, Verdi wrote to his friend Giulio MonteverdeGiulio Monteverde
Giulio Monteverde was an Italian naturalist sculptor and teacher.-Biography:Monteverde was born in Bistagno, Italy and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He later became a professor there...
:
Of all my works, that which pleases me the most is the Casa that I had built in Milan to shelter elderly singers who have not been favoured by fortune, or who when they were young did not have the virtue of saving their money. Poor and dear companions of my life!"
In 1888, Verdi had already built, equipped and managed a hospital in Villanova sull'Arda
Villanova sull'Arda
Villanova sull'Arda is a comune in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 120 km northwest of Bologna and about 25 km east of Piacenza....
, a town bordering the fields of his estate
Villa Verdi
Villa Verdi is the house that composer Giuseppe Verdi owned from 1848 to the end of his life in 1901. Itis located in the village of Sant'Agata in the commune of Villanova sull'Arda in the Italian province of Piacenza less than two miles from the village of Le Roncole, where he was born in 1813,...
. The following year, he turned to his next philanthropic project, a home for retired opera singers and musicians who had fallen on hard times. In 1889, he wrote to Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi was an Italian editor and musician.-Biography:Ricordi was born in Milan, where he also died....
that he had acquired a large piece of empty land in Milan outside the Porta Garibaldi on which he planned to build his Casa di Riposo. He then announced his plans publicly in an 1891 interview in the Gazetta musicale di Milano. Construction did not begin until 1896, but in the intervening years Verdi and wife, Giuseppina Strepponi
Giuseppina Strepponi
Clelia Maria Josepha Strepponi was a nineteenth century Italian operatic soprano of great renown and the second wife of composer Giuseppe Verdi...
, met frequently with the architect, Camillo Boito
Camillo Boito
Camillo Boito was an Italian architect and engineer, and a noted art critic, art historian and novelist.-Biography:...
to plan the project. (Camillo Boito was the brother of Verdi's friend and librettist
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito , aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele...
.) He also sought out information on how other hospices for the elderly were run. In 1895, Verdi made provisions in his will to fund the Casa after his death, bequeathing the future royalties from his operas to the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti - Fondazione Giuseppe Verdi. Construction was completed in 1899, but Verdi did not want any residents to move in until after his death.
Sources
- Biggi, Maria Ida, "Camillo Boito", in Marrone, Gaetana (ed.), Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies, Volume 1, CRC Press, 2007. ISBN 1579583903
- Cella, Franca and Daolmi, Davide (eds.), La sensibilità sociale di Giuseppe e Giuseppina Verdi: dalle società di mutuo soccorso alla tutela dei musicisti d'oggi, EDT srl, 2002. ISBN 888506521X
- Conati, Marcello, Verdi: Interviste e incontri, EDT srl, 2000. ISBN 8870634906
- Cretella, Chiara, Introduction to Boito, Camillo, Storielle vane, Edizioni Pendragon, 2007. ISBN 8883425197
- Goodman, Walter, Review: Il Bacio di Tosca (1984), New York Times, 24 July 1985
- Lubrani, Mauro, Verdi a Montecatini, Polistampa, 2001
- Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, "Verdi's life, a thematic biography" in Balthazar, Scott Leslie (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Verdi, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 3-14. ISBN 0521635357
- Randel, Don Michael (ed.), "Verdi, Giuseppe", The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 944-946. ISBN 0674372999
- Verdi, Giuseppe and Boito, Arrigo, The Verdi-Boito correspondence (edited by Marcello Conati, Mario Medici and William Weaver, English translation by William Weaver), University of Chicago Press, 1994. ISBN 0226853047