Sigma Alpha Iota

20 Winter 2026 • sai-national.org 20 Winter 2026 • sai-national.org A Wld of Music By Jayne I. Hanlin It is a fact of music history that nineteenth-century bel canto operas preceded the musico-dramatic works of the verismo era. The operas of Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) form a bridge between these two operatic styles. Preeminent Italian composers of "beautiful singing" operas included Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848), and Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835). Lesser known is Amilcare Ponchielli (1834– 1886), though anyone familiar with Walt Disney's Fantasia has seen ostriches, elephants, hippos, and alligators cavorting to the Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda (The Jovial One), the composer's only opera regularly performed today. Born near Cremona, Italy, Ponchielli composed ten operas. Dis- appointed early on by his opera career, he gained experience as a bandmaster, writing more than two hundred works for wind band, including the first concerto for euphonium. In 1870, he moved to Milan where he worked as an opera conductor and taught composition at the same conservatory where he had studied as a boy. The turning point of his career was the huge success of his first opera, I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), based on the nineteenth- century Italian novel of the same name by Alessandro Manzoni. Soprano Teresina Brambilla, his future wife and mother of his three children, sang the role of Lina. Coincidentally, I stayed at Hotel Promessi Sposi near Lecco, the setting of the novel. I also visited the town of Paderno Ponchielli, renamed in 1950 to honor its native son. Today's museum was formerly the composer's modest residence as well as his father's inn and shop. Although free to enter, I was disappointed information was only in Italian. Even so, it always moves me to be in a composer's former residence. On both floors, I explored memorabilia that included his birth certificate, diploma, 1884 passport, original editions of songs and operas (including an early version of the libretto for I promessi sposi), recordings, lithographic portraits, and table piano. One unusual item stood out: an 1880 tambourine on which was printed part of a musical score. I stood by his large bronze bust for a photograph. Even with my Italian-to-English translation app, the forty-minute visit proved unsatisfying. So I asked my driver to head to Cremona where Above, an 1880 tambourine printed with part of Ponchielli Above, an 1880 tambourine printed with part of Ponchielli musical score. Below, Donizetti's Austrian court clothes musical score. Below, Donizetti's Austrian court clothes he wore in 1842 as Kapellmeister in Vienna. he wore in 1842 as Kapellmeister in Vienna. Visiting Two Bel Canto Museums in Lombardy Visiting Two Bel Canto Museums in Lombardy

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