Life
His brief career, from training to his premature passing, is situated entirely within the Romantic period, reaching the threshold of post-unification Realism.
Born in Naples in 1843, Ferdinando Coletti established himself as a talented pianist, appreciated for his brilliant style and virtuoso ease. Having moved to Rome, he performed as a concert performer and executor of his own compositions. The Gazzetta Musicale di Milano reports on a highly applauded concert of his in the Dante hall, during which he presented a Tarantella, Il Salterello, encored due to public favor.
He was the author of numerous character pieces for piano, romanzas, and transcriptions of famous operas, fitting the era's taste for brilliant and sentimental repertoire. He also composed a symphony and vocal pages on contemporary poetic texts. He died prematurely in Rome in 1876, at only 33 years old, leaving behind a memory of a musician gifted with fervent inventiveness.
Aneddoto
The applauded Salterello
In a Roman concert, the audience demanded an encore of his tarantella Il Salterello, which remained one of his most beloved pieces.Works
Among his works for piano are Au bord de la mer op.6, Baci ardenti op.8, Barcarola op.15, Notturno op.17, Ombre celesti op.19, Fantasia on Petrella's opera I promessi sposi op.20, Pompa di corte op.21, Parfum Oriental op.26, and Raffaello e la Fornarina. He published the Sei Illustrazioni (op.33–45) on motifs by Verdi, Usiglio, Wagner, and Gomes. Among the titles are Oh tu che in seno agli angeli, Un bacio rendimi, Ardo per te, Or bene, insano, Senza tetto, senza cuna, and Coro di Pellegrini. He also wrote Rêverie op.60, A rotta di collo! op.61, Notturno op.62, Romanza senza parole op.63, Cavalieri Selvaggi op.64, Valzer a Capriccio op.66, Marcia funebre di Pulcinella op.67, Ronda fantastica op.69, and Spiriti dell’aria op.70, in addition to piano illustrations on Marchetti's opera Ruy Blas, Ricordo di Napoli, Non ti scordar di me, and Mazeppa for 4 hands. He also composed a Symphony, a Serenata Napolitana, and four posthumous romanzas on verses by Enrico Golisciani.
Briciole di storia
A painful choice
On February 3, 1865, Florence officially became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, taking over from Turin. The choice was not painless, as the previous year's announcement of the transfer had provoked violent protests in Turin, bloodily repressed with dozens of deaths. For the Florentines, the arrival of the King and the government meant seeing their city, the cradle of the Renaissance, transformed into a modern European capital. Massive urban works began, such as the demolition of the ancient walls to make room for ring roads, according to the plan of architect Giuseppe Poggi. Florence was meant to be a temporary capital, an intermediate step on the way to Rome, but in those five years, its face changed forever.
Pubblico dominio (Commons)
