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Amilcare
Ponchielli, born at Paderno Fasolaro, in the province of Cremona on
August 31st 1834, mirrored perfectly the musical panorama of his times,
trending to develop the Italian melodrama, where the personage of G.
Verdi dominated. Once more his parent was of first importance for the
young, indeed "Father Giovanni", besides being the owner of a tobacconist's,
practiced as well as organist in Church and as a primary school teacher.
Hence Amilcare received his first education just from his own father
that taught him both music and school matters. In 1843 he went to the
Milanese Conservatory where in 1883 he would become composition teacher.
Anyhow, his father's lessons had a positive influence over the boy and
more than one critic has found an approach with the musical training
of Giuseppe Verdi.
Both of humble birth and steady students of music, by constancy and
the will to widen their own experiences inside the musical theatre,
had the luck of finding persons that were very close to them and supported
them in a tangible way.
The first Ponchielli's experiences reflect his great musicality, basing
over a deep attention to melody. It's not a case that his father educated
him to the taste for melody and love for singing.
Ponchielli lived in a renovation period of the cultural environment,
linked too to deep changes in music. The dead of Bellini in 1835 and
the slow down of the compositor activity by Donizetti (1843) are elements
leaving space to the theatre production by young compositors. Also the
well-known "Cinque Giornate" of 1848, experienced by the young, enriches
his marked taste for the dramatic that he poured into his compositions.
The first work, unfortunately missed, was the Duetto buffo, played at
the Conservatory by his schoolmates and exactly by Amalia Fumagalli
and Giulio Colombo. A first shy pace toward most important compositions.
His father followed with emotion the performance of the first work of
his son that he directed since childhood toward music. So a deserved
and suffered award. Not everybody knows that Ponchielli, besides being
a very good musician, was also famous for his absent-mindedness and
as all the men of genius, was a victim of this disease ".
This
regard, we can remember some situations that show a very good example
of this aspect: "I rains in torrents. A man well dressed, but sworn
enemy of all that is related with good taste, walks quickly the avenue,
with the umbrella under his arm and hunching his shoulders and in a
"pardessus" mouse colour, flees, as Faldella would have said. His dresses
are drenched with rain, the brims of his top hat forms two eaves gutters.
At a certain point he comes across a friend.
-
Ponchielli, you are drenched to the skin! - Oh, Bye!...I run for dry
dresses. - Why don't' you open your umbrella instead of keeping it close?
-
By God, you are right! (1) or : "At Milan, in the Vittorio Emanuele
Gallery, our absent- minded meets a friend, with whom he starts to talk
and walk. After a full our since they are together, Ponchielli addresses
to his friend and cries: - Oh, good morning! What a miracle finding
you here! - How! It's a lot of time we are here and you notice me just
now? - Excuse me, you know ...I have so many thoughts in mind!" (2).
Nevertheless, besides everything, the author of the "La Gioconda", remains
one of the most interesting and genial creators of the melodrama during
a century affected by the Wagnerian coming.
He
died in Milan in 1886, five years before the death of Verdi. 1. "Le
Distrazioni di Amilcare Ponchielli" di A. Mandelli - Casa Editrice L.
Battistelli 2. A. Mandelli op. cit., pag. 25
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