Luigi illica biography

• Il vassalo di Szegith (Smareglia, 1884)
• La Wally (Catalani, 1892)
• Cristoforo Colombo (Franchetti, 1892)
• Manon Lescaut (Puccini, 1893)
• Cornelius Schütt (Smareglia, 1893)
• I dispetti amorosi (Luporini, 1894)
• La martire (Samaras, 1894)
• Nozze istriane (Smareglia, 1895)
• La Bohème (Puccini, 1896)
• Andrea Chénier (Giordano, 1896)
• La collana di pasqua (Luporini, 1896)

• Iris (Mascagni, 1898)
• La Colonia Libera (Pietro Floridia, 1899)
• Tosca (Puccini, 1900)
• Anton (Galeotti, 1900)
• Medioevo Latino (Panizza, 1900)
• Le maschere (Mascagni, 1901)
• Il cuore della fanciulla (Buongiorno, 1901)
• Lorenza (Mascheroni, 1901)
• Germania (Franchetti, 1902)
• Nadeya (Cesare Rossi, 1903)
• Siberia (Umberto Giordano; 1903)

• Cassandra (Gnecchi, 1903)
• Madama Butterfly (Puccini, 1904)
• Tess (Erlanger, 1906)
• Aurora (Panizza, 1908)
• Il principe Zilah (Franco Alfano, 1909)
• Hellera (Italo Montemezzi, 1909)
• La Perugina (Edoardo Mascheroni, 1909)
• La Dorise, drama lyrique en trois actes (Galeotti, 1910)
• Isabeau (Mascagni, 1911)
• Judith, musical drama in three acts (Gnecchi, 1914–1952)
• Giove a Pompei (Alberto Franchetti and Umberto Giordano, 1921)

Illica was 22 years old when he moved to Milan, a city that in 1879 was at the dawn of progress: the first illuminated windows in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the first carriages and the first newsboys, in a climate of great intellectual and social ferment. "Unbeknownst to him, Illica was disheveled from an early age, [...] called 'The Bizarre', in the Municipality of Castell'Arquato" - says Schiavi.

After his journalistic apprenticeship in Milan at Corriere della Sera, then directed by Eugenio TorelliViollier, Illica moved to Bologna: there, moved by ideas of struggle against the hypocrisy of politics and the cultural hegemony of the Church, in 1881 he founded with Luigi Lodi and the lawyer Barbani Brodani the newspaper DonQuixote, whose spearhead is GiosuèCarducci .

Schiavi examines and retraces the years of Don Quixote, defining it as a "glocal newspaper, global and local at the same time.": it is in this synthesis of history and society, style and language, ideals and creativity that the journalistic history of the Arquatese helps us reflect on today's journalism.

When Illica returned to Milan in 1882, he worked with Paolo Valera and other journalists in the investigation entitled "The belly of Milan", an indictment against progress that forgets humanity, and collaborated with Giacosa in La Lettura(The cultural insert of the Corriere della Sera, born in 1901 at the behest of the director Luigi Albertini, suspended with the Second World War and reinvented in 2013), which Giacosa directed from 1901 to 1906.

PERSONAL: Born May 9, 1857, in Castell' Arquato, Italy; died December 16, 1919, in Colombarone, Italy.

CAREER: Sailor, 1875–79; cofounded a radical literary review, 1881; author and playwright, 1882–93; librettist, 1892–1904. Military service: Fought Italian military against the Turks, 1876; World War I, volunteer with Italian forces, 1915–16.

WRITINGS:

OPERA LIBRETTOS

Il vassalo di Szigeth, 1889.

(With Domenico Oliva) Manon Lescaut, music by Giacomo Puccini, 1892.

Cristoforo Colombo, music by Alberto Francheti, 1892.

La Wally, music by Alfredo Catalani, 1892.

Cornetti Schutt, 1893.

(With Giuseppe Giacosa) La Bohème, music by Giacomo Puccini, 1896.

Andrea Chenier, music by Umberto Giordano, 1896.

Iris, music by Pietro Mascagni, 1898.

La fonte di Enschir, music by Franco Alfano, 1898.

La Rosalba, 1899.

(With Giuseppe Giacosa) Tosca, music by Giacomo Puccini, 1900.

Le Maschere, music by Pietro Mascagni, 1901.

Germania, music by Alberto Francheti, 1902.

Siberia, music by Umberto Giordano, 1903.

(With Giuseppe Giacosa) Madama Butterfly, music by Giacomo Puccini, 1904.

Tess, 1906.

Il Principe Zilah, music by Franco Alfano, 1909.

Isabeau, music by Pietro Mascagni, 1911.

(With E. Romgannoli) Giove a Pompeii, music by Alberto Francheti, first produced 1921.

OTHER

Farfalle, Effetti di Luce (prose sketches and plays; includes plays I Narbonnier-Latour [first produced 1883] and L'Eriditaa di Felis [first produced 1891]; also see below), 1882.

Also author of over thirty other librettos. Numerous sound recordings have been produced featuring Illica's librettos.

SIDELIGHTS: A radical essayist, playwright, and prolific librettist for various composers, Luigi Illica is best known for his collaborations with Giacomo Puccini on some of the most beloved operas in modern history. In 1893, dissatisfied with the libretto for Manon Lescaut, Puccini approached the famed dramatis