VILLA SPADA ORBICCIANO, NORTHERN TUSCANY

When the composer Leopoldo Miguéz took over the direction of the then National Institute of Music, in 1890, he made a point of imposing a ‘modern’ aesthetic in contrast to the ‘conservatism’ reigning there on his arrival. For Miguéz, ‘modern’ meant the German aesthetic of Wagner and the French aesthetic of Saint-Saëns, while ‘conservatism’ meant the insistence on privileging the Italian bel canto; at another level, Wagner, Saint-Saëns, Miguéz and the Republic were the modernity that came to substitute Verdi, the Conservatory and the emperor, a musical echo of the urban and ideological reforms through which the capital of the Republic was passing. Hence, social and political...