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  Bologna
  Bologna (Italian pronunciation: [boˈloɲɲa] ( listen); Emilian: Bulåggna pronounced [buˈləɲɲa]; Latin: Bononia) is the principal city (capital) of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history, art, cuisine, music, and culture. It is the seventh largest city in terms of population in Italy and it is the heart of a metropolitan area (officially recognized by the Italian government as a metropolitan city) of about 1,000,000 inhabitants. The urban sprawl of Bologna, including nearby Modena, whose metropolises are adjoining, is continuously expanding.
  The city, the first settlements of which date back to at least one millennium before Christ, has always been an important urban center, first under the Etruscans (Velzna/Felsina) and the Celts (Bona), then under the Romans (Bononia), then again in the Middle Ages, as a free municipality (for one century it was the fifth largest European city based on population). Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna hosts thousands of students who enrich the social and cultural life of the city. Famous for its towers and lengthy porticoes, Bologna has a well-preserved historical centre (one of the largest in Italy) thanks to a careful restoration and conservation policy which began at the end of the 1970s, on the heels of serious damage done by the urban demolition at the end of the 19th century as well as that caused by wars.
  
  wn.com/Bologna
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  Boston
  Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ or locally /ˈbɔstən/ ( listen)) is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper, covering only 48.43 square miles, had a population of 617,594 according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region is home to 7.6 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
  In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late 18th century, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred within the city and surrounding areas. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. After American independence was attained Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history now helps attract many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone attracting over 20 million every year. The city was the site of several firsts, including America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and the first subway system in the United States (1897).
  
  wn.com/Boston
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  Budapest
  Budapest ( /ˈbuːdəpɛst/, /ˈbuːdəpɛʃt/ or /ˈbʊdəpɛst/; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbudɒpɛʃt] ( listen); names in other languages) is the capital and the largest city of Hungary, the largest in East-Central Europe and the seventh largest in the European Union. It is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre, sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. According to 2011 Census, Budapest had 1.74 million inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2.1 million due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter Area is home to 3.3 million people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres (202.7 sq mi) within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of west-bank Buda and Óbuda with east-bank Pest.
  The history of Budapest began with Aquincum, originally a Celtic settlement that became the Roman capital of Lower Pannonia.Hungarians arrived in the territory in the 9th century. Their first settlement was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241-42. The re-established town became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture in the 15th century. Following the Battle of Mohács and nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule, development of the region entered a new age of prosperity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Budapest became a global city after the 1873 unification. It also became the second capital of Austria-Hungary, a great power that dissolved in 1918. After the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, when Hungary lost 72% of its former territory, culturally and economically the country became wholly Budapest-dominated. The capital dominates the country both by the size of its population—which dwarfs those of Hungary's other cities Budapest was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Operation Panzerfaust in 1944, the Battle of Budapest of 1945, and the Revolution of 1956.
  
  wn.com/Budapest
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  Buenos Aires
  Buenos Aires ( /ˈbweɪnəs ˈɛəriːz/ or /ˈaɪrɪs/,Spanish: [ˈbwenos ˈaiɾes]) is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after Greater Sao Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent. Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which also includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the third-largest conurbation in Latin America, with a population of around thirteen million.
  The city of Buenos Aires is not a part of Buenos Aires Province, nor is it the Province's capital, but an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Belgrano and Flores (both are currently neighborhoods of the city). The 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (Autonomous City of Buenos Aires). Its citizens first elected a Chief of Government (i.e. Mayor) in 1996; before, the Mayor was directly appointed by the President of the Republic.
  
  wn.com/Buenos_Aires
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  Florence
  Florence (Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse] ( listen), alternate obsolete form: Fiorenza; Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.
  Florence is famous for its history. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.
  The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 72nd most visited in 2009, with 1,685,000 visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the city is noted for its history, culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace, amongst others, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.
  
  wn.com/Florence
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  Genoa
  Genoa  /ˈdʒɛnoʊ.ə/ (Italian: Genova [ˈdʒɛːnova] ( listen); Genoese and Ligurian Zena [ˈzeːna]; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is the capital of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy, with a population of 608,676 within its administrative limits on a land area of 243.6 km² (94 sq mi). The urban zone of Genoa extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 718,896. The urban area of Genoa has a population of 800,709. In the metropolitan area live between 859,000 and 1.4 million or 1.5 million people. Genoa is one of Europe's largest cities on the Mediterranean Sea and the largest seaport in Italy.
  Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba ("the Superb one") due to its glorious past and impressive landmarks. Part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 (see below). The city's rich art, music, gastronomy, architecture and history, allowed it to become the 2004's European Capital of Culture. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.
  
  wn.com/Genoa
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  Hamburg
  Hamburg ( /ˈhæmbɜrɡ/; German pronunciation: [ˈhambʊɐ̯k], local pronunciation [ˈhambʊɪç]; Low German/Low Saxon: Hamborg [ˈhaˑmbɔːx]), officially Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second-largest city in Germany, the thirteenth largest German state, and the sixth-largest city in the European Union. The city is home to over 1.8 million people, while the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighbouring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than 4.3 million inhabitants. Situated on the river Elbe, the port of Hamburg is the second largest port in Europe (after the Port of Rotterdam) and 11th-largest worldwide.
  Hamburg's official name, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg), reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, and that Hamburg is a city-state and one of the sixteen States of Germany.
  Hamburg is a major transport hub in Northern Germany and is one of the most affluent cities in Europe.  It has become a media and industrial centre, with plants and facilities belonging to Airbus, Blohm + Voss and Aurubis. The radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers such as Gruner + Jahr and Spiegel-Verlag are pillars of the important media industry in Hamburg. In total, there are more than 120,000 enterprises.
  
  wn.com/Hamburg
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  La Fenice
  Teatro La Fenice ("The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres (to fire and legal problems respectively). Since opening and being named La Fenice, it has burned and been rebuilt twice more.
  In 1774, the San Benedetto Theatre, which had been Venice's leading opera house for more than forty years, burned to the ground. No sooner had it been rebuilt than a legal dispute broke out between the company managing it and the owners, the Venier family. The issue was decided in favor of the Veniers.
  The construction began in June 1790, and by May 1792 the theatre was completed. It was named "La Fenice", in reference to the company's survival, first of the fire, then of the loss of its former quarters. La Fenice was inaugurated on May 16, 1792 with an opera by Giovanni Paisiello entitled I Giuochi di Agrigento (libretto by count Alessandro Pepoli).
  
  wn.com/La_Fenice
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  La Scala
  La Scala (Italian: Teatro alla Scala), is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala (Italian: Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
  Most of Italy's greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala during the past 200 years. Today, the theatre is still recognised as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet and La Scala Theatre Orchestra. The theatre also has an associate school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy (Italian: Accademia Teatro alla Scala), which offers professional training in music, dance, stage craft and stage management.
  La Scala's season traditionally opens on 7 December, Saint Ambrose's Day, the feast day of Milan's patron saint. All performances must end before midnight, and long operas start earlier in the evening when necessary.
  
  wn.com/La_Scala
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  Livorno
  Livorno (Italian: [liˈvorno] ( listen)), traditionally Leghorn (/lɛɡˈhɔrn/, /ˈlɛɡ.hɔrn/, /ˈlɛɡɔrn/), is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 161,000 residents in 2011.
  Livorno was defined as an "ideal town" during the Italian Renaissance. Today, it reveals its history through the structure of its neighbourhoods, crossed by canals and surrounded by fortified town walls, through the tangle of its streets, which embroider the town's Venice district, and through the Medici Port characteristically overlooked by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre. Designed by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti at the end of the 16th century, Livorno underwent a period of great town planning expansion at the end of the 17th century. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress, a new fortress, together with the town-walls and the system of navigable canals, was then built. After Pisa's silting up, distance from the sea and loss of dominance, Livorno took over as the main port in Tuscany.
  
  wn.com/Livorno
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  Milan
  Milan (Italian: Milano [miˈlaːno] ( listen); Lombard: [miˈlan]; Latin: Mediolanum) is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital of Lombardy as well as of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area is the 5th largest in EU and the largest in Italy with an estimated population of approximately 5 million. The growth of many suburbs and satellite settlements around the city proper, following the Italian economic miracle of 1950s–60s and massive commuting flows, suggest that socioeconomic linkages have expanded well beyond the boundaries of its administrative limits and its agglomeration, creating a region of approximately 9,3 million people. It has been suggested that the Milan metropolitan area is part of the so-called Blue Banana, the area of Europe with the highest population and industrial density. Its health care and education system is considered one of the best of Europe.
  
  wn.com/Milan
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  Montreal
  Montreal (ⁱ/ˌmʌntriːˈɒl/;French: Montréal; pronounced [mɔ̃ʁeal] ( listen)) is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the fifteenth largest in North America. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", the city takes its present name from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French (Mont Royal in present French). The city is located on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard.
  As of May 10, 2011, Statistics Canada identifies Montreal's Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) (land area 4,259 square kilometres (1,644 sq mi)) as Canada's second most populous with an estimated metropolitan area population of 3,824,221 and a population of 1,886,481 in the urban agglomeration of Montreal, which includes all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal. The city of Montreal proper had a population of 1,649,519.
  
  wn.com/Montreal
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  Naples
  Coordinates: 40°50′42″N 14°15′30″E / 40.845°N 14.25833°E / 40.845; 14.25833
  Naples (Italian: Napoli [ˈnaːpoli] ( listen), Neapolitan: Napule; Latin: Neapolis; Ancient Greek: Νεάπολις, meaning "new city") is the capital of Campania and the third-largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. As of 2012^[update], around 960,000 people live within the city's administrative limits. The wider Naples urban area, covering 777 km² (300 sq mi), has a population of over 3 million, and is the 10th-most populous urban area in the European Union. Between 4.1 and 4.4 million people live in the overall Naples metropolitan area, one of the largest European cities on the Mediterranean Sea.
  Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Greek settlements were established on the island of Megaride in the Gulf of Naples as early as the 9th century BC. A larger mainland colony – initially known as Parthenope (Παρθενόπη) – developed around the 7th century BC, and was refounded as Neápolis (Νεάπολις) in the 5th century BC. Naples became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia and played a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society, eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.
  
  wn.com/Naples
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  Palermo
  Palermo (Italian: [paˈlɛrmo] ( listen), Sicilian: Palermu, Latin: Panormus, from Greek: Πάνορμος, Panormos, Arabic: بَلَرْم‎, Balarm; Phoenician: זִיז, Ziz) is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
  The city was founded by the Phoenicians, but named by the Ancient Greeks as Panormus meaning 'always fit for landing in.' Palermo became part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. From 827 to 1071 it was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when it first became a capital. Following the Norman reconquest, Palermo became capital of a new kingdom (from 1130 to 1816), the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually it would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.
  
  wn.com/Palermo
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  Pesaro
  Pesaro (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpeːzaro] ( listen), [ˈpeːsaro]) is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206.
  Fishery, furniture industry and tourism are the main strengths of the local economy.
  The city was founded as Pisaurum by the Romans in 184 BC as colony in the territory of the Picentes, the people who lived on the northeast coast during the Iron Age. A settlement of the latter tribe has been found at Novilara. The northern Picentes were invaded in the 4th century BC by the Gallic Senones, earlier by the Etruscans, and when the Romans reached the area the population was an ethnic mixture. Within it the Gauls at least were still distinct, as the Romans separated them out and expelled them from the country.
  Under the Roman administration Pesaro, a hub across the Via Flaminia, became an important center of trading and craftmanship. After the fall of the Western Empire, Pesaro was occupied by the Ostrogoths, and destroyed by Vitigis (539) in the course of the Gothic War. Hastily rebuilt five years later after the Byzantine reconquets, it formed the so-called Pentapolis, part of the Exarchate of Ravenna. After the Lombard and Frank conquests of that city, Pesaro became part of the Papal States.
  
  wn.com/Pesaro
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  Philadelphia
  Philadelphia ( /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,526,006 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Philadelphia is also the commercial, cultural, and educational center of the Delaware Valley, home to 6 million people and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area. The Philadelphia metropolitan division consists of five counties in Pennsylvania and has a population of 4,008,994. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]) "brotherly love", compounded from philos (φίλος) "loving", and adelphos (ἀδελφός) "brother").
  
  wn.com/Philadelphia
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  Recanati
  Recanati is a town and comune in the Province of Macerata, Marche region of Italy. Recanati was founded around 1150 AD from three pre-existing castles. In 1290 it proclaimed itself an independent republic and, in the 15th century, was famous for its international fair. In the March 1798 it was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte.
  It is the hometown of tenor Beniamino Gigli and poet Giacomo Leopardi, which is why the town is known to some as "the city of poetry". It contains the Teatro Persiani named after the composer of operas in the first part of the 19th Century, Giuseppe Persiani, who was born in the town in 1799.
  The city of Recanati had a fairly large Jewish population for hundreds of years. Among the scholars produced by the city were Rabbi Menachem Recanati (A.D. 1223-1290) author of the Kabbalistic work The reasons of the Mitzvot. He was a student of Rabbi Elazar Rokeiach (1165–1238) from Worms, Germany who was one of the Chassidei Ashkenaz, a group of German pietists. His work, Sefer HaRokeiach, is a guide to ethics and halacha. wrote a mystical commentary on the Torah. Rabbi Elazar Rokeiach was also the teacher of Nachmanides, whom Rabbi Recanati quotes frequently in his work. Last names have been derived and changed to Recanati, i.e. Agostino Recanati
  
  wn.com/Recanati
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  Sanremo
  Sanremo or San Remo (Sanrœmu in Ligurian) is a city with about 57,000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy. Founded in Roman times, the city is best known as a tourist destination on the Italian Riviera. It hosts numerous cultural events, such as the Sanremo Music Festival and the Milan – San Remo cycling classic. The city is widely accepted as the origin of the five-card stud variant telesina.
  The name of the city is a phonetic contraction of Sant'Eremo di San Romolo, which refers to Romulus of Genoa, the successor to Syrus of Genoa. In Ligurian, his name is San Rœmu. The spelling San Remo is on all ancient maps of Liguria, the ancient Republic of Genoa, Italy in the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Kingdom of Italy^{[citation needed]}. It was used in 1924 in official documents under Mussolini.
  Once the Roman settlement of Matutia'or Villa Matutiana, Sanremo expanded in the Early Middle Ages when the population moved to the high grounds. The nobility built a castle and the walled village of La Pigna to protect the town from Saracen raids.
  
  wn.com/Sanremo
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  Somalia
  Somalia ( /soʊˈmɑːliə/ soh-MAH-lee-ə; Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال‎ aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Somali Republic (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال‎ Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory. The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only a small part of the country. Somalia has been characterized as a failed state and is one of the poorest and most violent states in the world.
  Somalia lies in the easternmost part of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It has the longest coastline on the continent, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.
  
  wn.com/Somalia
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  Teatro Massimo
  The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II. It is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe (the third after the Opéra National de Paris and the K. K. Hof-Opernhaus in Vienna), renowned for its perfect acoustics.
  An international competition for the creation of the opera house was announced by the Palermo Council in 1864, primarily at the instigation of the mayor, Antonio Starrabba di Rudinì. For many years there had been talk of building a big new theatre in Palermo, worthy of the second biggest city in southern Italy (after Naples) and designed to promote the image of the city following the recent national unity.
  The opera house was designed and overseen by the very genial Italian architect Giovan Battista Filippo Basile and, following his death in 1891, construction was then overseen by his highly artistic son, Architect Ernesto Basile. G. B. Filippo Basile was well known in Sicily also for his previous cathedral restoration design in the city of Acireale, as well as garden and villa designs in the city of Palermo and Caltagirone.
  
  wn.com/Teatro_Massimo
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  Torre del Lago
  Torre del Lago is a town of almost 11,000 inhabitants, a frazione of the comune of Viareggio, in the province of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, between the Lake of Massaciuccoli and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
  The Festival Puccini, an annual opera festival which attracts around 40,000 attendees, is held in its open-air theatre, a short distance from the Villa where opera composer Giacomo Puccini lived and worked. He is buried in a small chapel inside the Villa.
  The area of the village on the sea (Marina di Torre del Lago) is well known for being an important gay and gay-friendly summer resort of national and international appeal.
  Coordinates: 43°50′N 10°17′E / 43.833°N 10.283°E / 43.833; 10.283
  
  wn.com/Torre_del_Lago
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  Trieste
  Trieste (/triːˈɛst/;Italian pronunciation: [triˈɛste]  listen (help·info); Slovene: Trst, German: Triest) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city. Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste and throughout history it has been influenced by its location at the crossroads of Germanic, Latin and Slavic cultures. In 2009, it had a population of about 205,000 and it is the capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trieste province.
  Trieste was one of the oldest parts of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1382 until 1918. In the 19th century, it was the most important port of one of the Great Powers of Europe. As a prosperous seaport in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague). In the fin-de-siecle period, it emerged as an important hub for literature and music. However, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Trieste's union to Italy after World War I led to some decline of its "Mittel-European" cultural and commercial importance. Enjoying an economic revival during the 1930s and throughout the Cold War, Trieste was an important spot in the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs. Today, the city is in one of the richest regions of Italy, and has been a great centre for shipping, through its port (Port of Trieste), shipbuilding and financial services.
  
  wn.com/Trieste
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  Turin
  Turin (Italian: Torino, pronounced [toˈriːno] ( listen); Piedmontese: Turin, pronounced [tyˈɾiŋ]; Latin: Augusta Taurinorum) is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 (November 2008) while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million.
  The city has a rich culture and history, and is known for its numerous art galleries, restaurants, churches, palaces, opera houses, piazzas, parks, gardens, theatres, libraries, museums and other venues. Turin is well known for its baroque, rococo, neo-classical, and Art Nouveau architecture. Much of the city's public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built in the 16th and 18th century, after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy (later Kingdom of Sardinia) was moved to Turin from Chambery( nowadays France) as part of the urban expansion.
  
  wn.com/Turin
• 
  Venice
  Venice (Italian: Venezia [veˈnɛttsja] ( listen), Venetian: Venexia [veˈnɛsja]; (Latin: Venetia) is a city in northeast Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. The city in its entirety is listed as World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon.
  Venice is the capital of the Veneto region. In 2009, there were 270,098 people residing in Venice's comune (the population estimate of 272,000 inhabitants includes the population of the whole Comune of Venezia; around 60,000 in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico); 176,000 in Terraferma (the Mainland), mostly in the large frazioni of Mestre and Marghera; 31,000 live on other islands in the lagoon). Together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE) (population 1,600,000).
  
  wn.com/Venice
• 
  Vienna
  Vienna ( /viːˈɛnə/; German:  Wien (help·info) [viːn]) is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 9th-largest city by population in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was the largest German speaking city in the world, and before the first world war and the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian empire the city had 2 million inhabitants. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  
  wn.com/Vienna

• Amilcare Ponchielli
  Amilcare Ponchielli (Italian pronunciation: [aˈmilkare ponˈkjɛlli], August 31, 1834 – January 16, 1886) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.
  Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.
  Two years after leaving the conservatory he wrote his first opera -- it was based on Alessandro Manzoni's great novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi) -- and it was as an opera composer that he eventually found fame.
  His early career was disappointing. Maneuvered out of a professorship is very good at the Milan Conservatory that he had won in a competition, he took small-time jobs in small cities, and composed several operas, none successful at first. In spite of his disappointment, he gained much experience as the bandmaster (capobanda) in Piacenza and Cremona, arranging and composing over 200 works for wind band. Notable among his "original" compositions for band are the first-ever concerto for euphonium (Concerto per Flicornobasso, 1872), fifteen variations on the Neapolitan song "Carnevale di Venezia", and a series of festive and funeral marches that resound with the pride of the newly unified Italy and the private grief of his fellow Cremonese. The turning point was the big success of the revised version of I promessi sposi in 1872, which brought him a contract with the music publisher G. Ricordi & Co. and the musical establishment at the Conservatory and at La Scala. The ballet Le due gemelle (1873) confirmed his success.
  
  wn.com/Amilcare_Ponchielli
• 
  Andrea Maffei
  Andrea Maffei (1798 – 1885) was an Italian poet, translator and librettist.
  Maffei was born in Molina di Ledro, Trentino.
  A follower of Vincenzo Monti, he formed part of the 19th century Italian classicist literary culture. Gaining laurea in jurisprudence, he moved for some years to Verona, then to Venice and finally to Milan, where in 1831 he married contessa Clara Spinelli. They separated by mutual consent on 15 June 1846.
  Skilled in foreign languages, he translated several works of English and German literature into Italian, particularly the plays of Schiller, Shakespeare's Othello and The Tempest, many works of Goethe (including Faust) and John Milton's Paradise Lost. In his translations he sought to adapt the author's original thought to that of the Italian literary public. Not only a translator, he was also a poet and Romanticist. For Giuseppe Verdi he wrote the famous libretto for I masnadieri, drawn from Schiller, and re-wrote some verses from Francesco Maria Piave's libretto for Macbeth. He was also a librettist for Pietro Mascagni, writing the texts for his Il Re a Napoli in Cremona (1885) and Guglielmo Ratcliff (1895, from Heinrich Heine's 1822 play William Ratcliff).
  
  wn.com/Andrea_Maffei
• 
  Anthony Corleone
  Anthony "Tony" Vito Corleone is a fictional character in The Godfather trilogy of films directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He is portrayed by Anthony Gounaris in the first film, James Gounaris in the second, and singer Franc D'Ambrosio in the third. The character was given the name Anthony because it was thought that the three-year-old Gounaris of the first film would respond best if his own name was used. He is the son of Michael (Al Pacino) and Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton), and the older brother of Mary Corleone (Sofia Coppola). While Anthony was never a major character in the first two films, major events in his life were the backdrop of key parts of the second film, and his relationship with his father is a plot point in the third film. He was not mentioned by name in the novel.
  Anthony has a small role in the first film; his only scene of consequence is one in which he witnesses the death of his grandfather, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando).
  The second film's plotline opens in 1958, with Anthony's first communion. It continues with an extravagant banquet held in his honor near Lake Tahoe. During this banquet, his father is largely tied up with family business, a theme which would repeat itself throughout the film. Anthony receives many gifts, mostly from people he does not know.
  
  wn.com/Anthony_Corleone
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  Arrigo Boito
  Arrigo Boito (Italian pronunciation: [arˈriɡo ˈbɔito]; 24 February 1842 – 10 June 1918), aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele. Along with Emilio Praga, he is regarded as one of the prominent representatives of the Scapigliatura artistic movement.
  Born in Padua, the son of Silvestro Boito, an Italian painter of miniatures and his wife, a Polish countess, Józefina Radolińska, Boito studied music at the Milan Conservatory with Alberto Mazzucato until 1861. In 1866 he fought under Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Seven Weeks War in which the Kingdom of Italy and Prussia fought against Austria, after which Venice was ceded to Italy.
  His only finished opera, Mefistofele, based on Goethe's Faust, was given its first performance on 5 March 1868, at La Scala, Milan. The premiere, which he conducted himself, was badly received, provoking riots and duels over its supposed "Wagnerism", and it was closed by the police after two performances. Verdi commented, "He aspires to originality but succeeds only at being strange." Boito withdrew the opera from further performances to rework it, and it had a more successful second premiere, in Bologna on 10 April 1875. Boito's revised and drastically cut version also changed Faust from a baritone to a tenor, and it is still frequently performed and recorded today.
  
  wn.com/Arrigo_Boito
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  Beniamino Gigli
  Beniamino Gigli (pronounced: [benjaˈmiːno ˈdʒiʎʎi]) (March 20, 1890 – November 30, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism of his interpretations. Nevertheless, such was Gigli's talent, he is considered to be one of the very finest tenors in the recorded history of music.
  Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoemaker who loved opera. His brother Lorenzo became a famous Italian painter.
  In 1914, he won first prize in an international singing competition in Parma. His operatic debut came on October 15, 1914, when he played Enzo in Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda in Rovigo, following which he was in great demand.
  Gigli made many important debuts in quick succession, and always in Mefistofele: Teatro Massimo in Palermo (March 31, 1915), Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (December 26, 1915), Teatro Costanzi di Roma (December 26, 1916), La Scala, Milan (November 19, 1918), and finally the Metropolitan Opera, New York (November 26, 1920). Two other great Italian tenors present on the roster of Met singers during the 1920s also happened to be Gigli's chief contemporary rivals for tenor supremacy in the Italian repertory—namely, Giovanni Martinelli and Giacomo Lauri-Volpi.
  
  wn.com/Beniamino_Gigli
• 
  Giacomo Puccini
  Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒaːkomo putˈtʃiːni]; 22 December 1858 – 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. Some of his arias, such as "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi, "Che gelida manina" from La bohème, and "Nessun dorma" from Turandot, have become part of popular culture.
  Described by Encyclopædia Britannica Online as "one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism", he is regarded as one of the last major Italian opera composers. His repertoire is essentially rooted in verismo, or a post-Romantic operatic tradition and literary style. Whilst his work is essentially based on traditional late-19th century Italian opera, his music shows some influences from then-contemporary composers and movements such as Igor Stravinsky and Impressionism. Common themes within his operas include the important role, yet usually tragic end, of his heroines, as well as love; furthermore, there is a strong presence of exoticism in his operas, with several being set in faraway locations.
  
  wn.com/Giacomo_Puccini
• 
  Giuseppe Verdi
  Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi]; 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture – such as "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La traviata and the "Grand March" from Aida.
  Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard opera repertoire a century and a half after their composition.
  Verdi was born the son of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigia Uttini in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Département Taro which was a part of the First French Empire after the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. The baptismal register, on 11 October lists him as being "born yesterday", but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. The next day, he was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in Latin as Joseph Fortuninus Franciscus. The day after that (Tuesday), Verdi's father took his newborn the three miles to Busseto, where the baby was recorded as Joseph Fortunin François; the clerk wrote in French. "So it happened that for the civil and temporal world Verdi was born a Frenchman."
  
  wn.com/Giuseppe_Verdi
• 
  Gustav Mahler
  Gustav Mahler (German pronunciation: [ˈɡʊstaf ˈmaːlɐ]; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. Then his family moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava) where Mahler grew up.
  As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
  Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
  
  wn.com/Gustav_Mahler
• 
  Hall Caine
  Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE (14 May 1853 – 31 August 1931), usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his contemporaries. Many of his novels were also made into films. His novels were primarily romances, involving love triangles, but also addressed some of the more serious political and social issues of the day.
  Caine acted as secretary to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and at one time he aspired to become a man of letters. To this end he published a number of serious works, but these had little success. He was a lover of the Isle of Man and Manx culture, and purchased a large house, Greeba Castle, on the island. For a time he was a Member of the House of Keys, but he declined to become more deeply involved in politics. A man of striking appearance, he travelled widely and used his travels to provide the settings for some of his novels. He came into contact with, and was influenced by, many of the leading personalities of the day, particularly those of a socialist leaning. Caine's novels are considered outdated by creators of English literature curricula today, and despite his immense popularity during his life, he is now virtually unknown and unremembered.
  
  wn.com/Hall_Caine
• 
  Luigi Illica
  Luigi Illica (9 May 1857 – 16 December 1919) was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini (usually with Giuseppe Giacosa), Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano, Baron Alberto Franchetti and other important Italian composers. His most famous opera librettos are those for La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Andrea Chénier.
  Illica was born at Castell'Arquato. His personal life sometimes imitated his libretti. The reason he is always photographed with his head slightly turned is because he lost his right ear in a duel over a woman. When silent films based on Illica's operas were made, his name appeared in large letters on advertisements because distributors could only guarantee that his stories would be used, and not that they would be accompanied by the music of the appropriate composer.
  The dates given are those of creations.
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/Luigi_Illica
• Michael Corleone
  Michael Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novels, The Godfather and The Sicilian. He is also the main character of the Godfather film trilogy that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino, who was twice nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal (Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather, and Best Actor for The Godfather Part II).
  Corleone, as portrayed by Pacino, was recognized as the 11th most iconic villain in film history by the American Film Institute, although some would consider Michael Corleone to be a tragic hero.
  Michael is the youngest son of Don Vito Corleone (played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II). He is the younger brother of Santino "Sonny" (James Caan) and Frederico "Fredo" (John Cazale), and the older brother of Constanzia "Connie" (Talia Shire).
  Michael is introduced in The Godfather as a young man in his mid-20s. He initially wants nothing to do with the Corleones' "family business," hoping instead to lead a more conventional, Americanized life. Indeed, his father never intended for his favorite son to be involved in the family's criminal enterprises, instead hoping he would go into politics. In an early draft of the script, Vito expressly forbids anyone working for him from pulling Michael into the family's operations.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Corleone
• Paul Collin
  Paul Collin (born July, 12th, 1843 in Conches, Department of Eure, 27, France, died February 5th,1915 in Paris) was a French poet, writer, translator and librettist.
  In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Collin's family produced administrative officers in the military, mail and law service as well as physicians. He started a professional career as a lawyer before marrying one of the daughters of Theodore Gobley, a French chemist known for research on the brain, who also discovered lecithin and phospholipids.
  Poetry proved to be Collin's real vocation, and he went on to write libretti and song lyrics for a number of opera and cantata, collaborating with contemporary French music composers of the second half of the 19th century including Tchaikovsky, who used several of his shorter poetry works for songs. Collin published a collection of his work in 1886. The first award of the Prix Rossini in 1881 was made to Paul Collin and composer Marie, Countess of Grandval for the oratorio La fille de Jaïre. Collin also wrote as a critic for the journal Le Ménestrel.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Collin
• 
  Pietro Mascagni
  Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjɛːtro anˈtɔːnjo ˈsteːfano masˈkaɲɲi]; December 7, 1863 – August 2, 1945) was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. Though it has been stated that Mascagni, like Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, this is inaccurate. L'amico Fritz and Iris have been popular in Europe since their respective premieres. In fact, Mascagni himself claimed that at one point Iris was performed in Italy more often than Cavalleria (cf. Stivender).
  Mascagni wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, as well as songs and piano music. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people's music. If he never repeated the international success of Cavalleria, it was probably because Mascagni refused to copy himself. The variety of styles in his operas — the Sicilian passion and warmth of Cavalleria, the exotic flavor of Iris, the idyllic breeze that ventilates the charming L'amico Fritz and Lodoletta, the Gallic chiaroscuro of Isabeau, the steely, Veristic power of Il piccolo Marat, the overripe postromanticism of the lush Parisina — demonstrate a versatility that surpasses even that of Puccini.
  
  wn.com/Pietro_Mascagni
• 
  Pope Pius XII
  The Venerable Pope Pius XII (Latin: Pius PP. XII; Italian: Pio XII), born Eugenio Marìa Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958), reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958.
  Before election to the papacy, Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with European and Latin American nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany. The concordat of 1933 which saw the self-destruction of the Centre (Catholic) Party, on the orders of the Holy See, and Pius' leadership of the Catholic Church during World War II, including his "decision to stay silent in public about the fate of the Jews", remain the subject of controversy.
  After the war Pius XII advocated peace and reconciliation, including lenient policies towards Axis and Axis-satellite nations. The Church experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the Eastern Bloc. In light of his overt involvement in Italian politics – anyone who voted for a Communist candidate in the 1948 elections was threatened with automatic excommunication – Pius XII became known as a staunch opponent of the Italian Communist Party. Pius XII explicitly invoked ex cathedra papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his 1950 Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus. His magisterium includes almost 1,000 addresses and radio broadcasts. His forty-one encyclicals include Mystici Corporis, the Church as the Body of Christ; Mediator Dei on liturgy reform; and Humani generis on the Church's positions on theology and evolution. He eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in 1946.
  
  wn.com/Pope_Pius_XII
• Raging Bull
  Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a middleweight boxer whose sadomasochistic rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta's well-intentioned brother and manager who tries to help Jake battle his inner demons; and Cathy Moriarty as his abused wife. The film features supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, and Frank Vincent.
  Scorsese was initially reluctant to develop the project, though he eventually came to relate to La Motta's story. Schrader re-wrote Martin's first screenplay, and Scorsese and De Niro together made uncredited contributions thereafter. Pesci was an unknown actor prior to the film, as was Moriarty, who was suggested for her role by Pesci. During principal photography, each of the boxing scenes was choreographed for a specific visual style and De Niro gained approximately 60 pounds (27 kg) to portray La Motta in his early post-boxing years. Scorsese was exacting in the process of editing and mixing the film, expecting it to be his last major feature.
  
  wn.com/Raging_Bull
• Riccardo Zandonai
  Riccardo Zandonai (28 May 1883 – 5 June 1944) was an Italian composer.
  Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria–Hungary.
  As a young man, he showed such aptness in his musical studies that he entered the Pesaro Conservatorio in 1899 and completed his studies in 1902; he completed the nine-year curriculum in only three years. Among his teachers was Pietro Mascagni, who regarded him highly.
  During this period he composed the Inno degli studenti trentini, that is, the anthem of the organised irredentist youth of his native province. His essay for graduation was an opera named Il ritorno di Odisseo (The Return of Ulysses), based on a poem by Giovanni Pascoli, for singers, choir and orchestra. The same year 1902 he put to music another Pascoli poem, Il sogno di Rosetta. In 1908, in Milan, he was heard by Arrigo Boito at a soirée, and Boito introduced him to Giulio Ricordi, one of the dominating figures in Italian musical publishing at the time.
  Zandonai's fame rests largely on his opera Francesca da Rimini, a free adaptation of a tragedy which Gabriele d'Annunzio had written expanding a passage from Dante's Inferno; it has never fallen entirely from the repertoire, and has been recorded several times. A while after the première, he married soprano Tarquinia Tarquini, for whom he had created the role of Conchita in the eponymous opera (dealing with a topic that Puccini had first considered and then rejected).
  
  wn.com/Riccardo_Zandonai
• Tullio Serafin
  Tullio Serafin (1 September 1878 - 2 February 1968) was an Italian conductor.
  Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19th century bel canto operas by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti to become staples of 20th century repertoire. He had an unparalleled reputation as a coach of young opera singers and famously harnessed and developed Maria Callas's extraordinary talents.
  Born in Rottanova (Cavarzere), near Venice, and trained in Milan, he played viola in the Orchestra of La Scala, Milan under Toscanini, later being appointed Assistant Conductor. He took over as Musical Director at La Scala when Toscanini left to go to New York and served 1909-1914, 1917–1918 and returned briefly after the second World War, 1946 -1947.
  He joined the conducting staff of the Metropolitan Opera in 1924 and remained for a decade, after which he became the artistic director of the Teatro Reale in Rome. During his long career he helped further the careers of many important singers, including Rosa Ponselle and Joan Sutherland, and morespecially Maria Callas with whom he made numerous recordings.
  
  wn.com/Tullio_Serafin
• 
  Umberto Giordano
  Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 1867 – 12 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.
  He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples. His first opera Marina, was written for the competition staged by the music publishers Casa Sonzogno for the best one-act opera, remembered today because it marked the beginning of Italian verismo; the winner was Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. Giordano, the youngest candidate, placed sixth among seventy-three with Marina, which generated enough interest for Sonzogno to commission an opera to be staged in the 1891–92 season.
  The result was Mala Vita, a gritty verismo opera concerning a labourer who vows to reform a prostitute if he is cured of his tuberculosis. This caused something of a scandal when performed at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, in February 1892. It played successfully at Vienna, Prague and Berlin, and was re-written as Il Voto a few years later in an attempt to raise interest in the work again.
  
  wn.com/Umberto_Giordano
• Wikipedia Persondata
  wn.com/Wikipedia_Persondata
• William Orbit
  William Orbit (born William Mark Wainwright, 15 December 1956) is an English musician, composer and record producer, perhaps best known to most for his work on Madonna's album Ray of Light. He has won three Grammy Awards for his work with Madonna. He produced 13 by Blur and remixed some of the songs on the album.
  William Orbit was born William Wainwright in London's East End in 1956. His mother, of Italian and Swedish descent, and his father, from Yorkshire, were both schoolteachers.
  He does not have a formal education, having left school at 15 and being entirely self taught. Aged 16, and living in a squat in Norwich and working as a strawberry picker in the summer, he started to devote himself to guitar playing.
  Living in squats around Europe and working at various jobs, hotel kitchen worker, motorbike messenger, at a ladies shoes factory, as an accounts clerk (in the days before computers), a night shift worker at the old Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam, junior draftsman at a North Sea oil rig design company (he was 'creative' with his CV') and so on.
  
  wn.com/William_Orbit

• Preludio
• “O Lola ch’ai di latti la cammisa” (Turiddu)
• “Ah! — Ah!” (Donne, Uomini)
• “Gli aranci olezzano sui verdi margini” (Donne, Uomini)
• “Dite, mamma Lucia…” (Santuzza, Lucia)
• “Il cavallo scalpita” (Alfio, Uomini, Donne)
• “Beato voi, compar Alfio” (Lucia, Alfio, Santuzza)
• “Regina Coeli laetare” (Coro in chiesa, Uomini, Donne)
• “Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto” (Santuzza, Lucia, Uomini, Donne, Coro in chiesa)
• “Voi lo sapete, o mamma” (Santuzza, Lucia)
• “Tu qui, Santuzza?” (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• “Fior di giaggiolo” (Lola)
• “Turiddu, è passato Alfio?” (Lola, Turiddu, Santuzza)
• “Ah! lo vedi, che hai tu detto?” (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• “No, no, Turiddu, rimani, rimani ancora!” (Santuzza, Turiddu)
• “Oh! Il Signore vi manda, compar Alfio!” (Santuzza, Alfio)
• “Turiddu mi tolse, me tolse l’onore” (Santuzza, Alfio)
• Intermezzo
• “A casa, a casa amici… Comare Lola” (Uomini, Donne, Turiddu, Lola)
• “Intanto, amici, qua, beviamone un bicchiere!… Viva il vino spumeggiante” (Turiddu, Uomini, Donne, Lola)
• “A voi tutti, salute!” (Alfio, Uomini, Donne, Turiddu, Lola)
• “Compar Alfio… Lo so che il torto è mio” (Turiddu, Alfio)
• “Mamma! Mamma, quel vino è generoso” (Turiddu, Lucia)
• “Addio!” (Turiddu, Lucia, Santuzza, Una donna, Tutti)

• Cavalleria rusticana: Introduction
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "O Lola"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Gli aranci olezzano"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Dite, mamma Lucia"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Il cavallo scalpita"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Regina coeli, laetare"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Perché m'hai fatto" - "Voi lo sapete"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Tu qui, Santuzza?"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Fior di giaggiolo"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Ah! lo vedi" - "No, no Turiddu"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part I. "Oh! Il Signore vi manda"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part II. Intermezzo
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part II. "A casa, a casa"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part II. "Intanto amici, qua"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part II. "A voi tutti salute!"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Part II. "Mamma, mamma! Quel vino è generoso"

• Cavalleria Rusticana: Prelude
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Siciliana. "Oh Lola ch'hai di latti la cammisa"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Siciliana. Tempo I
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Allegro giocoso"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Gli aranci olezzano"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. Largo
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Dite, mamma Lucia ..."
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Il cavallo scalpita"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Beato voi, compar Alfio"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Regina coeli laetare"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Inneggiamo"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Voi lo sapete, o mamma"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Tu qui, Santuzza?"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Fior di giaggiolo"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Ah! lo vedi!"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Oh! il Signore vi manda"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Comare Santa"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Symphonic Intermezzo"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "A casa, a casa"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Viva il vino spumeggiante"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "A voi tutti salute!"
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Act I. "Mamma, quel vino è generoso"

• Cavalleria rusticana: Preludio
• Cavalleria rusticana: "O Lola ch'ai di latti la cammisa...Ah!"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Gli aranci olezzano"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Dite, Mamma Lucia"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Il cavallo scalpita"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Beato voi, compar Alfio...Regina Coeli"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Voi lo sapete, o mamma"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Tu qui, Santuzza?"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Fior di giaggliiolo"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Ah! lo vedi, che hai tu detto?"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Oh! Il Signore vi manda, compar Alfio!"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Intermezzo"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "A casa, a casa, amici"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Viva il vino spumeggiante"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "A voi tutti, salute"
• Cavalleria rusticana: "Mamma, quel vino è generoso"

• Cavalleria Rusticana: Preludio
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "O Lola ch'ai di latti la cammisa" (Turiddu)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Scena 1
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Gli aranci olezzano" (Donne)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Dite, mamma Lucia..." (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Il cavallo scalpita," (Alfio, Coro)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Beato voi, compar Alfio," (Lucia, Alfio)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Regina coeli laetare." (Coro)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Inneggiamo," (Santuzza, Lucia e Colo Esterno)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Voi lo sapete, o mamma," (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Tu qui, Santuzza?" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Son giunto ora in piazza" (Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "No, no, Turiddu" (Santuzza, Turiddu)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Oh! il Signore vi manda" (Santuzza, Alfio)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Turiddu Mi tolse l'onore," (Santuzza, Alfio)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo sinfonico
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "A casa, a casa," (Uomini, Donne, Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Viva il vino spumeggiante" (Turiddu, Coro, Lola)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "A voi tutti salute!" (Alfio, Coro, Lola)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Mamma, Quel vino è generoso, e certo" (Turiddu, Lucia, Donne)

• Cavalleria rusticana: Preludio
• Cavalleria rusticana: "O Lola chái la, di latti la cammisa" (Turiddu)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Gli aranci olezzano..." (peasants)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Dite, mamma Lucia" (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Il cavallo scalpita" (Alfio, peasants)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Beato voi, compar Alfio" (Lucia, Alfio, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Regina coeli, laetare - Alleluja!" (choir, Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Voi lo sapete" (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Tu qui, Santuzza?" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Bada, Santuzza, schiavo non sono" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Fior di giaggiolo, gli angeli belli stanno" (Lola, Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Ah, lo vedi, che hai tu detto?" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Turiddu, ascolta!" (Santuzza, Turiddu)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Oh, il Signore vi manda, compar Alfio." (Santuzza, Alfio)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Il ver" (Santuzza, Alfio)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. Intermezzo sinfonico
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "A casa, a casa, amici" (peasants, Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Intanto, amici, qua, beviamone un bicchiere." (peasants, Lola, Turiddu)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "A voi tutti salute!" (Alfio, peasants, Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Compar Turiddu" (Alfio, Turiddu)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Atto. "Mamma, mamma ... quel vino è generoso." (Turiddu, Lucia, Santuzza, a peasant girl)

• O Lola, c`h ai latti la cammisa
• Gli aranci olezzano
• Dite, mamma Lucia - Il cavallo calpita
• Beato voi, compar Alfio
• Voi lo sapete, o mamma
• Tu qui, Santuzza?
• Fior di giaggiolo
• Ah! Lo vedi, che hai tu detto?
• Ah, il Singore vi manda
• Intermezzo sinfonico
• A casa, amici
• A voi tutti, salute!

• Prelude
• Introductory Chorus
• Scene and Arrivial of Alfio
• Il cavallo scalpita
• Regina Coeli: Scene and Prayer
• Romance and Scene
• Duetto: Tu qui, Santuzza
• Lolas Song
• Ah! lo vedi
• Duetto-Santuzza and Alfio
• Intermezzo
• Scena Chorus
• Brindisi
• Finale:"A voi tutti, salute!"
• Mamma, quel vino e generoso

• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. Preludio
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "O Lola chái di latti la cammisa" (Turiddu)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. Tempo I
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. Introduzione - Coro d'introduzione - Allegro giocoso
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Gli aranci olezzano sui verdi margini" (peasants)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. Scena - Largo
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Dite, mamma Lucia" (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Il cavallo scalpita" (Alfio, peasants)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Beato voi, compar Alfio" (Lucia, Alfio, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Regina coeli, laetare" (choir, Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Voi lo sapete, o mamma" (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Tu qui, Santuzza?" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Fior di giaggiolo" (Lola, Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Ah! lo vedi, che hai tu detto?" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. Duettino "Oh! Il Signore vi manda" (Santuzza, Alfio)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Comare santa"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. Intermezzo sinfonico
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "A casa, a casa" (peasants, Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Viva il vino spumeggiante"
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "A voi tutti salute!" (Alfio, peasants, Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria rusticana: Act I. "Mamma, quel vino è generoso." (Turiddu, Lucia, Santuzza, a peasant girl)

• Cavalleria Rusticana: Preludio
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "O Lola ch'ai di latti la camissa" (Turiddu)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Allegro giocoso
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Gli aranci olezzano sui verdi margini" (Coro)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Dite, mamma Lucia" (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Il cavavallo scalpita" (Alfio, Coro)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Beato voi, compar Alfio" (Lucia, Alfio Santuzza)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Regina coeli laetare" (Coro)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Voi lo sapete, o mamma" (Santuzza, Lucia)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Tu qui, Santussa?" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Fior di giaggiolo" (Lola, Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Ah! lo vedi" (Turiddu, Santuzza)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Oh! Il Signore vi manda" (Santuzza, Alfio)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo sinfonico
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "A casa, a casa, amici" (Coro, Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Viva il vino spumeggiante" (Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "A voi tutti, salute!" (alfio, Coro, Turiddu, Lola)
• Cavalleria Rusticana: "Mamma, quel vino è generoso" (Turiddu, Lucia, Santuzza)

• Divo Nerone
• L'esercito di Spagna
• Gloria a Nerone
• Tu ridi Menecrate
• Almeno voi non mi tradite
• Eccomi solo
• Io no
• Parla
• Interludio orchestrale
• Faonte, la tua casa
• Ho sonno
• Amico, puoi darmi vita o morte
• Legionari, correte

• Act 1 Eccola la, l'orribile cometa
• Taverniere, da bere
• Al soccorso! M'inseguono
• Col suo volo, la colomba
• In quel tuo pingue corpo
• Da questo nappo
• Feci venir Vinicio
• Act 2 Possa la morte
• Ti sien propizi i Numi
• Entra, fanciulla
• Son le greche fanciulle
• Una donna, chi sei
• Chi mai grida così

• Preludio
• O Lola ch'hai di latti la cammisa
• Preludio
• Gli aranci olezzano
• Dite, Mamma Lucia
• Il cavallo scalpita
• Beato voi, compar Alfio
• Regina Coeli
• Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto
• Voi lo sapete, o mamma
• Tu qui, Santuzza?
• Fior di giaggiolo
• Ah! Lovedi, che hai tu detto?
• No, no, Turiddu
• Oh! Il Signore vi manda
• Intermezzo
• A casa, a casa
• Viva il vino spumeggiante
• A voi tutti, salute!
• Mamma, quel vino è generoso

Born: 1863-12-07

Died: 1945-08-02