i like italy The coffee is good, the sea is wide and blue, the houses grow directly from the white rocks, the nights are transparent, with all the stars of the universe present in the firmament, the moon is full, heavy streams of songs flow through the streets in which Italian singers, small in stature and with hair well greased with gel, suffers on the basis of amore , offering for consolation a lot of fiore and a few other essential details... What's more, a blessed country for long or short vacations and for all pockets.
After a week spent in Naples, in the city situated next to Vesuvius, with its old victim Pompeii nearby, I decided that I had to get to Rome.
Yes, to Rome where, as we know from geography, history, literature and the Latin language, all roads lead... That is, to Roma Termini Station. Italy's largest railway station, with platforms, with railway lines, with trains coming and going, with ticket offices and newsstands, with craft shops, with porters and wasting time, with tricksters who... But not for they came to the eternal city. I came to look for, in addition to several other attractions worth seeing or tasting, a famous cafe... Antico Caffè Greco!
Caffè Greco located on via dei Condotti, 86, is a stone's throw from the famous Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps and the Fontana della Barcaccia, a sober fountain commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and designed by Bernini. The design, a small boat, was inspired by the outflow of the Tiber in 1598, when all that was left after the flood was a small boat. Please, so says the legend, and Rome is full of legends...
With a spectacular decoration specific to the ottocento , with marble tables, crystal mirrors, upholstered chairs and an elegance suspended in time, Antico Caffè Greco was founded in 1760 by Nicola della Maddalena, a merchant of Greek origin. His attestation documents are kept religiously, literally, in the archive of the parish of San Lorenzo in Lucina, which is not really there, when you want to establish an impeccable pedigree.
Since its inauguration, the cafe has been visited by personalities such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Byron, Goethe, Hans Christian Andersen, Schopenhauer, Cesare Pascarella, Wagner, Welles, Liszt, Casanova, Massimo D'Azeglio, Luigi di Baviera, Buffalo Bill , Ennio Flaiano, Edvard Grieg, Gogol and many others who increased its reputation as the mecca of coffee and literature . But not only writers, musicians and painters frequented Caffe Greco. The clergy, like leaves and grass in Rome, succumbing to obvious temptations, used to drink their coffee here, guiltily tasting the cakes and sweets on sale. And there were castratti , the famous opera singers 100% Made in Italy product.
In those times, history teaches us, women were not looked upon favorably on stage. Simply put, there were no actresses, no sopranos, no female stars of any kind. Theater and opera preferred men in transvestites, and Italy, in particular, castrati. The boys, recruited by specialized impresarios, from orphanages or bought from very poor families, were castrated before puberty, so that their crystalline soprano voices would be preserved in adulthood. After that, they were sold, ensuring for the church choirs a permanent lyrical material, of a special coloration.
On stage, the first female role was performed by a castrato in 1607, in the opera "Orfeo" by Monteverdi. Success was guaranteed and in the following years, thousands of boys were castrated to the joy of music lovers. Some became famous on the big stages of the world, Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, known as Farinelli being the most famous of them, others continued to sing in the choirs of large and small churches, while many disappeared in the Italian brothels. Those of you who have seen the movie Farinelli (1994), directed by Gerard Corbiau, know what I'm talking about...
Well, on a beautiful day in the summer of 1762, in one of the elegant salons of the Antico Cafe Greco, none other than the young Casanova, at that time in the service of Cardinal Aquaviva d'Aragona, appeared. While talking at a table with Abbot Gama and a group of young prelates, the eyes of the eternal seducer suddenly crossed those of a coquettish and very attractive woman sitting at a neighboring table. Evidently, Casanova's interest in the discussion on ecclesiastical topics significantly decreased, his whole creature de italiano vero being captured by the feminine presence next to him. Smiles, glances, trembling eyelashes and who knows what would have followed if Gama had not noticed what was happening and who Casanova had his eyes on. Because, the woman to whom the Venetian was making sweet eyes was not a woman, but a man in cross-dressing, even if a man is said a lot. But not just any transvestite, but a famous castrato, none other than Giuseppe Ricciarelli, known on stage as Beppino della Mammana. Amused by the ridiculousness of Casanova's situation, the cardinal ceremoniously introduces Beppino without revealing his identity. A courtier, Casanova kisses his gloves when, what do you see, the femme fatale leans towards him with undulating hips and whispers (so that everyone can hear) a sleazy proposal that unshackles the great seducer: if he agrees to spend night with him, he will serve him as boy or girl, as he pleases!
We do not know how shocked Casanova was by this indecent proposal , but we assume that he was, otherwise he would not have recorded the incident in his "Memoirs" and this would not have become an anecdotal coffee story for Cafe Greco.
What Casanova did next, you can find out from the mentioned Memoirs, and I will tell you about Beppino: after a brilliant debut in Rome, he went on the big stages in Europe, playing both female and male roles. Until old age or almost.
In 1861, the castration of boys for musical purposes was strictly prohibited. An era was ending and another was beginning, one in which women took to the stage and won their fame brilliantly interpreting hundreds of roles written especially for them by the great playwrights and composers of the 19th century. And the next one, of course.
M. Vaida