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| A. Renoir, "At the Theater", 1876- 1877.
She was the first and
sometimes the only woman whose music compositions were played in the most important theaters all
over the world, who was produced abroad and decorated for her fine compositions even from the former and last Italian Royals, she was Giulia
Recli.
She was born on 4th
December 1884 in Milan, her father was
the “Commendatore” Luigi Recli, who was among the founders of the Ambrosiano
Bank and her mother was the pianist Luisa Biancardi [1]. Her musical studies was
carry on by the most important teachers of her
time as Alessandro Bonci , her
vocal coach, or as Giovanni Maria Anfossi, her piano coach, and Ildebrando
Pizzetti, her composition coach.
Her first plays are from
the 1910s and in 1914 the Scala of Milan commission her a composition which will
become the symphonic poem entitled “Alba
dell’anima” (The Sunrise of the Soul),
in 1919 one of her tone poem, which lyrics were written by her sister Maria, poetess,
was played at the Politeama Rossetti in Trieste [2].
Her symphonic poem,
played at the Augustus Theatre in Rome, and directed by the magnificent Master Tullio
Serafin with the Santa Cecilia’s Orchestra, was defineted by the "Giornale d’Italia"
(The Newspaper of Italy) “such as a baptism of the Feminism in music” because
for the first time on the theatrical table there was the name of a female
composer [3].
In the 30’s she met and
established with the Director of the
Scala Choir, Vittore Veneziani [4], a long lasting collaboration which will be
interrupted only with the world war but will restart at the end of that one.
In the 50’s she was
eletted Vice President of the Italian Musician Trade Union, in Italian SMI
Sindacato dei Musicisti Italiani [5], and won few international awards as that one
for women composers in Basilea and that
one in Trieste with Campanelle (Little
Bells) Song [6]. In the USA she won the second and First award in the New York
Musical Association with the composition for piano and singing called “Villereccia
Song” [7]. Her lyrics were too much appreciated in the USA and even produced by the
Schirmer right from the 30’s but were
also appreciated all over the world if
they were played in the most important world’s theaters such as the
Metropolitan Opera of New York, the Royal Albert Hall of London, the Scala in
Milan, the Opera in Brema and also in the Opera in Budapest.
From 1951 to 1966 she
became Principal of the Lyceum of
Milan and therefore she decided to
organized classes, concerts, awards [8] to give talented young people the opportunity to learn
and to be noticed.
In 1965 the execution of
one of her composition by the Orchestra of RAI (The Italian National
Television) was celebrated even by the “Bible of the Music”: Billboard [9]while in this same years, her
last, she was honoured also by the Italian Republic for her artistic and philanthropic
engagement as in the past years she was also decorated for her high merits for
her compositions by the Italian Queen [10]. Now the Italian Republic too glorified her
work with two awards, the only female composer to receved the Ordine di
Commendatore of the Italian Republic [11] in the 1964 and in 1969 just one year
before she died, on 19th December 1970, in Brivio which has founded a local band
called “Giulia Recli” in her honour.
[1] “Chi è?: Dizionario degli italiani di oggi”, FORMIGGINI A. F., Ed. Formiggini, 1928, pag. 403.
[2] “Le Lombarde in musica”, Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica, Colombo, 2008, pag. 136.
[3] Ivi, pag. 135.
[4] Ivi, pag. 138.
[5] Ivi, pag. 141.
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Gender Opportunity OG The First Italian blog on Women's Studies by Silvia S.G. Palandri
Monday, 18 January 2016
Giulia who composed the Baptism of the Feminism, reach regal decorations and become “Commendatore” of the Italian Republic
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