{"id":2984,"date":"2010-05-27T09:26:07","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=2984"},"modified":"2010-05-27T10:29:39","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T14:29:39","slug":"oh-paoletta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2010\/05\/oh-paoletta\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh Paoletta!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mark<\/a>

Mark Palkovic, Head of the CCM Library, with the bust of Pietro Floridia<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a total bust!\u00a0 Really.\u00a0 A bronze sculpture of composer Pietro Floridia has been donated to the University of Cincinnati and has found a home in the Gorno Memorial Music Library in the Blegen Library Building.\u00a0 The setting is entirely appropriate because back in 2004, the UC Libraries were about to add the 3,000,000th<\/sup> volume to its collections, with the desire that this addition be suitably rare and unusual, and, reflect the University\u2019s historical ties to the City of Cincinnati.\u00a0 Dean Victoria A. Montavon marked this noteworthy event by designating the purchase of a collection of music, costume drawings, and documents of the opera, Paoletta,<\/em> composed by Floridia as the official \u201cThree Millionth.\u201d\u00a0 The materials joined the collections in the UC Libraries\u2019 Archives & Rare Books Library.<\/p>\n

\"Pietro<\/a>

Pietro Floridia <\/p><\/div>\n

The Italian-born composer was briefly on the faculty of the College of Music (now part of College-Conservatory of Music) from 1906 to 1908.\u00a0 As part of the annual industrial expositions that were a keynote part of Cincinnati life in the late 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup> centuries, the trustees of the 1910 exposition commissioned Floridia to compose an opera to help celebrate their commemoration of Ohio Valley settlement.\u00a0\u00a0 It was the first instance in the United States where a municipality commissioned such a piece.\u00a0 The opera was a melodramatic story involving the Princess Paoletta, a magic mirror, the Crusades, feuding aristocrats, and any number of deceptions and turns-of- events.\u00a0 It debuted in Music Hall on August 29, 1910 with a chorus of 140 and President William Howard Taft in attendance.\u00a0 Paoletta<\/em> ran for twenty-nine performances to the end of the 1910 Industrial Exposition that September.<\/p>\n

\"Oh<\/a>

Costume Sketch, Paoletta, Act IV <\/p><\/div>\n

Now, a century later and reflecting the 150th<\/sup> anniversary of Pietro Floridia\u2019s birth in Sicily, a bust of him has come to Cincinnati.\u00a0 Four Italian-American cultural groups commissioned the sculpture, the original of which has been donated to Floridia\u2019s hometown of Modica, Italy. \u00a0These groups sponsored an exact replica \u2013 UC\u2019s copy \u2013 in honor of Grace Susino, late wife of Floridia aficionado<\/em> Frank Susino.\u00a0 It has been placed in the beautifully restored reading room of the CCM library on the 6th<\/sup> floor of Blegen.\u00a0 CCM Librarian Mark Palkovic has been instrumental in coordinating this donation that greatly adds to an historical event in the city\u2019s heritage, as well as a notable milestone in the University of Cincinnati Libraries\u2019 history.<\/p>\n

\"Oh<\/a>

Costume Sketch, Gomarez in disguise, Act II<\/p><\/div>\n

To learn more about the Paoletta<\/em> archival collection in ARB and about the opera production, including a brief musical selection, please use the following links to the inventory and the story: http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/libraries\/arb\/archives\/collections\/Paoletta.html<\/span><\/a> and http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/libraries\/arb\/archives\/collections\/documents\/PAOLETTA.pdf<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kevin Grace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a total bust!\u00a0 Really.\u00a0 A bronze sculpture of composer Pietro Floridia has been donated to the University of Cincinnati and has found a home in the Gorno Memorial Music Library in the Blegen Library Building.\u00a0 The setting is entirely … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,77,13],"tags":[54,49,58],"class_list":["post-2984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-ccm-library","category-uclibraries","tag-featured-resource","tag-new-and-notable","tag-urban-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}