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33-597: Outside the city is the Villa Pisani , one of Andrea Palladio 's masterpieces. The nearby town of Cittadella in the same province is also a walled town. The ancient walls that surrounds Montagnana were built in the eleventh century to protect the town. It is a 2 km long wall with a height that varies between 6.5 and 8 meters. The current walls, which represent one of the most distinguished and best preserved examples of medieval military architecture in Europe, except

66-446: A piazza of the comune , and, on the other side, a rural frontage extending into gardens, with an agricultural setting beyond. Unlike many of Palladio's villas in purely rural settings, it has an upper storey, set apart from more public reception rooms on the main floor; twin suites of apartments are accessed by twin oval staircases that flank the central recess on the garden side. On the exterior, little differentiation between floors

99-556: A 1935 concert of Beethoven 's Missa Solemnis with Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (which also featured Elisabeth Rethberg , Marion Telva , and Ezio Pinza , broadcast by CBS ), a 1939 performance of Verdi 's Simon Boccanegra by the Metropolitan Opera , also with Rethberg and Pinza (broadcast by NBC ), and various Otellos from the 1930s onwards—including

132-480: A 1941 version with Lawrence Tibbett , Stella Roman , and Alessio de Paolis , under Ettore Panizza . Some of these transcriptions have been issued on LP and CD. On 6 August 1926, Martinelli appeared in a Vitaphone short film, singing " Vesti la giubba " from Pagliacci , one of eight short films shown before the Warner Brothers feature film Don Juan starring John Barrymore . Several episodes of

165-401: A playboy, possessing a charming personality, a wealth of memorable anecdotes and an impressive head of hair that grew silver with age. He was married to Adele Previtali (d. 1980) from 7 August 1913 until his death; they had three children: Bettina (born 1915), Antonio (born 1917), and Giovanna (born 1926). Soprano Colette D'Arville was his lover during the 1930s and 1940s. His sense of humour

198-410: A sloping roof hidden under the pitch equipped with siege engines, there were other warehouses and quarters for soldiers placed as a garrison of the fortress in times of war emergency. An area without buildings and used as a cultivated pomerium to face long sieges was all around the walls from the inside. Around the walls ran a large moat (the current picturesque and green Vallo) flooded with the water of

231-819: A version of the building in his I quattro libri dell'architettura . The woodcut shows an idealized, amplified form of the villa, in which the central block is flanked by arched gateway structures that end in tall, three-storey tower-like pavilions. In 1996, UNESCO included the Villa Pisani in the World Heritage Site " City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto ". The villa continues to be in private ownership. The Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland , Kinlet Hall in

264-450: Is made: there is no obviously visible piano nobile . On the garden front, access to the park is from the central recessed portico only; a balustrade above a deep ditch keeps out informal wanderers. Construction of the villa was under way by September 1553, and it was complete in 1555. The central block is an uncompromising rectangle, with a pedimented tetrastyle portico, Ionic over Doric , that has been sunk into its wall-plane so that

297-1429: The Metropolitan Opera took place 20 November 1913, as Rodolfo in La Bohème , where the young tenor's easy high C and pure, silvery tone attracted favorable attention; he was a Met mainstay for 32 seasons, with 926 performances of 36 roles, appearing most often as Radames in Aida ; Otello ; Manrico in Il trovatore ; Don Alvaro in La forza del destino ; Calaf in Turandot and Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West ; but also as Arnold in Guglielmo Tell ; Eleazar in La Juive ; Enzo in La Gioconda ; Don Jose in Carmen ; Vasco de Gama in L'Africaine ; Canio in Pagliacci ; Pollione in Norma . He also sang in Boston , San Francisco and Chicago , often trying out new roles there, before singing them at

330-778: The United Kingdom , the old main building of the Ludwigsburg Palace , Drayton Hall in South Carolina, and Wilanów Palace in Warsaw were all inspired by Palladio's designs for the Villa Pisani. Giovanni Martinelli Giovanni Martinelli (22 October 1885 – 2 February 1969) was an Italian operatic spinto tenor . He was associated with the Italian lyric-dramatic repertory, although he performed French operatic roles to great acclaim as well. Martinelli

363-767: The messenger in Aida . On 29 December 1910, Martinelli made his professional debut at the Teatro dal Verme in Ernani . On 12 June 1911, Martinelli debuted in Rome as Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West ; he would continue singing in that role elsewhere in Italy including La Scala in 1912. Martinelli made his London debut at the Royal Opera House as Cavaradossi in Tosca on 22 April 1912. Martinelli's debut at

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396-571: The Great of Tuscany who later became the marquises of Este. Today’s construction (except for the Venetian room and the Austrian superstructures) dates back to the 13th century, when Ezzelino III da Romano, after having set it on fire in 1242, wanted to fortify Montagnana better. The building has a rectangular plan (46x26 metres) with a large internal courtyard. Until the early 19th century, the castle

429-544: The I Luoghi del Cuore, an initiative promoted by the FAI. The Rocca degli Alberi, which stands imposing and scenic on the valley from the west, was built by the Carraresi family in the biennium 1360-62 with exclusively military function. The fortified entrance consisted of a complex defensive system: along the entrance hall, dominated by two towers, there were four swing doors, two shutters and four drawbridges. A similar system

462-687: The Met. Outside the United States, Martinelli appeared in Paris and Buenos Aires during his prime but – oddly enough – his native Italy did not hear him at his peak. In 1937, he returned to London to sing at the Covent Garden in highly acclaimed performances of Otello and as Calaf, opposite the exceptionally powerful English dramatic soprano Eva Turner . Martinelli retired from the stage in 1950, although he gave one final performance in 1967 – at

495-423: The acoustic and electrical processes which are available on LP and CD reissues. Some feature other great Met singers of Martinelli's day, with whom he sang, include the sopranos Frances Alda , Geraldine Farrar and Rosa Ponselle , contralto Louise Homer , baritones Giuseppe De Luca and Lawrence Tibbett , and the bass Ezio Pinza . Transcription recordings were made of some of his live performances, including

528-597: The age of 81 – as Emperor Altoum in Turandot , in Seattle. During retirement he taught singing in New York, where one of his pupils was tenor Jack Harrold . Martinelli was essentially a spinto tenor of steely brilliance, commanding a strong high C ; his rigorously controlled technique gave him exceptional breath control, although it did not eschew some occasional tightness and squeezing out of notes, particularly during

561-413: The columns are embedded half-columns. On the garden front, the similar structure instead forms a screen across the fronts of a recessed portico surmounted by a loggia , which become in single recessed central feature. The Doric frieze runs uninterrupted round the building, further binding all elements together. There are no surviving autograph drawings related to this project. However, Palladio published

594-574: The complex of Castel San Zeno and the parts of the walls to the east and west that are older, date back to the middle of the 14th century, when the Carraresi, lords of Padua, wanted to enlarge and strengthen this essential frontier fort of the Paduan state against the Verona of the Scaligeri, which dominated the nearby Legnago. The urban space intramoenia was expanded on that occasion, and the new enclosure

627-429: The defenders. The perimeter towers, a total of 24, spaced of about 60 meters, are between 17 and 19 metres high. The external valley varies from 30 to 40 metres. The warehouses (canipe) were located inside the barrel-vaults that support the patrol path, in order to keep the goods produced in the countryside (we can still see the grooves to attach the wooden reinforcements). In the towers, with several floors and covered by

660-557: The east, towards Padua) and the Rocca degli Alberi (to the west, towards the Veronese area). Only later, in the 16th century, a third door (Porta Nova or Porta di Vicenza) was opened in the north to facilitate communication with the river port of Frassine. At the end of the 19th century a fourth passage was made towards the south, for access to the railway station (Porta XX Settembre). The medieval walls of Montagnana have been included among

693-530: The later phase of his career. In 1945, Martinelli retired from singing on stage but continued to make occasional appearances at charity recitals. Martinelli sang as Samson in Philadelphia in 1950 and as the emperor in a Seattle concert of Turandot in 1967. He died 2 February 1969, aged 83, at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City . In private life Martinelli was said to be something of

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726-417: The passage was then moved to the south side of the castle itself, protected by both this and the high lookout tower. The latter was originally supposed to be lower and covered by a wooden roof surmounted by a guardhouse. The Palio dei 10 Comuni del Montagnanese, commonly called "Palio di Montagnana" [1] because it takes place in the town of Montagnana, is a commemorating event in memory of the liberation from

759-677: The race, Montagnana is immersed in the medieval atmosphere with several activities: the Historical Parade through the city streets, the Tenzone (a competition) of archers, musicians and flag wavers, the Gonfalons race in addition to the suggestive Burning of the Fortress that is generally held the night before the race. Two of the 20th century's greatest operatic tenors, Giovanni Martinelli and Aureliano Pertile , were both born in

792-596: The river Frassine (border towards the Vicenza area) derived by means of a canal with raised embankments (the Fiumicello) as a defensive canal along which, on the Paduan side, there was an elevated outpost for the buildup of troops. All around the Montagnana area there were impassable swamps or floodable plains in case of war, so that the walled city was the key to the Paduan frontier to the west. The military structure

825-441: The town in 1885. Montagnana is famous for its prosciutto . In mid May, the city organises a festival with conferences and tastings that attracts thousands of visitors. Villa Pisani (Montagnana) The Villa Pisani is a patrician villa outside the city walls of Montagnana , Veneto , northern Italy . It was designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio about 1552, for Cardinal Francesco Pisani . Pisani

858-638: The tragic tyranny of Ezzelino III da Romano. Since 1977 it is held annually on the first Sunday of September renewing an ancient medieval tradition. The race includes two qualifiers and a final, on horses rode bareback by jockeys. The Oath of the Captains is the event that starts the Palio and until 2018 was held about a week before but in 2019 was held on the Thursday before the Palio Race. In conjunction with

891-526: Was also a patron of the painters Paolo Veronese and Giambattista Maganza and the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria , who provided sculptures of the Four Seasons for the villa, which is in fact provided with fireplaces to dispel winter chill. Unlike more typical Palladian villas – and their imitations in Britain, Germany and the United States – the Villa Pisani at Montagnana combines an urban front, facing

924-425: Was also encircled by four advanced perimeter fortifications (the bastions), now disappeared, and the two fortresses placed to defend the two gates were surrounded by a moat on the city side as well. The fortress, in its time, was impregnable and, in fact, until the advent of howitzers (16th century), it was never captured militarily. Access to the city was controlled by the fortified gates of the castle of San Zeno (to

957-448: Was built with superimposed layers of bricks and stones (trachyte transported by water from the nearby Euganean hills). The fortified city is enclosed in an irregular quadrilateral of about 600x300 metres with an area of 24 hectares and a perimeter of about two kilometres. The walls, crowned by Guelph-type battlements, are 6.5 to 8 metres high, with a thickness of 96–100 cm. Between one battlement and another, wooden fans served to shelter

990-476: Was in Castel San Zeno. Since 1963 the fortress contained the youth hostel, now moved to a structure a few meters outside the walls, and it can be visited in the period April–October. The castle of San Zeno (whose name derives from the nearby San Zeno church, recalls a phase of expansion of the veronese diocese) stands in the place of a high-medieval settlement that was the residence of the heirs of Hugh

1023-507: Was notorious, as was his criticism of other singers. Once, after listening to a baritone bellow the title role of Otello, he quipped "he sings it like a truck driver." A friend asked him what he thought of a famous American singer who also did the role. "Ah, now, he sings it like the truck". Martinelli made a large number of commercial recordings for Edison and the Victor Talking Machine Company / RCA Victor by

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1056-601: Was one of the most famous tenors of the 20th century, enjoying a long career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and appearing at other major international theatres. Martinelli was born 22 October 1885 in Montagnana , Province of Padua , Veneto in the Kingdom of Italy . After service as a clarinetist in a military band, he studied with Giuseppe Mandolini in Milan , and made his first operatic appearance in 1908 as

1089-400: Was surrounded by a moat that also isolated it from the city side. The structure was completed by towers (of which two remain) and the nearby lookout tower (about 40 metres high) which had to be a privileged point for sighting and defense of the city. Initially, the drawbridge that crossed the valley allowing access to the city, probably led to the inner courtyard of the castle. It is assumed that

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