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Rise and
decline of Bolognese composer
Stefano Gobatti, on the 150th
anniversary of his birth, in “Il
Carrobbio"XXVIII, Bologna, Pàtron, 2002, pp.211-16.
If
nowadays composer Stefano Gobatti seems to be
scarcely known, however, around 1870 he met with a period of great fame,
when his first opera I Goti was
staged on its first prémière at the Teatro Comunale of Bologna on 30 November
1873 and received such enthusiastic welcome to be remembered by historians as
one of the most resounding successes of the whole history of serious opera.
Stefano Gobatti was born in Bergantino ( today in the province of Rovigo) in
1852; after his success with I Goti, he was conferred the
honorary Bolognese citizenship, which had only been conferred to
composers Giuseppe Verdi (1867) and Richard Wagner (1872) before him.
Only few days had passed from the triumphal prémière of I Goti, when the junta
of the Commune of Bologna welcomed
the proposal of the Communal Council to name Gobatti as an honorary citizen of
Bologna. The Acts of the junta dating to 8 December 1873 are as follows:
“It seems to councillor Albicini that if Bologna cannot boast the young
maestro’s musical paternity, as a matter of fact it was a Bolognese maestro
who taught him the first rudiments of this art, and it was on the Teatro
Comunale stage that he met with the splendid triumph of his first work;
thereafter he thinks it seemly for the Commune,
in order also to fulfill the engagement taken in the Council and to
encourage Gobatti to continue along a path so satisfactorily started,
to confer him this honorary title. Councillors Mrs Tacconi and Berti
propose to submit the Council with the honorary citizenship; this proposal is
put to the vote and is unanimously approved by the junta.”
The
Communal Council of Bologna met on
19 December 1873 and on that occasion deliberated to confer the honorary
citizenship to Stefano Gobatti, who at the time was only 21 years old.
Giuseppe Busi.
Archivio Storico del
Comune di Bologna, Atti della Giunta comunale, 8 dicembre 1873, Prot. 11667,
o.d.g. 1141.
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