Franco Fornari (Rivergaro, 18 April 1921 - Milan, 20 May 1985) was an Italian psychiatrist, who was influenced by Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion. He was a professor at the University of Milan and the University of Trento. From 1973 to 1978 he served as president of the Società Psicoanalitica Italiana.
Luigi Illica (9 May 1857 – 16 December 1919) was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini (usually with Giuseppe Giacosa), Pietro Mascagni, Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano, Baron Alberto Franchetti and other important Italian composers. His most famous opera libretti are those for La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Andrea Chénier.
Illica was born at Castell'Arquato. His personal life sometimes imitated his libretti. The reason he is always photographed with his head slightly turned is because he lost his right ear in a duel over a woman. When silent films based on Illica's operas were made, his name appeared in large letters on advertisements because distributors could only guarantee that his stories would be used, and not that they would be accompanied by the music of the appropriate composer.
As a playwright of considerable quality, he is today remembered through one of Italy's oldest awards, the Luigi Illica International Prize founded in 1961, which goes to world famous opera singers, opera conductors, directors and authors. The prize is now awarded every two years and alternates with the Illica Opera Stage International Competition, which offers prizes and debut opportunities to young singers.
Lazare Ponticelli (born Lazzaro Ponticelli; 24 December 1897, later mistranscribed as 7 December – 12 March 2008), Knight of Vittorio Veneto, was at 110, the last surviving officially recognized veteran of the First World War from France and the last poilu of its trenches to die.Born in Italy, he travelled on his own to France at the age of eight. Aged 16, he lied about his age in order to join the French Army at the start of the war in 1914, before being transferred against his will to the Italian Army the following year. After the war, he came back to Paris where he and his brothers founded the piping and metal work company Ponticelli Frères (Ponticelli Brothers), which produced supplies for the Second World War effort and as of 2023 is still in business. He also worked with the French Resistance against the Nazis.
Ponticelli was the oldest living man of Italian birth and the oldest man living in France at the time of his death. Every Armistice Day until 2007 he attended ceremonies honoring deceased veterans. In his later years, he criticized war, and stored his awards from the First World War in a shoe box. While he felt unworthy of the state funeral the French government offered him, he eventually accepted one. However, he asked that the procession emphasise the common soldiers who died on the battlefield. French president Nicolas Sarkozy honored his wish and dedicated a plaque to them at the procession.
Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908 – 5 December 1989) was an Italian physicist. He coined the term "neutrino" in conversations with Enrico Fermi distinguishing it from the heavier "neutron". He has been described as "one of the leading nuclear physicists of the twentieth century." He was involved in the anti-nuclear peace movement.
Franco Fabrizi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfraŋko faˈbrittsi]; 15 February 1916 – 18 October 1995) was an Italian actor.
Francesco Alberoni (31 December 1929 – 14 August 2023) was an Italian journalist and a professor of sociology. He was a board member and senior board member (chairman) of RAI, the Italian state television network, from 2002 to 2005.Alberoni was among the few regular front page writers of Corriere della Sera, Italy's most popular newspaper, which published his articles from 1973 to 2011. He wrote a four-column editorial titled "Public & Private" (begun in 1982) for the Monday edition. He was the widower of Rosa Giannetta.
Ersilio Tonini (20 July 1914 – 28 July 2013) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Ravenna-Cervia from 1975 to 1990, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1994. When Cardinal Paul Augustin Mayer died on 30 April 2010, Cardinal Tonini became the oldest living cardinal. He died on 28 July 2013, a week after his 99th birthday.
Flaviano Labò (February 1, 1927 – February 13, 1991), was an Italian operatic tenor, particularly associated with heroic roles of the Italian repertory.
Labò was born at Borgonovo Val Tidone, near Piacenza. While in the army, he came to the notice of the conductor Antonino Votto, and subsequently studied with Ettore Campogalliani in Parma, Renato Pastorino in Milan and Valentino Metti in Piacenza. He made his stage debut at the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza, as Cavaradossi in Tosca, in 1954.
He quickly sang widely in Italy and various European opera houses, as
well as in South America, before making his debut on November 29, 1957, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as Alvaro in La forza del destino, where he sang thirteen roles in eight seasons, including Alfredo in La traviata, Manrico in Il trovatore, and Radamès in Aïda. In 1959, he sang at the New York City Opera as Calaf in Puccini's Turandot (conducted by Julius Rudel) and Rodolfo in La bohème (opposite Chester Ludgin as Marcello). He also appeared at the San Francisco Opera, and the opera houses of Philadelphia, Houston, and New Orleans.
Other important debuts were at the Royal Opera House in London, and the Palais Garnier in Paris, both as Radamès in Aïda in 1959. He first sang at La Scala in Milan, in the title role of Don Carlos, in 1960. He appeared at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1967, as Gualtiero in Il pirata, opposite Montserrat Caballé, and was a regular guest at the Verona Arena. He also made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera, the Teatro Nacional Sao Carlos in Lisbon, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
Labò was admired for his robust, typically Italianate voice, and his direct unaffected manner, other notable roles included Macduff in Verdi's Macbeth, Enzo in La Gioconda, and Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. His last performance was in Turin, as Ismaele in Nabucco, in 1987. He died in an automobile accident caused by fog in Milan at the age of 64.
He made relatively few recordings, but can be heard in a complete Don Carlos, opposite Antonietta Stella, Ettore Bastianini, Boris Christoff, for Deutsche Grammophon, in 1960. He also recorded excerpts of Manon Lescaut, opposite Anna Moffo, for RCA, in 1963. Among his "pirated" recordings is a 1958 performance of Aida in Mexico City, with Anita Cerquetti, Nell Rankin, Cornell MacNeil, Fernando Corena, and Norman Treigle.