Il Cristoforo Colombo di Carlo Andrea Gambini : un progetto sinfonico-corale nell'Italia di medio Ottocento

In the mid-nineteenth century, Genoa had a very lively musical life which shared the prevailing romantic climate in Europe and Italy. In this cultural context the figure of Carlo Andrea Gambini (1819-1865) stands out. He belonged to a family of the commercial bourgeoisie and was a friend of Giuseppe Mazzini. Gambini, who died when he was barely 46, achieved a prominent position in Italy as a pianist, composer and music critic. He won important composition competitions, wrote assiduously for the Gazzetta musicale di Milano and developed a catalogue that ranges from opera to symphonic, chamber, piano and organ music.

His symphonic ode, Cristoforo Colombo, ossia La scoperta del Nuovo Mondo, was performed with great success on June 1st 1851 at the Società Filarmonica in Florence - in the same months as Verdi's Rigoletto. This peculiar experiment in symphonic-vocal composition celebrates the Genoese hero not in operatic style, but rather according to Northern European models. Gambini and his poet, Giuseppe Torre, translated a French text by Joseph-François Méry, Charles Chaubet and Sylvain Saint-Étienne, which had been set a few years earlier by Félicien David.

The present article discusses the genesis, compositional process and events surrounding the first performance of the symphonic ode, making use of a recently discovered series of letters by Gambini. A comparison of the French text and its Italian translation highlights several variants, not devoid of ideological implications regarding the historical image of Columbus, which was and still is highly controversial. [Publisher's text]