Scapigliatura

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Scapigliatura is the term used for the period of renewal in Italian culture, around 1860-1880, pointing the way towards the realistic (verisimo) trend at the end of the century.

The term means "bohemianism", with its proponents, "scapigliati", being "dishevelled young men". The main force behind the movement consisted of the poets Arrigo Boito and Emilio Praga, the musician Franco Faccio and the painter Tranquillo Cremona.

The brotherhood of the scapigliati attempted to rejuvenate Italian culture through foreign influences, notably from Germany (the poetry of Heine and Hoffmann) and France (Baudelaire). The group also helped with the introduction of Wagner's music into Italy, with Faccio conducting the first Italian performances of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Franco Faccio was also responsible for two of the three scapigliatura operas - I profughi fiamminghi (with a libretto by Emilio Praga) and Amleto (to a text by Boito). It was on the lukewarm premiere of the former in 1863 that Faccio was fêted with a banquet where Boito read his ode All'arte italiana, which famously so offended Verdi that the composer refused to work with him when the publisher Ricordi first suggested a collaboration. The offending lines, "Forse già nacque chi sovra l'altare / Rizzerà l'arte, verecondo e puro, / Su quel'altar bruttato come un muro / Di lupanare" (Perhaps the man is already born who, modest and pure, will restore art to its altar stained like a brothel wall) Verdi took to pertain to himself and his work up to that point.