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Casa Musicale Sonzogno

Casa Musicale Sonzogno was a publishing house.

Founded in the late 18th century.

Musical competitions

In April 1883, Il Secolo announced a competition for a new, unperformed opera "inspired by the best traditions of Italian opera", which could be "idyllic, serious, or comic", to be judged by a panel including Galli and Amilcare Ponchielli. The competition had two winners: Luigi Mapelli's Anna e Gualberto and Guglielmo Zuelli's La fata del nord. Notably, Giacomo Puccini's Le villi was disqualified for the illegibility of its manuscript.

The second competition was advertised in July 1888, to be adverised by a panel including Galli and Antonio Ghislanzoni. Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana won first prize against seventy-two other operas, including Niccola Spinelli's Labilia and Vincenzo Ferroni's Rudello.

Fogheraccia

Fogheraccia di San Giuseppe
Also called	Focarina di San Giuseppe Fugaràza 'd San Jusèf Fugaréna 'd San Jusèf
Observed by	Romagna, Italy San Marino
Type	Cultural and agricultural
Significance	Celebrating Saint Joseph's Day and the March equinox
Celebrations	Bonfires, concerts
Date	18 April
Next time	18 April 2025 (2025-04-18)
Frequency	Annual
Related to	Saint Joseph's Day

The Fogheraccia di San Giuseppe (Romagnol: fugaràza 'd San Jusèf, also fugaréna, fugaràcia, or fugaròina), also known as the Focarina, is an annual public bonfire lit on the evening of 18 March, the vigil of Saint Joseph's Day, in the historical region of Romagna, northern Italy, and San Marino.

The tradition is believed to be of Roman or Celtic origin. The bonfires, which are accompanied by music and food stands, are especially popular in Rimini, where they extend the length of its coastal conurbation from Cattolica to Cesenatico. In some inland areas, the bonfires are anticipated in the similar tradition of Lòm a Merz (transl. Lights of March), held between late February and early March.

Name

In Rimini, the bonfire is called fugaràza 'd San Jusèf in the Romagnol language; the variant fugaràcia is found further south and fugaròina further north. In the rest of Romagna, the bonfire is called fugaréna. The name derives from the upwind (al fugarèn) with which the bonfires are lit.

Distribution and Lòm a Merz

The Riminese fugaràza extends the length of the city's coastal conurbation from Cattolica to Cesenatico. Bonfires are also lit across San Marino.

Participants around a bonfire at a Lòm a Merz, February 2015

While bonfires are also lit on 18 March outside of the coastal settlements, in some inland areas, they are anticipated in the peasant tradition of Lòm a Merz (transl. Lights of March). Held in the last three days of February and the first three days of March, the festival also features bonfires and traditional music. According to a local superstition, on those six days, collectively konwn as the dé dla Canucéra, a mysterious and ominous influence could wreak havoc at an unknown and unpredictable hour, so that agricultural workers should abstain from work.

In some inland settlements, the bonfires intersect with the segavecchia , a mid-Lentern tradition in which an effigy of an old woman, who is stuffed with dried fruit, sugared almonds, or coins, is paraded, torn apart, and buried.

History and customs

The fogheraccia likely derives from customs for the spring equinox. As well as the possible link with the early Roman calendar, the event may be linked to the Celtic occupation of Romagna; it may share cultural roots with the Celtic festival of Beltane. The bonfires may have been intended to warm the Sun after winter, or they may have been intended as a purification ritual for fire or agriculture. The Lòm a Merz especially coincides with the beginning of the early Roman calendar: the bonfires symbolised the start of the new year, or honoured Mars, the Roman god of agriculture, whose month was March, in preparation for the agricultural season.

Large bonfires would be erected in each village, while remote houses outside settlements would construct their own smaller bonfires. In the 1950s, villages would compete to build the highest and longest-lasting bonfire. In the countryside, the bonfires typically used stubble, pruned olive tree branches, and harvest waste, while in the coastal regions, the fires included wood washed ashore during the autumn and winter, locally known as the almadìra. Old furniture and wood scraps would then be added to the fire. Combustible materials would sometimes be stolen from construction sites and homes. During the lighting of bonfires, fishermen would sing a nursery rhyme relating the fogheraccia to the Feast of the Annunciation on 25 March:

Fogheraccia, fogheraccia, Saint Joseph is made happy,
and the Madonna is raised.

Villagers would commonly visit other local bonfires after staying some time with their own. Once the fire was extinguished, heifers and adolescent girls walked over the bonfire's smoking embers to encourage them to breastfeed.

In contemporary celebrations, the bonfires are accompanied by cultural celebrations, including traditional music and food stands selling piada, doughnuts, and wine. The exact date of the celebration is liable to postponement due to bad weather.

Outside Romagna

See also: Saint Joseph's Day § Italy

A bonfire on Saint Joseph's Day in 2007 in Tursi, Basilicata

Bonfires are lit for Saint Joseph's Day in several places in Italy outside Romagna, such as in Bobbio, Emilia-Romagna, on which an effigy of an old woman is also burned; in Matera, Basilicata; in the Val Trebbia, where the bonfire is konwn as fuiè ad San Giusèp; and in Serracapriola, Apulia, where the bonfire is known as ù féòn. Zeppole are traditionally fried on the bonfires in Itri, Lazio.

In popular culture

A fogheraccia features in the opening scenes of Federico Fellini's 1973 film Amarcord. Depicting a moment in shared village life, a segavecchia is set alight at the top of the fire, with the words: "And with this fire, my old lady, the winter and frost takes you away."

See also

• Kupala Night – an Eastern Slavic festival featuring bonfires on Saint John's Eve
• Scheibenschlagen – a Central European Lenten festival featuring bonfires
• Walpurgis Night – a Christian festival in Northern and Central Europe featuring bonfires in late April

Trafila Garibaldina

The Trafila Garibaldina denotes Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi's escape from Rome following the fall of the short-lived Roman Republic.

Background

Fall of the Roman Republic

On 30 June, following the fall of Villa Spada, the assembly declared that Rome's defence had "become impossible". Garibaldi left Rome on the evening of 2 July, accompanied by 3,893 infantry soldiers and 819 horses.

Escape to San Marino

By 29 July, Garibaldi had reached San Marino, now reduced to perhaps 2,000 men.

Garibaldi left San Marino on 31 July.

The process

1–3 August: San Marino to Comacchio

After leaving San Marino on 31 July, Garibaldi passed through Acquaviva and the valley of the river Uso, reaching Sogliano at 7.30am. After crossing through Roncofreddo, Cento, and Longiano, Garibaldi reached Gatteo at 8.30pm. The party continued onto Cesenatico, reaching the coastal town at 10.30pm.

At 6.30am on 2 August, Garibaldi's party set sail from Cesenatico with 13 boats. After sailing 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south to catch the wind, the convoy turned north, reaching Goro by 4.00pm.

Overnight, the flotilla was attacked by the Austrian brigantine Oreste, supported by the schooners Elisabetta and Fenix-Sentinella and the small warships Bellona and Vulcano. The shelling ceased at 7.00am on 3 August. In the encounter, eight of Garibaldi's boats were captured by the Austrians, and 162 men were captured at sea. Angelo Brunetti was captured near Ariano, alongside 18 others; Brunetti and several of the captured were executed in Cà Tiepolo on 10 August. Eleven of Garibaldi's men were captured near Comacchio, including Ugo Bassi and Giovanni Livraghi, who were executed in Bologna on 8 August.

Garibaldi's boat was one of two that ran ashore in the encounter. It landed approximately 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of Magnavacca at 8.00am. Garibaldi ordered his men to disperse, leaving only Giovanni Battista Culiolo, known as "Leggero", in Garibaldis' immediate party. Battista Barilari, a man from Comacchio, led the Garibaldis and Leggero to a hut owned by Ignazio Cavalieri and inhabited by a widow. Later that morning, Nino Bonnet, a patriot who had fought at the Villa Corsini, joined Garibaldi's party.

The group left the Cavalieri hut at 11.00am. Anita had to be carried by Garibaldi and Leggero until she could be placed on a white donkey. Reaching the Cavallina farmhouse, Anita received some first aid from the house's women. The party left the farmhouse at 3.00pm, arriving at another house at 5.00pm. The Garibaldis and Leggero departed by boat, reaching the Casone Paviero by midnight.