If any of our American readers ever have to make an emergency stop (let's actually really hope not) at Milan's American Consulate General on via Principe Amedeo, you can at least make the experience more memorable to your music education. Right across the street from the Consulate is Arrigo Boito's old house. A plaque announcing his tenure sits on Via Montebello, number 35, right around the corner. (Picture above is a composite from about 8 photos...so it's all trippy-like).
The plaque, embossed with the date 1918 (Boito’s death) reads:
“Arrigo Boito – who gave great works of music and poetry to Italian theater and he joined his mind, his heart, and his life in supreme union of virtue and beauty – lived in this house for a long time together with his brother Camillo, architect, maestro, noble writer on the arts.”
While studying music at the Milan Conservatoire and being bff4e&e with Verdi and Ponchielli, Boito lived a comfortable distance to the center of town. When he passed away in 1918, he was buried in the Cimitero Monumentale.
Since we’re not big on visiting cemeteries (although the beautiful and impressive Cimitero Monumentale really is something extraordinary), we try to take walks downtown past the late maestro’s house every once in a while to pay respects. I also sometimes pour some 40 oz malt on the curb…much love to my homie.
