Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor who loved music

Lecture in Italian

Napoleon Bonaparte was a great man, leader, general, emperor, and a persuasive influencer. Using propaganda to assert his power and his empire represented a constant mission. He sensed that music, too, could help to assert his personal power. It cannot be said, however, that he did not have a sincere and heartfelt love for music. As a boy he had studied singing at the military school in Brienne. By all accounts he sang terribly out of tune, but while there he acquired a taste for the sweet cantabile style of Italian composers: Giovanni Paisiello, Gaspare Spontini, Niccolò Zingarelli, Ferdinando Paër and others. This engaging 'Napoleonic' itinerary, taking in works by well-known composers, such as Tchaikovsky, Honegger, Rota and Schoenberg, includes many curiosities and works of great interest.