Evangelista Gennaro Gorga

Itinerary edited by UNIVERSITY OF CAGLIARI

Biography

Evangelista Gennaro Gorga was born in Brocco (now Broccostella, in the Roman hinterland), on 6^th February 1865. His family was part of the local nobility. From an early age he had the chance to pursue his love of music and studied piano and voice in Rome, where his parents sent him to attend the best schools. 

As a pianist and young man, Evan (the nickname he became famous with) started performing in aristocratic and upper-middle-class circles in Rome, and many appreciated his musical talent, wit, good looks and refined manners.

His interest in musical instruments (mainly old and antique instruments he repaired himself) led him to create the first and most important nucleus of his collections. Such an interest stemmed both from his innate passion for music and the experience he had gained while working from an early age in the piano shop his brother had opened in Rome in Via del Corso.

With the help of his brother, he became a skilful artisan who created, restored and tuned pianos, organs and harmoniums; he was also called upon to tune all the pianos belonging to the queen of Italy and the whole royal family.

However, Gorga would go down in music history thanks to his gifts as an opera singer. Although he had studied voice as a tenor, he got his start as opera singer by chance. He was called to replace his friend Francesco Tamagno, who was scheduled to perform in the title role of Verdi’s Ernani but fell sick. Gorga reluctantly accepted; he was such a success in the role that in opera circles he would be introduced as a “phenomenal tenor”.  

Gorga’s ties to the city of Cagliari started with his debut as “Primo Tenore Assoluto” (First Absolute Tenor) in the “Stagione di Carnevale” that took place at the Teatro Civico di Cagliari from1^st January to 27^th February 1895. He performed the roles of Wilhelm Meister in Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon, Le Chevalier des Grieux in Jules Massenet’s Manon, and Fritz Kobus in Pietro Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz. He was so successful that on 23^rd February a soiree was held to celebrate him and a sonnet was composed for the occasion on “colourful small paper by some theatre subscribers and art fellows”, as reported on the entertainment section of the local newspaper Unione Sarda on 24^th February 1895 (cf. two extracts from the Unione Sarda dating respectively 22 and 24 February 1894).  

The music producer Giulio Ricordi heard Gorga sing during an audition and chose him to perform in the role of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini’s new opera La Bohème that would debut at the Teatro Regio di Torino on 1^st February 1896, directed by Arturo Toscanini. Puccini had reservations because he feared Gorga could not cope with the strain of this performance (Gorga performing as Rodolfo. Image reprint permission kindly granted by his great niece M. Cristina). Fortunately, both Puccini’s opera and Gorga’s performance proved to be very successful and Gorga impressed the maestro with his talent. The day after the debut, Puccini paid Gorga a compliment by sending him a copy of the score of La Bohéme with the following dedication: To my talented first tenor as Rodolfo, Mister Evan Gorga.  A souvenir from Giacomo Puccini.

In 1899, when he was 34 and at the height of his success, Gorga decided to give up performing. Apparently, his family and his extremely jealous wife Loreta D’Abundo (who thoroughly disliked the many love letters her husband received) forced him to stop. He decided to devote himself fully to his instrument collection, a hobby that was then considered as a more fitting pastime for a nobleman than performing onstage. Gorga was mainly interested in finding antique musical instruments; however, he would collect anything that might sound or look antique and any object that relatively honest antique dealers offered him. This passion bordered on obsession; thanks to the money he had earned during his performing career and through his wife’s estates, he could buy, exchange and sell items at will. In order to store his entire collection and make it available to an elite audience, he rented ten flats at 235 Via Cola di Rienzo in Rome. He divided his collection into 30 sections that amounted to 150,000 pieces in all. 

As he himself wrote, Gorga had the honour to let people admire what he defined as a Museum of Music History, “possibly the most complete museum of musical instruments that exists in the world” (G. M. Viti). He showed it to illustrious figures such as princes, politicians, intellectuals, music directors and musicians. His guests included Arturo Toscanini, Pietro Mascagni, Ottorino Respighi, the Duke of Aosta and the Infante of Spain.

The quality of his collections was so remarkable that in 1926 Giuseppe Maria Viti wrote: “when, for the first time, I found myself face to face with Gorga’s amazing collections, I was so astonished at their sheer size and complexity, and so fascinated by their secret, magical splendour. When I finally beheld this tenacious collector, I thought it impossible that one single person could have made such a titanic effort in such a relatively short time. In all honesty, it really required an effort that only several generations could have made”.  

The section devoted to Gorga’s archaeological collection reached an impressive total of 40,000 pieces including antique bronzes, pottery, glass, stuccos, plasters and marbles. All these objects covered a time period from prehistory to the late Middle Ages. In 1929, however, Gorga’s difficult financial situation became untenable as he still had to pay the rent on ten apartments and continued acquiring pieces for his collections. He was thus forced to ask the government to confiscate all his collections so a part would not be auctioned off to pay his debts. In 1949, Gorga chose to donate all his collections to the Italian Ministry of Public Education, which in turn offered “to arrange and display the most interesting pieces in State-owned institutions”.

Evan Gorga died of pneumonia in Rome on 6^th December 1957, aged 93. In 1964, Luisa Cervelli work hard to ensure that all Gorga’s collections were used to create the new National Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome. 

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Timeline

 6^th February 1865 Evangelista Gennaro Gorga was born in Brocco (now Broccostella), in the province of Frosinone
 1^st January 1895 He made his debut at the Teatro Comunale di Cagliari as “Primo Tenore Assoluto”
 1^st February 1896 He was chosen by G. Puccini to perform in the role of Rodolfo in La Bohème, at the Teatro Regio di Torino
 3^rd October 1896 He successfully performed at the Politeama genovese in I Lombardi alla prima crociata
 1899 He retired from the stage to devote himself fully to his collecting activity
 1911 During the International Exhibition in Rome, 280 musical instruments from Gorga’s collection were exhibited at the Castel Sant’Angelo
 1949 Gorga’s collections were acquired by the Italian government
 1^st January 1955 A part of Gorga’s archaeological collection was entrusted to the University of Cagliari
 1990 The Archaeological Collection of the University of Cagliari became a permanent exhibition
 2010 The Archaeological Collection of the University of Cagliari underwent restoration
 6^th December 1957 Gorga died of pneumonia in Rome, aged 93
 1964 Gorga’s collections were displayed in the new National Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome

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Cities where he lived and worked

Rome  Cagliari  Genoa  Turin  Trento  Naples  Würzburg  Catania  Roma

 

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