{"id":2617,"date":"2018-05-30T14:12:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T14:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ripm.org\/cnc\/?p=2617"},"modified":"2018-06-01T15:52:06","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:52:06","slug":"viaforas-caricatures-in-musical-america-ripms-illustrations-of-the-week-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/?p=2617","title":{"rendered":"Viafora\u2019s Caricatures in Musical America<\/i> RIPM\u2019s \u201cIllustrations of the Week\u201d (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was in this way that Gianni Viafora, arguably the most important caricaturist of musical personalities during the first quarter of the twentieth century, was introduced to the readers of Musical America<\/em>, a journal to which he contributed extensively.\u00a0[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce one of the cleverest caricaturists in this city, Mr. Viafora, who is to draw pictures exclusively for <\/em>Musical America… The fine satire and subtle humor of Mr. Viafora\u2019s sketches have long since made him a favorite with operagoers and opera artists alike and the readers of two continents, especially those of Italian and American nationality, are familiar with the name of the great artist<\/em>.\u00a0[2]<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gianni Viafora was born in 1870 in Cosenza, a city in Calabria, Italy; in 1899 he married the well-known soprano Gina Ciaparelli; and, three years later the Viaforas settled in New York.\u00a0 After contributing caricatures to publications in Chicago and New York and to magazines in Italy, Viafora became a regular contributor to Musical America<\/em> in 1911.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Viafora (top left) with the Bass Pompilio Malatesta, the baritone Riccardo Stracciari, and Theodore Bauer, Representative of the Boston Opera House (Photo taken between 1915 and 1920)
\nBains Collection, Library of Congress, LC-B2-4472-1. hdl.loc.gov\/loc.pnp\/ggbain.26104, accessed 29 May 2018.<\/span><\/div>\n

His most extensive contribution to the popular music magazine appeared in a regular column entitled \u201cMusical America\u2019s Gallery of Celebrities,\u201d which contains 222 numbered caricatures of some of the most celebrated musical personalities active in the musical life of the period. As demonstrated by his first and last caricatures drawn for this series, Viafora\u2019s range of subjects extended from the most revered (Enrico Caruso) to those, while well-known at the time, all but forgotten today (Umberto Sorrentino).<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"
\nVol. 23 No. 7 (18 December 1915): 7; Vol. 32 No. 4 (22 May 19120): 7.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the manner in which Viafora drew his subjects clearly reflected his kind nature. For his drawings do not depict his subjects by grotesquely exaggerating a physical feature, which is the manner we today often recognize a caricature. Rather, his drawings often attempt to depict an aspect of the inner character of his subjects. Of course, there is the occasional big belly or large nose here and there. But more often than not it is a wrinkle, a frown, the position of a hand, the stance of an artist while performing, a slightly troubled countenance, a characteristic facial expression or a glimmer or a smile or sparkling eyes that reveals something special and unique about the nature of the subject. Here are a few more examples of drawings from Viafora\u2019s \u201cGallery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

(L-top) The Polish pianist, composer, statesman, and politician Ignacy Paderewski; (R-top) Victor Maurel, the celebrated French operatic baritone; (L-bottom) the iconic American band composer John Philip Sousa; (R-bottom) internationally acclaimed violinist Maud Powell
\nVol. 23 No. 9 (1 January 1916): 7; Vol. 29 No. 4 (23 November 1918): 7; Vol. 24 No. 6 (10 June 1916): 7; Vol. 25 No. 6 (9 December 1916): 7.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

More caricatures of this marvelous artist will appear in future postings.\u00a0 You can expect to see contemporary photos of Viafora\u2019s subjects alongside the artist\u2019s depiction of them, which allows one to appreciate the delicacy of his approach.\u00a0 And, accompanying each image will be brief texts from Musical America\u00a0<\/em>which we hope will offer insights into this extraordinarily rich and surprisingly little-explored documentary resource.<\/p>\n

As you can see, no musical contemporary was safe from Viafora\u2019s pen, not even his wife!<\/p>\n

\"\"Vol. 27 No. 26 (27 April 1918): 7.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RIPM search tip<\/u>: For more on Viafora and his drawings in\u00a0Musical America,\u00a0<\/em>access the RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals, and fill in the following fields: Periodical:\u00a0Musical America\u00a0<\/em>(New York, 1898-1899, 1905-1922 [-1964]), Keyword(s): Viafora.<\/p>\n

Click <\/strong>here<\/a> <\/span>to\u00a0subscribe to RIPM\u2019s\u00a0Curios, News, and Chronicles!\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When is our next posting?\u00a0To find out, follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

RIPM\u00a0is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing\u00a0access to\u00a0music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning\u00a0under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres,\u00a0RIPM\u00a0produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and\u00a0RIPM\u00a0Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).<\/p>\n

WWW.RIPM<\/strong>.ORG<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> This post and ongoing series relies heavily on a recently published essay by RIPM\u2019s Founder and Director, H. Robert Cohen. For more, see H. Robert Cohen, \u201cViafora\u2019s \u2018Gallery of Celebrities\u2019 in\u00a0Musical America\u00a0<\/em>(1915-1920),”\u00a0Music Cultures in Sounds, Words and Images: Essays in Honor of Zdravko Bla\u017eekovi\u0107,\u00a0<\/em>(Vienna: Hollitzer Verlag, 2018): 535-569.<\/span><\/div>\n

[2]<\/a> Musical America, <\/em>Vol. 15 No. 2 (18 November 1911), 21.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was in this way that Gianni Viafora, arguably the most important caricaturist of musical personalities during the first quarter of the twentieth century, was introduced to the readers of Musical America, a journal to which he contributed extensively.\u00a0[1] Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce one of the cleverest caricaturists in this city, Mr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2658,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions\/2658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}