Under circumstances really along the lines of the best
Pirandello stories – maybe partially also due to its Sicilian connections
-, not only in terms of plot and characters, but especially of emotional sub-tones and
unspoken implications, I was suddenly and unexpectedly “enlisted” to perform in
my beautiful hometown, Trieste, to give a solo recital on December 27th
at the Sala Tripcovich.
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I realized only afterwards that I knew very little of the
history of the hall, not to speak of the shipping company that gave it its name or most of the people connected to it.
So I did some research and found, as often is the case with such matters, many
intertwined fascinating stories. One research lead to the next and I had to open many parentheses, much like in a long mathematical equation. I hope to keep it clear.
The concert hall where I just performed is known as Sala Tripcovich, carrying the
name of the shipping agency, still operating today, that sponsored the renovation in the 1990s of
what used to be a bus terminal. So, let’s go back
several centuries.
The first known mention of the family Tripkovic - note the
different original spelling -, stems from around the year 1000, when they were appointed
with the title of counts by the Emperor of Byzantium.
This is how the Byzantine Empire roughly looked then:
Already at this time, the Tripkovic worked in the field of navigation. They
lived in the Bocche del Cataro, the Bay of Kotor, at the time part of the
Byzantine Empire and today part of Montenegro. In the following centuries, the family built a strong tradition of ship
builders and was even involved in the rivalries between the Republic of Venice
and that of Ragusa, as well as, later, in the battle of Lepanto, in 1571, when they sent three ships in support of the victorious Holy League against the Ottoman
Empire.
The family lived in the area for centuries and was found still in Dobrota in the mid 1800s. Then, the 22 years old Diodato
Tripkovic left for Trieste, at the time the main harbor
for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1880 Diodato Tripkovic starts working for
the Lloyd Austro-Hungarian; during these years he meets important traders on
the ships and makes valuable connections for his own entrepreneurial future. In 1895 he changes his name and founds the
Tripcovich Shipping Agency: D.Tripcovich Societa’ di Armamento e Agenzia
Marittima. A note of colour: initially Diodato
made a fortune shipping oak to France, where the oak was made into casks to age
cognac! By 1910, his fleet of steamships carried passengers as well as goods all over the Mediterranean Sea,
he owned a special fleet to pull and save boats in the harbor, and his became one of the most important
fleets in WWI. In 1921 his daughter,
Countess Maria Tripcovich marries the Austro-Hungarian flying ace Goffredo de
Banfield and here is where the two families come together. Their son is Raffaello de Banfield. Here opens another parenthesis, the square one I believe.
In very succinct terms and for the purpose of keeping the
focus on the Sala Tripcovich, the colourful life of Raffaello de Banfield will
be recalled with only a few salient facts: he studied composition with Malipiero in
Venice and Nadia Boulanger in Paris, where he became lifelong friend of von
Karajan, as well as met Picasso, Cocteau, and Poulenc. He then moved to the
States where he became friends with Tennessee Williams, Leonard Bernstein and
Maria Callas. In 1972 he came back to Trieste and became the Director of the
Teatro Verdi.
In the 1990s, the Teatro Verdi was in need of serious
renovation and Trieste found herself searching in a great hurry for a new place to
host the musical events of the heart of the city, while still trying not to disrupt the
programmed schedule of activities. Raffaello de Banfield, also the head of the
huge shipping empire Tripcovich, secured the financial support to turn an old
bus terminal located just outside the main railway station of Trieste, and a
few steps from the Teatro Verdi, into the new Sala Tripcovich. Incidentally,
the Teatro Fenice in Venice had been completely destroyed by a fire a few years
before and, during restorations, the musical events of the city took place in a
tent, something that in Trieste, with the Bora, her famous wind at 170km/h,
would simply be inconceivable.
Let me open one last parenthesis here...we are at the
curved one! The bus terminal was originally built in 1935 by the famous
Triestino architect Umberto Nordio. Please excuse one final tiny parenthesis, his
father was also a famous architect, the Trieste-born but Austro-Hungarian Enrico Nordio. He had studied
architecture in Vienna where he collaborated to the restoration of the
Stephansdom, as well as the nearby Kleusterneuburg, as well, also part of the Empire, as the Academy of
Science and Arts and the cathedral in Zagreb! In 1888 Enrico Nordio had also
participated in the competition for the new façade of the Dome of Milano.
Back to his son, Umberto Nordio, also born in the
Austro-Hungarian Trieste. Among his main imprints in the city’s architecture,
most notable are the new University (1938-50) and the Stazione Marittima.
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| Universita' di Trieste |
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| Stazione marittima |
So, back in 1992, thanks to the support of Raffaello de
Banfield, director of the Teatro Verdi but also heir of the Tripcovich empire,
the bus terminal built in 1935 by Umberto Nordio is turned in record time into
the Sala Tripcovich!
In 1997, the Teatro Verdi is ready to be reopen and the two halls live parallel and symbiotic lives. There are many
discussions today on what to do of the Sala Tripcovich which is by now named Sala
Raffaello de Banfield after the latter's death in 2008. Still today, there have been bellicose supporters of
the idea of demolishing the hall and so restoring the old open green space in front
of the Railway Station, while others want to keep the building but to host youth events of
various kinds, and the Teatro Verdi, of course, would like to keep it as part of its
Fondazione for concerts and rehearsals.
In the meantime, here
I was on December 27th!
