GREGORIO FIASCONARO - I'D DO IT AGAIN-Pietermaritzburg Prison of War camp - H. RENNIE ART- S. STIBBE

Life story of Professor Gregorio Fiasconaro, fom his days as a student in Italy, his life in Pietermaritzburg Prison of War camp and onwards.

During World War II many Italian Prisoners were to be part of the Monzali household staff, as well as working on their two farms. It was in Pietermaritzburg during this period that a small chapel was built by the Italian prisoners of war, still to be seen today. In this chapel the great Gregorio Fiasconaro, the “father of opera” in South Africa, was to begin a new career in music after the war, becoming a professor in this field after continuing his studies at the University of Cape Town. Fiasconaro was an Italian Air Force pilot during the war and was shot by English fighter planes during World War II. Badly wounded, he was treated by his captors in Cairo before being transported in reasonable health to the prisoner of war camp in Pietermaritzburg, later becoming the Director of Music and Entertainment, eventually performing with his Italian Orchestra at the City Hall and also in Durban. Fiasconaro was to write his own biography in a book entitled “I’d do it again”. His son Marcello was to become a well known South African and Italian athlete, obtaining national colours and winning many important competitions and setting new national and world records.

Books of Africa 1982 First. VG/Good, 164pp Numerous b/w illus. Numerous line drawings by Solveig Stibbe Clean, well-binded Hardback with duscover. White pages.

Lovely black-and-white  family photos, POW camp Pietermaritzburg, as a pilot at Novara Italy 1939, with his wife 1947 in Durban and with baby Marcello, Operas 1955, 1957 , London, Glasgow,UCT Operas, Alhambra Theatre.Nico Malan with Keith Anderson, Madame Butterfly,La Boheme, Marcello breaking world record in Italy 1973. 

List of Operas produced by Professor Fiasconaro and roles sun by professor Fiasconaro