HOTEL QUIRINALE ROME Review – In Verdi’s Shadow

HOTEL QUIRINALE ROME Review – In Verdi’s Shadow-- an elegant hotel in the bustling center of Rome boasts a connection to Rome Opera House and history

There he is—on the first floor balcony and waving...

How wonderful to have such approval on the opening night of FALSTAFF in Rome, especially given the rumored misgivings he had about writing another opera as he approached his 80^th year.

Ah, but that was 1893, and now we see him only as an imagined memory as we stand at street level looking up to the 1^st Floor balcony that marks the spot of this historic event outside Rome’s Hotel Quirinale. Verdi had come to his hotel room through the corridor connecting the hotel with the Rome Opera House, the ONLY such connection between a hotel and opera house in the world, then as now. It was thru a similar private connection between hotel and opera house that Maria Callas traversed to make her escape from the performance when she lost her voice—then to avoid a crowd more anxious and less cheering. Puccini favored the hall too, as did many whose nobility wasn’t born of musical talent, but of pedigree – from Catherine to Great, to Medici and more.

Hotel Quirinale Boasts Modern Touches Too

“Back to the Past to Live in the Present” explained Fabrizio Battisti, Hotel Quirinale Rooms Division Manager, as he gave us a tour of the hotel and shared more of its history.   Indeed, for those aware of how historic buildings can sometimes lose their sparkle when today’s technology upgrades are added, there is none of that to fear. True, you find a small exercise room, and a large screen TV welcoming you by your name when you enter your room. True too, the Rossini Café boasts an American style breakfast buffet, albeit with an instant coffee machine that does serve real espresso-strength coffee.

The clientele using these 200 rooms doesn’t seem especially posh, though we learn from Battisti that even the big names of the more modern opera scene stay here – the late Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Riccardo Muti for a number of months who came daily to the breakfast room with the other guests. “He was one of us, “ Battisti shared, with a nostalgic smile that struck this sometime Chicago music reviewer as remarkably similar to that of a first violinist when she spoke of how newly arrived Principal CSO Conductor Muti just made them- all in the orchestra- happy.  Perhaps these musical greats also come to breakfast in sneakers. Or maybe it’s just that leisurely Americans are Hotel Quirinale’s biggest market beyond Italian weddings and such in their ballroom-sized conference rooms.

You don’t have to be an opera fan to find charm in Hotel Quirinale—but it certainly won’t hurt.

For more information and to make reservations visit the Hotel Quirinale website.