Donizetti * Preludio Funebre _ funeral of Ayrton Senna, Brazil, May 5th, 1994

Ayrton Senna da Silva (March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1988, 1990, and 1991. One of three Brazilian Formula One drivers to become World Champion, Senna won 41 Grands Prix and set 65 pole positions, with the latter being the record until 2006. On May 1st, 1994, Senna was killed after his car crashed into a concrete barrier while he was leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola Circuit in Italy.

Senna's death was a national tragedy. The government of Brazil declared three days of national mourning. The Italian Air Force offered to fly the coffin back to Brazil, but the Senna family wished that it returned home in a Brazilian plane. Contrary to airline policy and out of respect, Senna's coffin was allowed to be flown back to his home country in the passenger cabin of a VARIG-manufactured McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 airliner, accompanied by his distraught younger brother, Leonardo. The plane was escorted by fighter jets into São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport on May 4th, 1994. The Brazilian flag was placed over the coffin and it was carried by soldiers from the Air Force Police to a fire engine, where eight cadets from the Military Police Academy mounted guard as it carried the coffin on the 20-mile (32.2 km) journey into the city. Leading the motorcade were 17 police motorbikes, and 2,500 policemen lined the route to keep the crowds at bay.

Over half a million people flocked to the streets of Senna's home city of São Paulo to offer him their salute, the largest funeral procession São Paulo had ever seen. Over 200,000 people filed past as his body lay in state at the Legislative Assembly building in Ibirapuera Park. After the public viewing, a 21-gun salute was fired by the 2nd Artillery Brigade and seven Brazilian Air Force jets flew in a diamond formation as the funeral procession made its way to Morumbi Cemetery. Many world celebrities attended Senna's state funeral, which took place on May 5th.

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Gaetano Donizetti’s Preludio funebre

St. Maximilian Orchestra
Gerald Häußler, conductor.
Church concert, November 22nd, 1998
Maximilian Church - Munich

The creation of Gaetano Donizetti’s Preludio funebre is shrouded in mystery. The funeral prelude is not mentioned in the composer’s voluminous correspondence, but it is unmistakably one of his mature works, with an elegant use of simple gestures to create dramatic effects.

Few composers did more to establish the operatic prelude as a genre than Donizetti did. With 70-odd operas to his credit, depending on how one counts, Donizetti had an unmatched opportunity to hone his craft and experiment with the prelude as an expressive introduction to scenes, acts, and events. Many of his preludes tell stories in their own right, spurring a second life in the concert hall and in piano arrangements. This Preludio funebre offers tempting glimpses of events and moods in its sound.

The primary manuscript for the Preludio funebre was first recorded in the collection of the Conservatorio di S. Pietro a Majella in Naples, often called the Naples Conservatory. The city and conservatory were of both personal and professional importance to Donizetti. Some 51 of his operas were performed in Naples, and he taught on the conservatory faculty for many years.

When King Ferdinand II banned depicting martyrdom on the Neapolitan stage in 1838 and a decree made Poliuto banned overnight – not just in the city, but in the entire kingdom - an irate Donizetti resigned his position at the conservatory and departed for Paris, where the opera was reworked as Les martyrs.

The manuscript for the Preludio funebre ended up in the library of the Naples Conservatory. Donizetti had deposited many of his manuscripts for students to peruse; curators and donors added other copies. Then, when the Italian Risorgimento swept through Naples in 1860, a new wave of administrators took over. Many decided to enrich themselves through graft, and sold the conservatory’s manuscripts at firesale prices – including the Preludio funebre. One of those buyers donated his collection to the Milan Conservatory, where the manuscript remains to this day.

Basil Considine, 2018

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