Siel Agugliaro (PhD, Historical Musicology, 2021) is the winner of the twentieth edition of the International Award “Giuseppe Verdi” with the research project "Farewell, valley of tears": Giuseppe Verdi and Italian Immigration to the United States, 1861-1901 ("Addio valle di pianti": Giuseppe Verdi e l’immigrazione italiana negli Stati Uniti, 1861-1901). This prestigious award is supported by the National Institute of Verdi Studies (Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani) and the Rotary Club in Parma to shed light on little-researched aspects of Giuseppe Verdi's work and provide research opportunities to young, qualified researchers. It was announced on Monday 16 October, 2023, during a gala concert held at the Teatro Regio in Parma included in the Verdi Festival 2023.
Dr. Agugliaro's project was selected by a Committee of distinguished Verdi scholars for "its originality and the clarity of its research objectives." The project investigates the socio-cultural and political role that the circulation of Verdi's work played among the communities of Italians who emigrated to the United States in the years between the birth of the Kingdom of Italy and the death of Giuseppe Verdi. The topic will be explored in light of the migratory phenomenon that affected Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century. In particular, Dr. Agugliaro's work will investigate the impact that Verdi's music had in this context, from the cementing of the feeling of national identity among Italian communities, to the definition of political strategies aimed at counteracting the growing racial hostility that American society manifested towards Italian immigrants.
Siel Agugliaro is currently a research assistant professor at the University of Pisa in Italy and will develop the research over the course of three years with the possibility of making use of the documentary, recording, iconographic and bibliographic materials present in the National Institute of Verdi Studies in Parma. The outcome will be a monograph published by the Institute.