Richard Cielec wrote:
"Courage, mon vieux !
"Barber of Seville and Marriage of Figaro (first and second of the Beaumarchais trilogy) were written in Italian. So, I see precedent for Italian flavour on Bastille Day."
That's news to me. I always thought he wrote his plays in French, not Italian. The Mozart and Rossini operas had Italian libretti. Neither did Sardou write Tosca in Italian.
Gimondi is on a Bianchi in the photo (taken in 1968 according to the caption, when he was riding for Salvarani), but in 1969 he was riding a Chiorda. He later rode for the Bianchi team from 1973 onwards.
Mordecai Silver
NYC