ABSTRACT
Alfredo Campoli personal appearance, so to speak, was on 20 October 1906 when Elvira Celi-Campoli, a rising opera-star, gave birth to his mother's only child in Rome where she and her husband Romeo, a professional violinist, were then living at 14 Via Garibaldi. From infancy Alfredo was thus surrounded by music, particularly from opera, the style of which so influenced his playing that in later years he would say that the bow to a violinist was like the breath to a singer. Alfredo recalled hiding under the table to escape his father's wrath during some lessons, and it says much for the young boy's innate musicality that he remained so passionately engaged with music, despite the rigorous demands placed on him as a child. Judging by a photograph taken before the family migrated to England, Alfredo may have begun his first violin lessons before the age of five.
