City in Italy. As one of the chief musical centres of the peninsula, Bologna has maintained a practically uninterrupted outstanding tradition in the cultivation of many aspects of the musical arts. Its central geographic position allowed easy contact with other musical centres in Italy, which resulted in the distinctive cosmopolitan tinge that has characterized the activities of its musical institutions. As the trading and economic hub of Italy, the city remained for centuries a thriving commercial centre whose wealthy classes could patronize the arts. Second in importance only to Rome within the administration of the Papal States, it maintained numerous churches (over 150 in 1700) and religious communities which always played an important role in the city’s musical life. As a centre of learning, Bologna has always had an eminence unequalled in Italy and recognized throughout Europe. Its university, founded at the end of the 11th century, maintained for centuries a prominent tradition in the humanistic disciplines, attracting numerous students and scholars from various regions of the continent.
In this environment the study and advancement of music was characterized by a propensity to retain existing traditions while simultaneously promoting experimentation and discussion, thus making it a city of critics and connoisseurs. This tendency was confirmed by the institution of a chair of music at the university in 1450 by Pope Nicholas V. Since then the teaching of music at Bologna has been associated with many illustrious figures.
Ramos de Pareia probably expected an appointment as teacher in the new chair at the university during his decade in Bologna (1472–82). He was giving public lectures before publishing his Musica practica (printed in Bologna by Rubiera, 1482), a treatise that aroused a storm of academic controversies. In the 16th century, Spataro (a pupil of Ramos), Bartolomeo Spontone, Melone and Bottrigari were active there as theorists and teachers. At the turn of the century, the staunch conservative G.M. Artusi was at the centre of another controversy as the fanatical opponent of Monteverdi’s seconda prattica. At the same time Adriano Banchieri took an active part as theorist and teacher in promoting experimentation and defining the newest techniques of musical expression. Intellectual discussion was also fostered by the academies established in the first half of the 17th century. By the mid-century there was a flourishing school of string playing centred on S Petronio and in the 18th the city acquired a wide reputation as a training ground for opera singers who for many years dominated the major Italian and European theatres. The most important treatise on singing of the 18th century, P.F. Tosi’s Opinioni de’ cantori antichi e moderni, was published at Bologna in 1723. Academic conservatism was, however, evident in the didactic activities of the Accademia Filarmonica and of Padre Martini, both responsible for rigidly maintaining the practice of the earlier polyphonic style.
3. The academies and conservatory.
4. Societies and music publishing.
ELVIDIO SURIAN/GRAZIANO BALLERINI
The earliest evidence of musical life at Bologna is furnished by a manuscript (I-Ra 123) which includes a gradual-troper in diastematic notation that originated in the area about 1029–39. Moreover, from the first decades of the 11th century a presbiter-cantor seems to have played a vital role in the administrative structure of the Cathedral of S Pietro. In the 13th century various scholae puerorum were instituted by the Franciscan and Dominican orders. (Bologna was with Paris the leading Dominican centre in the 13th century.) The theorist Guido Faba, active at Bologna from about 1225 to 1240 as professor of rhetoric at the university, furnished useful information on the teaching of plainchant in the city in his treatise Ars musica (D-Bsb Theol.lat.Qu.261, f.36r, and I-PESo 1336, f.14r). The Bolognese musicians Jacopo and Bartolomeo da Bologna and Johannes Baçus Corregarius made notable contributions to the Ars Nova. By the beginning of the 15th century music at Bologna assumed an international character, as is shown by the Italian–French repertory of a manuscript (I-MOe Lat.568) that originated and was probably compiled there in 1410. Du Fay was living in Bologna from late February or March 1426 until August 1428, studying canon law at the university. His motets Juvenis qui puellam and Rite majorem Jacobum and the Missa Sancti Jacobi, written for the church of S Giacomo Maggiore, date from that period. Popular traditions of street vocal performances on Christmas night and during May were also maintained until the end of the 16th century. These street songs were later incorporated in the polyphonic villottas that were widely cultivated in Bologna during the 16th century. The three books of the Villotte del fiore, printed in Venice by Gardane in 1557, 1559 and 1569, contain mostly works by the Bolognese Filippo Azzaiolo, though other composers active at Bologna are represented as well: Gherardo da Panico, Francesco Caldarino, Bartolomeo Pifaro, Paolo Casanuova, Ghinolfo Dattari, Bartolomeo Spontone, G.T. Lambertini and Alfonso Ganassi.
A love of massed wind instruments in Bologna can be traced back to the 13th century, when town-criers, called ‘trombetti della signoria’, accompanied their notices ‘a son de trombe e de trombette’. By the beginning of the 15th century the number of players was increased to include eight trumpeters, three fifers and a drummer (also called naccarino) to form the nucleus of the Concerto Palatino della Signoria. This was a public body which not only performed for official university, civic and religious functions, but also appeared until the second half of the 18th century in evening concerts held on the terrace of the Palazzo della Signoria in Piazza Maggiore. On special occasions the size of the ensemble was greatly enlarged. At the marriage of Lucrezia d’Este to Annibale Bentivoglio (March 1487), the procession leading to S Petronio was preceded by ‘100 trombita e 70 pifari e trombuni e chorni e flauti e tamburrini e zamamele’. In the 16th century the Concerto Palatino became as famous throughout Italy as the concerted music at S Petronio. From 1537 onwards the number was standardized at 19 instrumentalists, though this number was occasionally augmented by other performers. Many of its musicians were also employed at S Petronio and their profession became a family tradition (e.g. in the 16th century various members of the Ganassi family, Zaccaria, Giovanni, Vincenzo and Alfonso, served in the ensemble).
The city’s musical life centred mainly on the numerous musical chapels found in most of the principal churches and monasteries. The most important of these was S Petronio. Begun in 1390 and planned to be one of the largest churches in Italy, it became, particularly in the 17th century, an influential centre of vocal and instrumental music, famous throughout northern and central Italy. Its magnificent acoustics favoured the employment of massive groups of performers which eventually contributed to the development of the Baroque concerto style. Moreover, the excellent musicians attached to its cappella musicale in the 17th century played a decisive role in the evolution of the Baroque solo sonata, making the formal structure of the sonata (especially in the order and number of movements and the distinctive character of each) increasingly precise. In the second half of the 17th century S Petronio was also associated with the music for trumpet and strings that contributed to the development of the concerto. The emphasis from the early 17th century on a basso continuo instrumental group and on a predominant top line caused a thinning of the harmonic fabric and a polarity between the melody and the bass – a characteristic Baroque texture.
The church has two organs facing each other, placed above the choir stalls, one built in 1470–75 (in cornu Epistolae) by Lorenzo di Giacomo da Prato and the other in 1596 (in cornu Evangelii) by Baldassare Malamini. The series of organists who held posts at S Petronio begins in 1450 with Don Battista di Nicolò, who remained there until 1475. Later organists (both first and second) include Gregorio di Maestro Zoane Tintore (1468–78), Ogerio di Borgogna (Roger Saignand, 1474–1522), Maestro Guglielmo (also called ‘navarrese’, 1522–9), Pier Francese (1529–62), Vincenzo Bertalotti (1562–96), Giambattista Mecchi (1596–1613), Ottavio Vernizzi (1596–1649), Lucio Barbieri (1614–59), Giulio Cesare Arresti (1649–61 and 1671–99), G.P. Colonna (1659–74) and C.D. Cossoni (1662–71).
The organization of the cappella musicale was officially instituted on 4 October 1436 by Pope Eugene IV. Its temporal affairs fell under the jurisdiction of the fabbriceria (vestry board) composed of six laymen, also members of the Bolognese senate, who selected the candidates aspiring for positions; this lay control demonstrates the interest of the citizens in the city’s musical affairs.
Giovanni Spataro was the first official maestro di cappella (1512–41). A post of magister cantus et gramaticae, however, was instituted in October 1466 and held successively by Simone di Pavia (1466–7), Robertus de Anglia (1467–74), Matteo Muzzi da Ferrara (1474–9), Giovanni da Manzolino (as substitute in 1479 and 1486) Giovanni Antonio Pecora da Milano (1479–85), Francesco de’ Freschi (as substitute, 1486) and Gabriele Lunerio da Milano (1487–1512). Furthermore, the following cantores were active in the basilica from about 1460 to 1480: Pietro de Alemania, Bernardo di Reggio, Guglielmo di Francia, Mariotto di Firenze and Tommaso de’ Marinasi. After Spataro, maestri di cappella included Michele Cimatore (1541–7), Domenico Maria Ferrabosco (1548–51), Nicolò Cavallari (1551–8), Giovanni Francesco Melioli (1558–70), Stefano Bettini (‘Il Fornarino’, 1570–77), Bartolomeo Spontone (1577–83), Andrea Rota (1583–97), Ghinolfo Dattari (as substitute in 1597–9), Pompilio Pisanelli (1599–1604), Girolamo Giacobbi (1604–28), Francesco Milani (1630–49), Alberto Bertelli (1650–57), Maurizio Cazzati (1657–71), Orazio Ceschi (as substitute in 1671–4), G.P. Colonna (1674–95), G.A. Perti (1696–1756), G.M. Carretti (1756–74), G.C.A. Zanotti (1774–1817), Stanislao Mattei (1817–25), Giuseppe Pilotti (1825–38), Luigi Palmerini (1838–42), Stefano Antonio Sarti (1842–55), Francesco Roncagli (1855–7), Gaetano Gaspari (1857–81), Luigi Mancinelli (1881–6), Raffaele Santoli (1886) and Giuseppe Martucci (1886–1902).
Instruments were added to the vocal ensemble early in the history of the cappella musicale and players from the Concerto Palatino often performed at S Petronio for special occasions (fragments of instrumental music dating from the 15th century and probably used on those occasions survive in the archives; see Hamm). However, the first regularly paid instrumentalists, besides organists, were added in the late 16th century. On special occasions (notably the feast of St Petronius on 4 October, anniversaries of Bolognese popes and Rogation Day) it was customary to hire extra musicians from the city’s other cappelle musicali and from surrounding areas. For the visit of James the Pretender on the feast of St Petronius in 1722, 107 musicians were hired in addition to the 34 regular members (fig.2).
A landmark in Bolognese musical life was the employment of Maurizio Cazzati at S Petronio in 1657. Under his direction, the cappella musicale placed special emphasis on developing instrumental music, notably by hiring distinguished performers from nearby areas. By 1661 the regular cappella employed 33 musicians, a size it maintained throughout Cazzati’s tenure (he was dismissed as the result of controversy over his compositions in 1671). He is especially noted for the repertory of music for trumpet and strings peculiar to the S Petronio cappella musicale which led to the concerto-like opposition of two styles (soloist contrasted with string ensemble), used to a greater extent by later S Petronio composers such as Perti and Torelli. Thanks to Cazzati and even more to his most famous pupil Giovanni Battista Vitali, who was active at the church as a singer and violoncino player, instrumental forms in general and the trio sonata in particular were developed, clarified and consolidated in architectural structure and thematic technique. A school of string playing flourished under Ercole Gaibara, Giovanni Benvenuti and Leonardo Brugnoli, and later under Pietro Degli Antonii, Bartolomeo Laurenti, D. Gabrielli and G.M. Jacchini. Torelli, a violetta player at S Petronio, contributed greatly to the form of the concerto grosso and violin concerto. Colonna (a pupil of Benevoli and Abbatini) succeeded Cazzati as director of the cappella, and elements originating in the Roman school were instilled in the Bolognese tradition. Colonna’s followers included Giovanni Bononcini, G.F. Tosi, F.A. Urio, G.M. Clari, G.C. Predieri and G.A. Silvani. From February 1696 to February 1701 the regular orchestra was dissolved and only the choir and the choirmaster, G.A. Perti, were maintained on the payroll. This forced many instrumentalists to leave, thus helping to make their style known outside Bologna, in Italy and abroad. After 1701 only string players and a choir were in the regular cappella, although this group was augmented for special occasions. The pupils of G.A. Perti, maestro di cappella from 1696 to 1756, included Torelli, Jacchini, P.P. Laurenti, G. Consoni, Aldrovandini, G.M. Alberti, F.A. Pistocchi, F. Manfredini and Padre Martini.
Although S Petronio dominated Bolognese sacred music, many other local churches had active cappelle musicali associated with them. From the end of the 13th century choirboys were instructed and employed in the singing of plainchant at S Francesco. The church’s expense registry between 1337 and 1430 reports the following names of monks in charge of singing there: Frate Paganino (1337), Antonius de Arimino (1356), Bartholomeus de Fantuciis (1380), Antonius de Ungaria (1386), Nicolaus Ungarus and Carluccius (1396), Johannes de Burgundia and Cristoforus de Alvernia (1423), Blasius Ungarus (1426), Joannes de Tibore and Petrus de Tuscanella (1430). The presence of an organ is documented from 1345; in 1621 a new organ was built by Antonio dal Corno.
A cappella musicale was officially instituted in 1537 and directed until 1540 by Bartolomeo da Tricarico; after this, however, the list of maestri di cappella is fragmentary. Among them were Bonifacio Pasquale (1567–9), Giuliano Cartari (1573–91 and possibly 1601–12), Bartolomeo Montalbano (1642–9), Felice Arconati (1660–67), Francesco Passarini (1667–73, 1681–91 and 1693–4), Domenico Scorpione (1674–5), Guido Montalbani (1675–80), Francesco Antonio Calegari (1700–02), F.A. Lazari (1702–5), Padre Martini (1725–70) and Stanislao Mattei (1770–97). After the suppression of convents by the French in 1797, a regular cappella musicale was never reactivated.
Musical activity at the Cathedral of S Pietro must have begun soon after its construction in the first decades of the 11th century when a presbiter-cantor was included in its administrative structure. A gradualtroper in diastematic notation (I-Ra 123), containing its liturgy, originated there during that period. Only fragmentary evidence of its musical life, however, is recorded until the 16th century. A post of magister cantus et gramaticae was officially sanctioned in 1439 by a Bull of Pope Eugene IV and reconfirmed in 1510 by another Bull of Pope Giulio II. In 1491 Ludovico di Gregorio Tintore was appointed organist. Giovanni Guidetti, associated with the assemblage and the revision of chant books for the Roman Church in the second half of the 16th century, had his formation in the schola of the cathedral. Among the composers who served as maestri di cappella there were Cimatore (1559), Domenico Micheli (1588–91), Paolo Magri (1591–5), Lorenzo Vecchi (1599–1611, 1624), Domenico Brunetti (1611–46), Vincenzo Pellegrini (1676–80), Giacomo Antonio Perti (1691–6), Angelo Antonio Caroli (1742–67), Vincenzo Fontana (1798–1820) and Giovanni Tadolini (1825–9). Organists included Lucio Barbieri (1610–20), Giacomo Predieri (1679–93) and Floriano Arresti (1713–17).
At S Maria dei Servi the earliest evidence of musical activity is given by 11 choirbooks from the 13th and 14th centuries (I-Bsm); only scant information, however, exists on the musical life of the convent in the following centuries. Maestri di cappella included Antonio d’Alessandria (1509), Arcangelo Gherardini (1615), Giacomo d’Alessandria (1642), Attilio Ottavio Ariosti (1695) and Domenico Barbieri (1769). In the 17th century performances sponsored by the nearby Accademia Filarmonica were held in the church. Vincenzo Carrati celebrated the founding of the Accademia with solemn services there on 18 July 1667. Musical academies with pastoral plays were held in the 18th century, for example Domenico Barbieri’s Sacrificio di Pane dio d’Arcadia, performed on 19 July 1758 in honour of the prior-general of the order. A cappella musicale was organized in 1934 by Luigi Artusi who was succeeded by Pellegrino Santucci in 1947; it gives orchestral and choral concerts. In 1967 the Crema organ builders Tamburini installed a new organ with mechanical action; seasonal organ recitals are given.
A Confraternita del Rosario governed by the city’s nobility was founded at S Domenico in 1596 and, after erecting a chapel for its devotions in 1592, began subsidizing concerts every Saturday as well as on the major feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A regular cappella musicale was instituted at the beginning of the 17th century and employed some of the illustrious musicians associated with S Petronio. The first maestro di cappella was Francesco Milani (1624–52), followed by Domenico Manzoli (1653–8), Cazzati (1658–71), G.B. Vitali (1671–4), G.C. Arresti (1674–1704), G.A. Perti (1704–55, replaced by G.M. Alberti from 1734), Giovanni Battista Gaiani (1792–1819) and Angelo Ottani (1820–27). A new organ was commissioned from Venetian builders in 1644–5; another organ was built in its place by Petronio Maria Giovagnoni in 1759–61.
In 1618 Pope Gregory XV granted the Filippine Fathers permission to use the church of the Madonna di Galliera as their devotional centre in Bologna; in the years that followed it became the city’s seat of oratorio performance. Previously the Congregazione dell’Oratorio, founded at Bologna in 1615, held its esercizi spirituali every Sunday at the small church of S Barbara. The oratorios written for the Madonna di Galliera in the first half of the century show the strong influence of the Roman style, for example those of G.P. Colonna, a pupil of Carissimi and maestro di cappella there from 1673 to 1688. Oratorio composition flourished at Bologna in the last decades of the century, with Vitali, Ariosti, Domenico Gabrielli, Pistocchi, degli Antonii and Perti. These masters departed from the conventional Roman oratorio and focussed their attention particularly on the brilliant instrumental ritornellos.
Detailed research is still to be carried out on musical activities at the many other churches which maintained a cappella on a more or less continuous basis, especially for particularly important liturgical celebrations, with contributions by musicians from both within and outside the city. At the basilica of S Paolo Maggiore, with its three organs (one installed in 1624, the other two in 1647), there is evidence that, from 1712 onwards, the polychoric music at the celebration of the feast of the Madonna of S Luca was particularly lavish. Among other maestri di cappella were three members of the Predieri family: Giacomo Cesare (1712–21, 1731), Luca Antonio (1725–9, 1733) and Giovanni Battista (c1748); and Lorenzo Gibelli (1760–1812), Carlo Rinieri (1812–31) and Luigi Bortolotti (1831–56).
The extraordinary flourishing of musical life at Bologna in the 17th century coincided with the establishment of musical academies to patronize, stimulate and consolidate all musical activities. Unlike most of the literary academies of the Renaissance and Baroque, the Bolognese academies, notably the Accademia Filarmonica, were institutions primarily under the control of professional musicians that intended to provide both theoretical and practical training for their members.
The first Bolognese academy to include music among its activities was the Accademia degli Ardenti, founded in 1558; it was renamed the Accademia del Porto when it moved in 1586. From 1581, however, it had functioned mainly as an institution for instructing young noblemen in science, literature and music. The first academy dedicated exclusively to musical activities was the Accademia dei Floridi, which held its meetings at S Michele in Bosco under the leadership of Adriano Banchieri. It was founded in 1615 for the spiritual and cultural education of its members. A description of its organization and accounts of its meetings are found in Banchieri’s Lettere armoniche (1628, pp.34ff, 141f). Its activity was interrupted in 1623–4, but was revived in 1625 under the name of Accademia dei Filomusi and sponsored by Girolamo Giacobbi. It had included among its members such composers as Banchieri, Monteverdi and Merula before it was dissolved in 1630 because of a plague. Another academy was formed in 1633, by Domenico Brunetti and Francesco Bertacchi, and called Accademia dei Filaschisi; it continued to prosper until 1666 when most of its members joined the Accademia Filarmonica.
The Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna was formally founded on 26 May 1666 by 50 musicians, meeting at the home of Count Vincenzo Maria Carrati, who had been encouraged to sponsor the academy by the local aristocracy. The first Regole capitolari (I-Baf vols. 1–3, n.244) divided the academicians into three orders: composers, singers and instrumentalists. The administrative officers were the principe, two consiglieri and two censori dei conti or auditors; the executive committee consisted of the president (elected each year from the composers residing at Bologna), the secretary and the advisers. The motto of the academy was ‘Unitate melos’ and its patron saint St Anthony of Padua, on whose feast day elaborate performances were prepared each year. The honorary office of founder and protector was hereditary and continued by a member of the Carrati family. New constitutions were drawn up in 1689–90 and 1721, and on 22 February 1749 Pope Benedict XIV granted the academy the same status as Rome’s Accademia di S Cecilia, including the authority to supervise performing musicians in all Bolognese churches.
Among the activities of the academy were the esercizi for composer members and the conferenze for the performing members. The esercizi were held twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, while the conferenze took place on Thursday evenings. The purpose of these meetings was to provide opportunities for discussing theoretical works and for the performance of members’ new works to be introduced and then analysed by the academicians. The academy was, therefore, in a strong position to determine taste and to exercise control over its members, thus helping to codify an acceptable and proper musical style.
The most important and influential of the members of the Accademia Filarmonica was Padre Martini, who was elected in 1758. He was maestro di cappella at S Francesco from 1725 to 1770 and lived all his life in Bologna, where he assiduously devoted himself to teaching, composing and collecting historical documents on music in preparation for his Storia della musica. His teaching of composition became famous, as did his expertise on the subject, and he conducted an extensive correspondence with most musicians throughout Europe (only a small number of his estimated 6000 letters have been published; many are in I-Bc). Among his pupils were J.C. Bach, Gluck, Grétry, Jommelli, Sarti, Abbé Vogler, Padre S. Mattei and Mozart (who submitted a setting of the antiphon Quaerite primum k86/73v for examination at the academy on 9 October 1770 after a period of study). During the 18th century and part of the 19th the academy remained the absolute dictator of the city’s musical life and the bestower of much coveted music diplomas eagerly sought by Italian and foreign musicians alike.
The Accademia Filarmonica declined in the first half of the 19th century, but revitalized itself in December 1853 by inaugurating a series of chamber music concerts; the series lasted until 1864 but was resumed in 1880. The programmes featured performances of string quartets that significantly included works by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Hummel and were the first such performances outside Bolognese private circles. The periodical L’arpa, published every five days beginning on 20 August 1853, became the main vehicle of information for the academy’s activities, such as meetings, elections and musical performances. Beginning with this period of renewed vigour, many illustrious figures were associated with the academy: Verdi (1868), Wagner (1876), Busoni (1882), Puccini (1899), Respighi (1910) and Ravel (1922). Special concerts and lectures were held in 1966 to celebrate the third centenary of the academy’s foundation.
At the end of the 18th century and early in the 19th three academies were active briefly at Bologna. The Armonici Uniti, whose statutes (see Sartori, p.147ff) were drawn up in 1784, emphasized performances by its amateur members as well as by outside professional musicians. In June 1806 the pianist and composer Maria Brizzi Giorgi founded the Accademia Polimniaca, which lasted until her death in 1811. The Bolognese nobility subsidized its concerts, held mainly at the home of the founder, and frequently featuring illustrious performers. Instituted in 1808 by Tommaso Marchesi and continuing its activities to about 1830, the Accademia dei Concordi functioned as a channel for diffusing the Viennese repertory, particularly Haydn’s works.
Before a teaching institution was firmly established on 30 November 1804, formal music instruction in Bologna took place at convents, churches and the academies. After the dissolution of the religious orders and corporations during the French invasion of 1796, the Liceo Filarmonico was founded on the site of the former monastery of S Giacomo to replace those that had been dispersed and establish a musical centre in the city. Initially, the Liceo was to absorb the Accademia Filarmonica, the chapel of S Petronio, the Filippini foundation, the libraries of Martini (about 17,000 volumes) and Mattei, as well as Martini’s portrait collection and all the various musical collections saved from the plunder of the churches, convents and monasteries. The holdings were reordered and expanded through new acquisitions by Gaetano Gaspari from 1856 to 1881; he also compiled a catalogue. The Liceo also houses manuscripts of sacred and secular polyphony from the 14th to the 16th centuries, and a substantial collection of opera librettos.
The Accademia Filarmonica refused to be absorbed into the Liceo; thus in the first few decades after its foundation a state of tension developed between the two institutions, eased only at the nomination of Rossini in 1839 as consulente perpetuo. During his directorship, which lasted until 1848, the musical life of the Liceo was bolstered by the institution of weekly recitals; however a new period of decline followed, until Luigi Mancinelli was appointed director in 1881. He was succeeded by Giuseppe Martucci (1886–1902) and Marco Enrico Bossi (1902–11). Under the leadership of these three men the Liceo had its greatest period, during which it influenced the musical life of the entire city. Bossi was succeeded by Mugellini (1911–12), Torchi (1912) and Busoni (1913–14), by which time the Liceo was equal to other recognized Italian conservatories; directors since Busoni have been G. Marinuzzi (1916–19), F. Alfano (1919–23), Guglielmo Mattioli (1923–4), Francesco Vatielli (1924–5), Cesare Nordio (1925–45), Guido Spagnoli (1945–7), Guido Guerrini (1947–50), Ettore Desderi (1951–63), Lino Liviabella (1950–51, 1963–4), Adone Zecchi (1964–74), Giordano Noferini (1974–6), Cesare Franchini-Tassini (1976–9), Gianni Ramous (1981–4), Lidia Proietti (1979–81, 1984–91) and Carmine Carrisi (1991–). In 1925 it was named Conservatorio di Musica G.B. Martini and in 1942 it came under state control. The library remained city property even after 1942 (although acquisitions after then belonged to the state); it was later named Biblioteca Musicale G.B. Martini and in 1959 renamed Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale. The university instituted classes in musicology in 1936 and today offers a wide variety of music courses, including ethnomusicology. Musicology periodicals currently published in Bologna include Quadrivium (since 1956) and Il Saggiatore musicale (since 1994).
The Casino dei Nobili was organized in 1787 at the Palazzo Amorini, where it sponsored performances of operas (e.g. Gluck’s Orfeo and Alceste, 1788). During the French occupation (beginning in 1796) it was renamed Società degli Amici; in 1809–10 it was reorganized after moving to the Palazzo Lambertini and called Società del Casino, still maintaining its aristocratic character. From 1810 it took an active part in introducing works of the Germanic repertory (particularly Mozart and Beethoven) and performers of international fame (Paganini in 1811 and 1818) at its evening and Sunday afternoon concerts. In 1823 it moved to the Palazzo Salina Amorini and concentrated until the mid-century on performances by amateur soloists, although illustrious performers were occasionally featured (e.g. Liszt in December 1838). Its legacy has been continued by the Domino Club, founded in 1866, whose archives contain all the documents of the Società del Casino.
In spring 1877 Camillo Pizzardi began to organize chamber music concerts in his home, which led to the institution of the Società del Quartetto. It was publicly inaugurated on 24 November 1879 with an orchestral concert conducted by Luigi Mancinelli, artistic director until 1885. Both its orchestral and chamber music concerts were held at the Liceo Musicale until 1893 and at the Teatro Comunale thereafter. Martucci was director from 1886 to 1902, and frequently played the piano at its chamber concerts. Its repertory shows that the Bolognese public in the second half of the 19th century preferred Beethoven, works of the Classical Viennese school and chamber recitals; symphonies by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms were the mainstay of its programmes. Its activities were interrupted in 1937, but were resumed after World War II under the name Società Bolognese di Musica da Camera.
Other societies include the Società Wagneriana, founded by Martucci at the Liceo Musicale in 1887 to give annual concert performances of excerpts from Wagner operas, and the Società Corale G.B. Martini, founded by M.E. Bossi in 1902.
Music publishing flourished comparatively late at Bologna. Throughout the 16th century most Bolognese composers had their works printed in Venice. Among the earliest works printed at Bologna are Ramos de Pareia’s Musica practica (Rubiera; 1482) and Burtio’s Musices opusculum (Rugeriis; 1487). It was not until a century later, however, that the first volume of music was set by Giovanni Rossi, a Venetian residing in Bologna: Camillo Cortellini’s Il secondo libro de’ madrigali à cinque voci (1584). His son, Perseo Rossi, published Banchieri’s Terzo libro di nuovi pensieri ecclesiastici and Ercole Porta’s Vaga ghirlanda op.3 in 1613. Subsequently, the flourishing musical life in Bologna supported several printing shops. From 1639 to 1688 Giacomo Monti established the most important printing press at Bologna, bringing out numerous editions of works for string instruments. He was succeeded by his son Pier Maria in 1689, who remained active until 1709 although the shop had been taken over in 1685 by Marino Silvani, the head of another prominent family of Bolognese printers. Silvani published from 1665 to 1726 under various names. Other printers at Bologna during the second half of the 17th century include Alessandro Pisarri, who published 10 volumes of works by Cazzati (1660–62); Evangelista Dozza’s heirs Carlo Manolesi and Pietro Dozza, who issued Cazzati’s opp.31–4 (1663–4); Cazzati, who probably established a shop in his home next to S Petronio in 1667; Giuseppe Micheletti, who printed sacred and instrumental works from 1683 to 1692; and Carlo Maria Fagnani, active particularly in 1695–6. From 1720 Lelio della Volpe issued elegantly printed musical and theoretical works (with engraved plates from 1744), including Martini’s Storia della musica (1751–81).
A deep interest in knowledge and culture has always characterized Bologna’s theatrical life. Its operatic history is marked by a predisposition to accept and assimilate the prevailing theatrical fashions, stimulated by and often in competition with the major operatic centres in Italy. Until the mid-17th century, opera at Bologna was characterized by a heterogeneity of performances organized and subsidized mainly by prominent aristocratic intellectuals: Nicolò Zoppio Turchi, Virgilio Malvezzi, Carlo Bentivoglio, Paolo Emilio Fantuzzi and Cornelio Malvasia, who depended mostly either on singers from nearby Modena or on Venetian itinerant companies. At the peak of its splendour in the 18th century the city had four major theatres, and operas were produced privately in palaces and suburban villas, convents, monasteries and boarding-schools, subsidized by such aristocratic families as the Bentivoglio, Marescotti, Pepoli, Orsi and Albergati. During this period the city acquired a reputation as a training-ground for opera singers who for many years dominated the major Italian and European theatres. An important 18th-century treatise on singing, P.F. Tosti’s Opinioni de’ cantori antichi e moderni, was published in Bologna in 1723. Such polycentrism assured a multiplicity, variety and autonomy of operatic initiatives. In the 19th century the Bolognese public was exposed to the newest currents in European opera, welcoming first the grand operas of Meyerbeer and then enthusiastically accepting for the first time in Italy Wagner’s music dramas. Important music periodicals published in the city contributed to this openess. Significantly Bologna’s operatic activity proceeded without interruption (except in 1750) from 1634 to 1792. As the city was not ruled by a court or potentate, public opinion played an important role in conditioning the vicissitudes of its theatrical life.
The Teatro del Pubblico (also known as the Teatro della Sala or Sala del Pallone), in the Palazzo del Podestà and on the Piazza Maggiore, designed by A. Chenda, was used for public spectacles from 1547. Opera performances were mounted from 1610, beginning with Giacobbi’s L’Andromeda (music lost); on 17 December 1623 it burnt down and was replaced by a wooden structure in 1624. The Teatro del Pubblico, like all Chenda’s theatrical buildings, was arranged in superimposed rows of boxes rather than graded seating (a design later imitated in most Italian theatres), making it accessible not only to the nobility but also to the bourgeois paying public. Later in the century important opera productions were mounted elsewhere and entertainment for lower social classes prevailed; it was demolished as a dangerous structure in 1767.
Formally opened in 1636, the Teatro Formagliari was also called Guastavillani and dei Casali until about 1660; in the last quarter of the 18th century it was also known as Teatro Zagnoni. In January 1636 members of the Accademia dei Riaccesi rented the palace of the Formagliari family to stage operatic performances and comedies. Soon afterwards Marchese Filippo Guastavillani commissioned the architect Sighizzi to renovate the small hall with ranges of boxes sloping down and projecting towards the stage, so that the entire audience had an excellent view. Privately managed by Guastavillani, it was frequented by the nobility and devoted mainly to serious opera. In 1640 the singer, composer and impresario Francesco Manelli introduced such works of the fashionable Venetian repertory as his own Delia and Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria in this theatre. Subsequently and well into the 18th century composers previously heard in Venice dominated its stage (Cavalli, Pallavicino, M.A. and P.A. Ziani). During the 18th century its two or three seasons favoured a diversified repertory that included numerous opere buffe as well as serious operas. It was renovated in 1776 by Francesco Tadolini, but burnt down in 1802; the Teatro del Corso was built on the same site in 1805.
The Teatro Malvezzi opened on 27 March 1653, built on a site bought in 1651 by Marchese Francesco Pirro Malvezzi. It was restored several times from 1681 to 1691 and enlarged and repainted by the Galli-Bibiena brothers in 1697. Although it staged fewer works, it replaced the Teatro Formagliari as the theatre favoured by the Bolognese aristocracy. Its repertory included works by the best Bolognese composers (D. Gabrielli, Ariosti, Aldrovandini, G.M. Orlandini and particularly Perti), performed by eminent singers (M.M. Musi, M. Scarabelli and Pistocchi), often using sets designed by members of the Galli-Bibiena family. It burnt down on 19 February 1745 and its leading position was taken over by the new Teatro Comunale.
The Marchese Silvio A. Marsigli-Rossi-Lombardi bought a large warehouse in 1709 and remodelled it to accommodate opera performances. As the Teatro Marsigli-Rossi it opened on 28 October 1710 with L.A. Predieri’s La Partenope, and after it was enlarged in spring 1711, it reopened on 28 October that year with Predieri’s Griselda. It remained a theatre of modest size in the shape of an open bell, with three tiers of boxes and an upper gallery circling as far as the proscenium. In keeping with the size of the theatre, performances of opere buffe and comedies, particularly by such local writers as G.M. Buini, were favoured, especially in the years 1722–36. During the French occupation it was renamed Teatro Civico, but was found to be a dangerous structure in 1821 and was demolished in 1825.
As a result of the destruction of the Teatro Malvezzi, a group of noblemen proposed in 1750 that a new theatre, the Teatro Comunale, be constructed. Financed by the papal government and the Bolognese senate, the building (designed and built by Antonio Galli-Bibiena; fig.3) was completed in 1757. The first season was delayed by financial difficulties, but the theatre eventually opened on 14 May 1763 with Gluck’s Il trionfo di Clelia, given its première under the composer’s supervision. It became the leading operatic institution in the city, giving up to three seasons annually. Nevertheless, its activity was at times interrupted for several years (no record of operatic performances has survived for the years 1780–87). During the French occupation it was renamed Teatro Nazionale and from 1820 the administration granted use of the theatre to impresarios on a deposit of 5000 scudi. From 1820 to 1860 the repertory included works of the major Italian composers of the time (Morlacchi, Mercadante, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and from 1843, Verdi); there were usually three seasons a year, each comprising up to four new productions that were often repeated 30 to 40 times. The theatre was renovated in 1818–20, 1853–4 and 1859. Angelo Mariani’s appointment as ‘maestro concertatore e direttore delle musiche’ in autumn 1860 inaugurated a splendid period for the theatre. Under his leadership, which lasted until 1872, the quality of the orchestra was greatly improved and the repertory notably revitalized with performances of operas by Meyerbeer, Verdi and Wagner; these included the Italian premières of L’Africaine (4 November 1865), Don Carlos (27 October 1867), Lohengrin (1 November 1871) and Tannhäuser (7 November 1872). Mariani’s successors (Marino Mancinelli, Franco Faccio, Luigi Mancinelli and Martucci) also expanded the repertory of the Teatro Comunale by channelling it within the mainstream of European musical life (for example Martucci directed the Italian première of Tristan and Isolde, 2 June 1888). At the beginning of the 20th century the theatre still featured performances of German operas and gave the Italian première of Parsifal (1 January 1914), conducted by Ferrari. From 1931 to 1935 it was closed, following a fire that destroyed its stage. After it reopened it established a regular opera season and continued to be one of the main centres of Italian musical life, organized as an autonomous institution with its own orchestra and chorus.
In June 1980 the theatre was closed because of an infestation of woodworm. A scrupulous restoration, which strengthened the original structure and renovated Bibiena’s characteristic white and gold decoration, enabled the theatre to reopen on 5 December 1981 with Aida. Contemporary works are given as well as the traditional repertory. Among world premières have been Giacomo Manzoni’s Per Massimiliano Robespierre (17 April 1975), Adriano Guarnieri’s Trionfo della notte (3 February 1987), Italian permières include Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (5 May 1979) and Henze’s The English Cat (20 April 1986), Fabio Vacchi’s Il viaggio (23 January 1990) and Flavio Testi’s La brocca rotta (30 May 1997). From 1986 to 1993 the principal conductor was Riccardo Chailly; his successors have been Christian Thielemann (1994–7) and Daniele Gatti (from 1997). During its season, lasting from December to June, the company takes its productions to other cities in the region and also makes foreign tours.
The opera house also organizes a series of orchestral concerts, chamber concerts, some in collaboration with ‘Musica Insieme’, ballets, and other activities aimed at young people and schools. In addition the theatre hosts the Feste Musicali devised by Tito Gotti, which, since 1967 have presented distinctive programmes, including modern revivals of rare works, using locations, instruments and music associated with Bologna, and unusual approaches to contemporary music. Notable events have included performances of the repertory of the chapel of S Petronio in 1967, and the inauguration of its restored organs in 1982 with new works by Franco Donatoni, Salvatore Sciarrino and Adriano Guarnieri. Another memorable event was John Cage’s ‘grand happening’, Three excursions for prepared train on a theme of Tito Gotti, in June 1978.
Designed by the architects Santini and Gasparini, the Teatro del Corso opened on 19 May 1805 with Ferdinando Paer’s Sofonisba, in the presence of Napoleon and with Rossini singing a minor role. The theatre was used for concerts (Paganini in 1818, Malibran in 1835), opera productions and plays. The première of Rossini’s L’equivoco stravagante was given there in 1811. Its status declined during the second half of the 19th century because of the strong competition of the Teatro Comunale; it was destroyed during the war in 1944.
The Teatro Contavalli, constructed by Marinetti and Nadi on the site of the S Martino convent, opened on 3 October 1814 with Carlo Coccia’s La Matilde. From 1815 to 1826, in 1840 and in 1843, Rossini supervised numerous performances of his works there. Operas by Donizetti (from 1830) and Verdi (from 1854) were among the most frequently performed. In 1938 the theatre was transformed into a film theatre.
A General. B Early history to 16th century. C Religious institutions. D The academies and conservatory. E Theatres.
G. Fantuzzi: Notizie degli scrittori bolognesi (Bologna, 1781–94/R)
G. Guidicini: Cose notabili della città di Bologna ossia Storia cronologica de’ suoi stabili sacri, pubblici e privati (Bologna, 1868–73/R); supple. by L. Breventani (Bologna, 1908/R)
I primi cento concerti: 1879–1896 (Bologna, 1897) [pubd of Società del Quartetto]
F. Bosdari: ‘La vita musicale a Bologna nel periodo napoleonico’, L’archiginnasio, ix (1914), 213–38
Lodovico Frati: ‘Musicisti e cantanti bolognesi del Settecento: notizie e lettere’, RMI, xxi (1914), 189–202
P. Wagner: ‘Die konzertierende Messe in Bologna’, Festschrift Hermann Kretzschmar (Leipzig, 1918), 163–8
F. Vatielli: ‘Cinquant’anni di vita musicale a Bologna (1850–1900)’, L’archiginnasio, xv (1920), 129–51; xvi (1921), 28–40, 120–33
Lodovico Frati: ‘Per la storia della musica in Bologna nel secolo XVII’, RMI, xxxii (1925), 544–65
F. Vatielli: Arte e vita musicale a Bologna (Bologna, 1927)
A. Sorbelli: Storia della stampa in Bologna (Bologna, 1929)
Lodovico Frati: ‘Donne musiciste bolognesi’, RMI, xxxvii (1930), 387–400
U. Sesini: ‘Lo studio bolognese nella storia musicale: Ad Lecturam Musicae’, Bologna: rivista del comune, xxi/8 (1934), 49–59
F. Vatielli: ‘Ferruccio Busoni a Bologna’, RaM, xi (1938), 417–26
F. Vatielli: ‘L’oratorio a Bologna negli ultimi decenni del Seicento’, NA, xv (1938), 26–35, 77–87
H.G. Mishkin: ‘The Solo Violin Sonata of the Bologna School’, MQ, xxix (1943), 92–112
S.E. Watts: The Stylistic Features of the Bolognese Concerto (diss., Indiana U., 1964)
G. Gaspari: Musica e musicisti a Bologna (Bologna, 1969)
R. Monterosso: ‘L'oratorio musicale in Bologna nel secolo XVIII’, Risultati e prospettive della ricerca sul movimento dei Disciplinati: Perugia 1969 (Perugia, 1972), 99–120
T. Gotti: ‘Beethoven a Bologna nell'Ottocento’, NRMI, vii (1973), 3–38, 352–87
M. Conati and M. Pavarani, eds.: Orchestre in Emilia-Romagna nell’Ottocento e Novecento (Parma, 1982)
R. Verti: ‘La presenza della musica nei periodici bolognesi dal 1800 al 1830’, Periodica musica, i (1983), 6–9
‘The Rise of the Emilian School of Instrumental Music in Late 17th-Century Italy’, IMSCR XIII: Strasbourg 1982, ii, 499–516
A. Pompilio, ed.: Padre Martini: Musica e cultura del settecento europeo (Florence, 1987)
L. Callegari, G. Sartini and G. Bersani Berselli, eds.: La librettistica bolognese nei secoli XVII e XVIII: catalogo e indici (Rome, 1989)
O. Gambassi: Il Concerto Palatino della Signoria di Bologna: cinque secoli di vita musicale a corte (1250–1797) (Florence, 1989)
For further bibliography see Martini, Giovanni Battista.
Lodovico Frati: La vita privata di Bologna dal secolo XIII al XVII (Bologna, 1900/R)
Lodovico Frati: ‘Per la storia della musica in Bologna dal secolo XV a XVI’, RMI, xxiv (1917), 449–78
Lodovico Frati: ‘Liutisti e liutai a Bologna’, RMI, xxvi (1919), 94–111
G. Vecchi: ‘Musica e scuola delle artes a Bologna nell’opera di Boncompagno da Signa (Sec. XIII)’, Festschrift Bruno Stäblein, ed. M. Ruhnke (Kassel, 1967), 266–73
F. Piperno: Gli ‘eccellentissimi musici della città di Bologna’: con uno studio sull’antologia madrigalistica del Cinquecento (Florence, 1985)
S. Forscher Weiss: ‘Musical Patronage of the Bentivoglio Signoria, c.1465–1512’, IMSCR XIV: Bologna 1987, iii, 703–15
A. Fiori: ‘Linguaggi sonori e musicali in alcune fonti giuridiche bolognesi dal 1200 al 1350’, RIM, xxiii (1988), 3–37
A. Fiori: ‘Pratica musicale a Bologna nelle testimonianze di alcune fonti processuali dei secoli XIII e XIV’, Studi musicali, xix (1990), 203–57
A. Fiori: ‘Ruolo del notariato nella diffusione del repertorio poetico-musicale nel Medioevo’, Studi musicali, xxi (1992), 211–35
A. Gatti: ‘La cappella maggiore di S. Petronio’, Atti e memorie della R. Deputazione di storia patria per le provincie di Romagna, 3rd ser., ix (1891), 324–61
Luigi Frati: I corali della Basilica di S. Petronio in Bologna (Bologna, 1896)
O. Mischiati: ‘Per la storia dell’oratorio a Bologna: tre inventari del 1620, 1622 e 1682’, CHM, iii (1962–3), 131–70
L’organo di S. Maria dei Servi in Bologna nella tradizione musicale dell’Ordine (Bologna, 1967)
C. Hamm: ‘Musiche del Quattrocento in S. Petronio’, RIM, iii (1968), 215–32
A. Schnoebelen: ‘Performance Practice at San Petronio in the Baroque’, AcM, xli (1969), 37–55
V. Alce: ‘La cappella musicale del Rosario in S. Domenico di Bologna’, Strenna storica bolognese, xxiii (1973), 13–31
E. Enrico: The Orchestra at San Petronio in the Baroque Era (Washington DC, 1976)
O. Gambassi: ‘La scuola dei “pueri cantores” in S. Petronio (1436–1880 ca.)’, NA, new ser., iii (1985), 7–53
O. Mischiati: La prassi musicale presso i Canonici Regolari del SS.Salvatore nei secoli XVI e XVII e i manoscritti polifonici della Biblioteca musicale ‘G.B. Martini’ di Bologna (Rome, 1985)
O. Gambassi: La cappella musicale di S. Petronio: maestri, organisti, cantori e strumentisti dal 1436 al 1920 (Florence, 1987)
P. Da Col and A. Macinanti: ‘Cronache di musica e storia degli organi nella Basilica di S. Paolo Maggiore in Bologna’, Rivista internazionale di musica sacra, xii (1991), 145–92
C.A. Monson: ‘La pratica della musica nei monasteri femminili bolognesi’, La cappella musicale nell’Italia della Controriforma: Cento 1989, 143–60
M. Vanscheeuwijck: ‘La cappella musicale di San Petronio ai tempi di Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1674–1695): organizzazione esemplare di una istituzione musicale’, ibid., 303–24
J. Riepe: Die Arciconfraternita di S. Maria della Morte in Bologna: Beiträge zur Geschichte des italienischen Oratoriums im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (diss., U. of Bonn, 1993; Paderborn, 1998)
C.A. Monson: Disembodied Voices: Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent (Berkeley, 1995)
G.B. Martini: Serie cronologica de’ principi dell’Accademia de’ Filarmonici di Bologna (Bologna, 1776/R)
M. Medici: Memorie storiche intorno le accademie scientifiche e letterarie della città di Bologna (Bologna, 1852)
A. Bonora: Scuole, insegnanti-allievi del Liceo musicale di Bologna dal 1805 al 1923 (Bologna, 1924)
N. Morini: La R. Accademia filarmonica di Bologna: monografia storica (Bologna, 1930)
C. Sartori: Il Regio conservatorio di musica ‘G.B. Martini’ di Bologna (Florence, 1942)
G. Vecchi, ed.: L’Accademia filarmonica di Bologna (1666–1966): notizie storiche, manifestazioni (Bologna, 1966)
F.A. Gallo: ‘L’Accademia filarmonica e la teoria musicale attraverso i testi conservati nell’archivio’, Quadrivium, viii (1967), 93–9
F. Haberl: ‘Rapporti fra l’Accademia filarmonica di Bologna e la scuola di Ratisbona: lo stile palestriniano degli accademici filarmonici’, ibid., 87–91
J.G. Suess: ‘Observations on the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna in the 17th Century and the Rise of a Local Tradition of Instrumental Music’, ibid., 51–62
G. Vecchi: Le accademie musicali del primo Seicento e Monteverdi a Bologna (Bologna, 1969)
S. Durante: ‘Condizioni materiali e trasmissione del sapere nelle scuole di canto a Bologna a metà Settecento’, IMSCR XIV: Bologna 1987, ii, 175–89
O. Gambassi: ‘Vita artistica dell'Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna: l'annuale festa del Santo protettore S. Antonio di Padova’, Seicento inesplorato: Lenno, nr Como 1989, 127–84
M. Baroni: ‘Rigori e licenze dell'Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna negli anni di Padre Martini’, Studi in onore di Giuseppe Vecchi, ed. I. Cavallini (Modena, 1989), 67–76
C. Vitali: ‘“La scuola della virtù della Zitelle”: insegnamento e pratiche musicali fra Sei e Ottocento presso il Conservatorio degli Esposti di Bologna’, I Bastardini: patrimonio e memoria di un ospedale bolognese (Bologna, 1990), 105–37
L. Callegari Hill: L’Accademia filarmonica di Bologna 1666–1800: statuti, indici degli aggregati e catalogo degli esperimenti d’esame nell’archivio, con un’introduzione storica (Bologna, 1991)
G. Vecchi: ‘L'Accademia Filarmonica e le sue fonti storiche: Padre G.B. Martini … ridimensionato’, Studi e materiali, per la storia dell’Accademia Filarmonica, iii (1991), 3–15
O. Gambassi: L’Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna: fondazione, statuti e aggregazione (Florence, 1992)
N. Gallino: ‘Lo “scuolaro” Rossini e la musica strumentale al Liceo di Bologna: nuovi documenti’, Bollettino del Centro rossiniano di studi, xxxiii (1993), 5–55
ES G. Pardieri and R. Morara)
RicciTB
G. Giordani: Intorno al Gran teatro del comune e ad altri minori in Bologna (Bologna, 1855)
L. Bignami: Cronologia di tutti gli spettacoli rappresentati nel gran Teatro comunale di Bologna dalla solenne sua apertura 14 maggio 1763 a tutto l’autunno del 1880 (Bologna, 1880)
G. Cosentino: Un teatro bolognese del secolo XVIII: il Teatro Marsigli-Rossi (Bologna, 1900)
O. Trebbi: Il Teatro Contavalli (1814–1914) (Bologna, 1914)
L. Trezzini, S. Paganelli and R. Verti, eds.: Due secoli di vita musicale: storia del Teatro comunale di Bologna (Bologna, 1966–87)
L. Bianconi and T. Walker: ‘Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda: storie di Febiarmonici’, RIM, x (1975), 379–454
M. Sergardi: ‘Bologna teatrale nel periodo giocobino’, Chigiana, new ser., xiii (1976), 265–81
C. Vitali: ‘Un fondo di musiche operistiche settecentesche presso l'Archivio di stato di Bologna (Fondo Malvezzi-Campeggi)’, NRMI, xiii (1979), 371–84
P. Mioli: ‘La scuola di canto bolognese nel Settecento’, Quadrivium, xxii (1981), 5–59
M. Sergardi: ‘Momenti del teatro d'avanguardia a Bologna (1920–1930)’, Avanguardie musicali e spettacolari italiane nell’Europa degli anni Venti: Siena 1978 [Chigiana, new ser., xv (1978)], 163–84
O. Gambassi: ‘Bologna: vita musicale a palazzo da un manoscritto del secolo XVIII’, Quadrivium, xxiii (1982), 49–68
E. Surian: ‘Organizzazione, gestione, politica teatrale e repertori operistici a Napoli e in Italia, 1800–1820’, Musica e cultura a Napoli dal XV al XIX secolo: Naples 1982, 317–68
M. Calore: Il teatro del Corso, 1805–1944 (Bologna, 1992)
R. Verti, ed.: Un almanacco drammatico: l'‘Indice de' teatrali spettacoli' 1764–1823 (Pesaro, 1996–8)
R. Verti: Il Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Milan, 1998)
