Italian city in Piedmont. It was ruled by the Aleramo family before 1305 and then by the Paleologos until 1536, when the marquisate of Monferrat was annexed to the holdings of the Gonzaga family, who also ruled Mantua. The court's residence settled at Casale Monferrato in 1435, and the city became an episcopal seat in 1474; a cappella was founded then with Stefano Binelli as the first maestro di cappella. During the Albigensian Crusade the court was a refuge for numerous troubadours including Raimbaut de Vaqeiras and Peire Vidal. Several of Gaffurius's songs from the 1470s honour Guglielmo Paleologo VIII; Galeotto del Carretto, a local poet, provided texts which Marchetto Cara and Tromboncino set to music. The court employed the lutenist Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa from 1517 to 1518 and the singer Andrea Costa from 1517 probably until 1534.
The cathedral archives are particularly rich in music sources (see Sources, MS, §IX, 17). Seven locally copied manuscripts of polyphony dating from about 1515 to about 1560 are especially important; they contain 238 sacred works by at least 37 composers, including unica of masses by Jean Mouton and Andreas de Silva and two motets probably by Nicolaus de Madis (maestro di cappella, 1534–42). The manuscripts also contain at least nine works by a cathedral canon, Francesco Cellavenia (fl c1536–65), a competent composer who belonged to a local family; a book of his motets, now lost, was published at Milan in 1565. Other composers whose works are included are Costanzo Festa, Jacquet of Mantua, Willaert, Maistre Jhan and Jean Lhéritier; another manuscript copied by F. Sforza at Mantua in 1594 contains works by Victoria and Wert. 12 chant books (a gradual and an antiphonal) and a missal copied in Casale Monferrato during the Renaissance are also in the archives. Prints include soprano partbooks of the Contrapunctus (Lyons, 1528) and of late 16th-century music by Palestrina, Asola, Giovanni Croce, Viadana and Gerolamo Boschetti as well as a madrigal collection, Spoglia amorosa (Venice, 1590). Later manuscripts transmit works by G.P. Colonna, G.B. Bononcini, T.A. Ingegneri and others. An Ashkenazi community lived in the city, and evidence exists of Jewish liturgical music dated about 1600; concertato works for Jewish ceremonies in 1732 survive.
Opera performances in Casale Monferrato began as early as 1611 with the first performance of G.C. Monteverdi's Il rapimento di Proserpina for the birthday festivities of Margherita Gonzaga, but the first theatre did not open until 1670. Pietro Guglielmi's La locanda (1776) and Pasquale Anfossi's Le gelosie villane (1779) had their premières in the Teatro Grande (or Teatro Sacchi). Much chamber music was performed during the 18th century in the houses of local nobility. A new theatre, the Teatro della Società (or Municipale), was built in 1784, and is the second largest in the Piedmont. In 1827 the Accademia Filarmonica was founded and has remained active, and in 1863 Giovanni Hugues founded the Civica Scuola di Musica (later Scuola d’Arco). The Teatro Politeama Sociale opened in 1885 with Aida and continues to feature international artists. The most interesting personality in Casale Monferrato during the 19th century was Count Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue, who collected string instruments by Stradivari and other makers, and carried on important correspondence with many violin makers.
MGG2 (S. Martinotti/D. Crawford)
G. Calliano: Nozioni sul teatro di Casale (Casale Monferrato, 1851)
P. Guerrini: ‘I codici musicali dell'Archivio Capitolare di Casale Monferrato’, Rivista di storia, arte, e archeologia per la Provincia di Alessandria, xlii (1933), 3–20
B. Rossi: Dizionario dei musicisti casalesi (Casale Monferrato, 1942)
I. Adler: La pratique musicale savante dans quelques communautés juives en Europe aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1966)
D. Crawford: ‘The Francesco Sforza Manuscript at Casale Monferrato’, JAMS, xxiv (1971), 457–62
M. Staehelin: ‘Eine wenig beachtete Gruppe von Chorbüchern aus der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts’, IMSCR XI: Copenhagen 1972, 664–8
D. Crawford: Sixteenth-Century Choirbooks in the Archivio Capitolare at Casale Monferrato, RMS, ii (1974)
I. Adler, ed.: Hoshacna Rabbah in Casale Monferrato 1732: Musical Ceremony for 5–6 Voices, Strings, Oboes, and Basso Continuo by Anonymous Composers (Jerusalem, 1990)
DAVID CRAWFORD