(It. Genova).
Italian city, capital of Liguria. The earliest recorded musical activity in Genoa dates from the Middle Ages, with documented references to troubadours (Bonifacio Calvo, Lanfranco Cigala), devotional songs (cantegore) and liturgical music. Early evidence for the cultivation of music includes the 12th-century neumatic codex in S Maria delle Vigne, the presence of organs, and the legacy of Bertolino Fieschi (1313), which ensured that singing was taught to clerics and boys in the cathedral of S Lorenzo. The Adorno family brought Franchinus Gaffurius to the city (1478), and Paolo Campofregoso (1494) established a choir in the cathedral where polyphony was taught.
More documents survive from the 16th and 17th centuries. A cappella of wind players was established in the Palazzo Ducale in 1540; in the 17th century this was augmented by singers and string instruments. Musicians who worked there include Ferdinando Pagano (1590–92), Francesco Guami (1594), Marco Corrado (1594–1625), Simone Molinaro (1625–36), Giovanni Paolo Costa (1636–8), his brother Giovanni Maria Costa (1640–56) and Giovanni Stefano Scotto (1659–74). The directors of the choir of the cathedral (founded by Lorenzo Fieschi) were Vincenzo Ruffo (1544), Andrea Festa (1552–9), Antonio Dueto (1576–84), Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena (1584–9), his nephew Molinaro (1601–17), Carlo Abbate (1640–61) and Agostino Guerrieri. Organists at the two organs (built by Giovanni Battista Facchetti, 1554, and Giuseppe Vitani, 1604) were the Parma-born Orazio Briolano and the Genoese Lelio Rossi (de Rubeis), assisted by his nephew Michelangelo, Giovanni Battista Strata and Scotto. Music was important in the various churches, convents and monasteries: Francesco Antonio Costa worked in S Francesco di Castelletto, while Francesco Righi, Pietro Simone Agostini, Giovanni Maria Pagliardi and Matteo Bisso directed the choir (founded 1609) of the Jesuit church, S Ambrogio; Giovanni Battista Rossi and Giovanni Battista Bianchi belonged to the Somasci and Augustinian orders respectively, and in the monasteries of S Leonardo and S Bartolomeo the outstanding figures were Anfione Ferrabosco's daughters Elena and Laura. Willem Hermans from Flanders built organs for the churches of S Ambrogio, S Maria Assunta in Carignano and S Maria Maddalena. Printed editions for the Dottrina Christiana and the Piarists testify to the singing of laude in the city.
The Genoese publishing trade in the 16th and 17th centuries rivalled that of Venice and Rome; the leading printers included Girolamo Bartoli, Giuseppe Pavoni and the Calenzani family. Molinaro edited Gesualdo's Partitura delli sei libri de madrigali a cinque voci, published by Pavoni in 1613, and opened a music-printing business in Loano, whose management he entrusted to Francesco Castello.
The Genoese nobility fostered the cultivation of secular music: the Doria family maintained a choir directed by Ruffo (1545–6); Andrea Bianchi worked for the Cybo family (1611); a group of aristocrats brought Giulio Caccini to Genoa in 1595, while Francesco Rasi was a guest of the Grimaldis (1607) and Francesca Caccini of the Brignole Sale family (1617). Genoese citizens heard many musical events: at the port, in the streets and during processions, particularly of the confraternities (the casacce) and the city authorities. Performances were given by the academies, particularly the Accademia degli Addormentati (1587), to which Angelo Grillo (Livio Celiano), Gabriello Chiabrera and Ansaldo Cebà all belonged. The lutenists Marco Corrado, Dalla Gostena and Molinaro were active in Genoa. Many eminent composers, singers and instrumentalists born or educated in Genoa worked elsewhere, including Johannes and Antonius de Janua in the 14th and 15th centuries and, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Giovanni Battista Pinello di Ghirardi, Bernardino Borlasca, Michelangelo Rossi, Claudio Cocchi, Giovanni Battista Fossato, Giovanni Filippo Cavalliere, Giovanni Francesco Tagliavacca and Pietro Reggio.
Around 1640, when public theatres were beginning to develop in Venice, the Teatro del Falcone opened, presenting operas by Righi, Giovanni Maria Costa, Carlo Ambrogio Lonati and Alessandro Stradella. In 1677 the theatre, originally owned by the Adorno family, was acquired by a group of noblemen who opened its doors to a more popular audience. In 1680 it was taken over by the Durazzo family, who ran the theatre until it was acquired by the Savoia family in 1824. In the meantime, more theatres opened: S Agostino in 1702, the Teatro delle Vigne (c1730), and theatres in the summer retreats of Albaro, Sampierdarena, Sestri Ponente and Voltri. Featured composers were Pasquale Anfossi, Cimarosa, Isola, Luigi and Giocondo Degola. The opening of the Oratorio di S Filippo Neri (for which Boccherini wrote Giuseppe riconosciuto) encouraged the performance of oratorios and vocal and instrumental music, by composers such as Domenico Balduino, Antonio Maria Tasso, Nicolò Uccelli, Luigi Cerro and Giacomo Costa.
In the 18th century a school of violin playing developed in Genoa; among its leading exponents were Martino Bitti and Giovanni Antonio Guido. Paganini began his career as composer and performer in the city at the end of the 18th century, but in later years appeared in Genoa only sporadically. After Paganini, the violinists Camillo Sivori, Nicola and Domenico De Giovanni, Agostino Dellepiane and Giovanni Battista Pedevilla all gained an international reputation.
Opera in Genoa received a new impetus in 1828, when the Teatro Carlo Felice (see illustration) opened with Bellini's Bianca e Fernando. The theatre hosted other important premières by composers including Donizetti (Alina, regina di Golconda, 1828), Mascagni (Le maschere, 1901) and Malipiero (Giulio Cesare, 1936); the Italian première of Strauss's Arabella was given at the Carlo Felice in 1936. The theatre was destroyed by bombing in September 1943; it reopened with Il trovatore in October 1991. Orchestral and chamber concerts are given by a number of organizations, notably the Giovine Orchestra Genovese, founded in 1912.
In 1829 Antonio Costa founded the Scuola Gratuita di Canto for the training of opera singers; after various transformations it became the present Conservatorio di Musica N. Paganini. The library holds autograph scores by Galuppi and valuable letters, documents and papers of Paganini. Musicological associations in Genoa include the Instituto di Studi Paganiniani (founded in 1972 and run by the city since 1990), and the Associazione Ligure per la Ricerca delle Fonti Musicali (1990). The Premio Paganini international violin competition has been held regularly since 1954, and the Festival Internazionale del Balletto di Nervi was inaugurated in 1955.
GroveO (A.F. Ivaldi)
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MARIA ROSA MORETTI