City in Italy, on the island of Sicily. The city dates from about 2169 bce when it was called Zancle. A musical tradition noted in Greek times did not survive in the Roman period; Byzantine liturgical music flourished during the Middle Ages. The most important monastery was S Salvatore, a cultural centre which reached its peak in the 12th century. Its flourishing musical activity was closely linked to that of the scriptorium of the monastery, as is indicated by the 27 manuscripts with Byzantine notation (in I-ME) and other manuscripts from Messina surviving elsewhere. The activity of the scriptoria encouraged the importation of troubadour songs, such as the chansons courtoises and the chansons de geste. During the 15th century there was renewed interest in humanistic studies in Messina; a public Greek school was founded and in 1473 Arrigo Alding introduced printing. From 1551 the Jesuits presented tragedies, comedies and sacred dramas with an ever increasing number of sung parts in the Teatro del Collegio Mamertino. Most of the works staged up to the end of the 16th century had texts written by Stefano Tuccio, Bartolomeo Petraccio and Girolamo Cariddi. Local performers seem to have been unsatisfactory; in 1549 and 1552 the senate engaged foreign musicians to perform at all religious and secular occasions, both in the cathedral and in the piazzas. The Messina Cathedral cappella was established in 1558; it was employed by the senate and soon attained fame throughout Italy, attracting musicians from elsewhere in Italy to become maestri di cappella: Heliseo Ghibel (1558–61), Bartolomeo Lombardo (1561–4 and 1567–95), Filippo Bonaffino and Gerolamo Lombardo (1614). Bartolomeo Lombardo’s compositions were performed with notable success in Italy and in the royal chapel of Spain. Later maestri included Ottavio Catalani (1621–c1644), Vincenzo Tozzi (1653–74), Paolo Lorenzani (1675–8) and Domenico Scorpione (1680–81). Between the mid-16th century and the mid-17th the choir’s numbers increased from eight (in 1564) to over 20.
In the same period polyphonic music was developed in Messina and throughout Sicily. Most of the maestri di cappella published religious and secular polyphonic music, as did Vincenzo Gallo, G.P. Flaccomio and P.M. Marsolo, all of whom were madrigal composers. This activity had a great impact on music publishing; the printing firms of Fausto Bufalini (1589–93) and of Pietro Brea ed Eredi (1594–1671) achieved a standard of production which could compete with that of their Venetian counterparts. The elder Antonio Ruffo was an important 17th-century patron of the arts; his collection became the most important in southern Italy. He had transformed his palazzo in Regio Campo into an academy, and between about 1662 and 1725 scholars gathered there, and devoted much of their time to music: musicians were invited from outside the town and several members of the Ruffo family were accomplished instrumentalists and composers.
Other academies flourished in the 17th century and became famous throughout Italy: the ‘Radicati’, or ‘Abbarbicati’ (1653–78), one held in the house of the La Rocca family (where the first comedy was staged in Messina in 1575) and, most outstanding, the Accademia della Fucina (1639–78), the centre of the intellectual and political life of the city. Many of its members wrote texts for music, others were musicians, but the most famous were the poets Errico Scipione (1592–1670), author of the music drama Deidamia, performed in Venice in 1644, and Carlo Musarra, who probably introduced the melodrama to Messina several years before it reached other Sicilian cities. His dramatic poem Eneidem, or Eneide di Virgilio, with music by either Ottavio Catalani or Vincenzo Tozzi, was performed before the Prince of Castile and Viceroy of Sicily, probably in January 1652. The heroic drama Il ratto d’Elena, by Bernardo Morando with music by Tozzi, dates from 1657; it was performed by musicians hired by the city cappella who had formed a society which had an oratory in the church of S Gioacchino. In 1716 the society obtained the church of S Cecilia, transferring in the mid-19th century to that adjoining the former convent of S Agostino, where it remained until the earthquake of 1908, after which it moved to the church of S Antonio Abate.
Both before and after the rise of the melodrama, other forms of music and music drama such as miracle plays, sacred dramas, oratorios, serenades, cantatas and musical intermezzos were popular, particularly for use at special occasions. Performances were given in the theatres and churches of the religious orders, on parade floats, in the Teatro alla Marina built by the clergy, but especially in the theatre of the royal palace and of the senate. Messina acquired a proper theatre only in 1724 with the conversion of a large 14th-century warehouse known as the ‘Munizione’; it had already been used for theatrical performances, including opera.
The cultural development of the 16th and 17th centuries was halted after the failure of the anti-Spanish revolt of 1674–8. The senate, the university (founded 1596), the order of the Cavalieri della Stella (1595) and the Academy of Letters (whose members were sent into exile) were all abolished. Later, the plague of 1743 and the 1783 earthquake had disastrous effects on the cultural life of the city, which had seen the foundation of several new academies: that of the Clizia (1701), the Accorti (1725) and, the most important and long-lasting, the Peloritana dei Pericolanti, founded in 1728. In the 18th century the Teatro della Munizione had engaged as designers Filippo Juvarra, Pietro Cirino and Quagliata, and Neapolitan opera had gained a strong hold, stimulated by the presence of the opera buffa composer Nicola Logroscino. The theatre was restored many times (1747–54, 1777, 1876, 1895), and engaged such outstanding singers as Luigi Lablache and Teresa Brambilla; it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1908.
Cultural life was renewed by the middle of the 19th century: the Accademia Peloritana enjoyed a period of great distinction (1827–47), the university was reinstated in 1838 and new libraries were opened – the Gabinetto Letterario (1839–47) and the Gabinetto di Lettura (from 1860). In 1852 the spacious Teatro S Elisabetta (renamed Teatro Vittorio Emanuele II in 1860) was officially inaugurated with Donizetti’s Marino Faliero under the title Il pascià di Scutari. The theatre attracted many famous singers and conductors. Antonio Laudamo (1813–84), the most important local musician during the 19th century, was conductor at the theatre, maestro di cappella at the cathedral and a composer of operas and sacred music. A second theatre, the Arena Peloro, was inaugurated in 1878. Concerts also became popular and several concert societies were founded: the Accademia Filo-Armonica di Messina (1833), which merged in 1840 with the Reale Accademia Filodrammatica to become the Accademia Filodrammatica e Filo-Armonica (later Filodrammatica Pietro Cossa); the Melopea Accademia Filarmonico-Drammatica (1868); the Società del Quartetto (1880); the Filarmonica Verdi (1880); the Società Orchestrale l’Avvenire (1886); and the Società del Circolo Musicale. Their concerts presented works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Liszt, as well as arrangements of chamber and symphonic music for piano (or other instruments) and for brass band. The concerts were given in the Teatro della Munizione, the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, the Arena Peloro, the Sala Comunale, Coglitore, Sala Mola and elsewhere. The Banda Cittadina, the Banda Militare and the Banda della Società Operaia also gave concerts.
The earthquake of 28 December 1908 destroyed all of the city’s cultural institutions. The void was only partly filled by the establishment of the Sezione di Messina della Federazione Orchestrale Italiana (1921) and the Filarmonica Antonio Laudamo (1922). The Accademia Filarmonica e Filodrammatica was re-established in 1948, and in the same year two new institutions were established in anticipation of the reopening of the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele: the Scuola di Danza Classica, and the Istituto Musicale A. Corelli. From 1936 the Sala Laudamo, part of the restoration project of the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, was the venue for the most important musical events in the city. The Arena Peloro was demolished in 1969. The new Teatro Vittorio Emanuele opened in 1986; in 1995 the Sicilian legislature established the Teatro di Messina authority, which administers the Sala Laudamo and the Teatro in Fiera as well as the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele. The latter theatre does not have its own chorus and orchestra; short opera seasons are organized with companies from other theatres in Italy and abroad.
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GIUSEPPE DONATO/GIUSEPPE FERRARO