City in Italy, on the island of Sicily. It was originally a Phoenician colony whose culture became hellenized and which underwent periods of Punic and Roman domination. In the Byzantine era (7th–9th centuries) it was the centre of a school of hymn writing. Under the Arabs it became the capital of Sicily. Traces of these periods still remain in the local folksongs.
Palermo reached the summit of its political and cultural power in the Norman period. Under King Roger (1094–1154) the best of the treasures of three cultures was concentrated in the capital of his kingdom: the Byzantine liturgy in the church of La Martorana and the Latin plainchant in the cathedral were matched by Islamic courtly music, which is represented in paradise scenes painted on the ceilings of the Cappella Palatina and of Cefalù Cathedral. The eccellentissimi cantori at the court of William II (1166–89) were particularly famous. In 1194 the Emperor Henry VI of Swabia came to the throne of Sicily; a celebrated Minnesinger himself, he brought to Palermo two great troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqeiras and Bonifazio di Monferrato. His son, the Emperor Frederick II, who was also a poet and musician, made Palermo the foremost Italian centre of the arts; at his court Italian literature had its beginnings, as an extension of Provençal poetry, and these were closely linked with music. The liturgical music used in the cathedral in the Norman and Aragonese periods survives in numerous manuscripts with neumatic notation, of which most were carried off at the end of the 17th century and are now in Spain; but the Archivio Storico Diocesano at Palermo still has some, including a Gregorian missal of the 11th century with adiastematic accent-neumes, and the Cantus diversi ad usum sanctae panhormitanae ecclesiae of the 14th and 15th centuries. As early as the 14th century there were at least two organs in Palermo Cathedral, relatively large instruments standing on stone choirs.
In the 16th century aristocratic houses held musical ‘academies’ where virtuoso lutenists performed, including Giacomo d’Auria at the beginning of the century and Mario Cangialosa at the end. Sicilian compositions were first printed in Venice in the 1550s, for example those of Giandominico La Martoretta and Pietro Vinci, the founder of a school of polyphonic composition. Palermo was the principal centre for some 60 musicians who between 1552 and 1659 published more than 200 collections, mostly of madrigals. At least 50 of these were printed in Palermo, by G.F. Carrara (1583–95), G.A. de Franceschi (1588–1636) and, most important, G.B. Maringo (1597–1638) and Giuseppe Bisagni (1652–9). The royal palatine chapel flourished as a result of a financial decree of 1587; Raval and Gallo were both maestri di cappella there, and Clavijo and Oristagno were organists. A truly Sicilian school of polyphony may be discerned in the group of composers who centred on Antonio Il Verso (c1565–1621), a pupil of Vinci and permanent resident of Palermo. He had numerous pupils there, of whom Giuseppe Palazzotto e Tagliavia, Giovan Battista Calì, Francesco del Pomo, Domenico Campisi and Antonio Formica were also composers. Other musicians active in Palermo at this time included Mauro Chiaula, Giulio Oristagno, Nicolò Toscano, Vincenzo Gallo and Erasmo Marotta (Sicilians), Bernardo Clavijo del Castillo and Sebastián Raval (Spaniards), Claudio Pari (from Burgundy), Bartolomeo Montalbano (from Bologna), Antonio and Achille Falcone (from Cosenza) and Livio Lupi (from Caravaggio), a dancing-master. Sigismondo d’India, a patrician of Palermo, pursued his musical career outside Sicily.
The sacred drama with related musical interludes was vigorously cultivated in Palermo. The greatest example of the genre is the Atto della Pinta, the Rappresentazione della creazione del mondo by Teofilo Folengo, which was presented by the senate in the church of S Maria della Pinta from 1539; the music for the performance of 1581 was composed by Mauro Chiaula. When Bonaventura Rubino was maestro di cappella at the cathedral (1643–65), solemn polychoral liturgies took place in the principal churches: the Stellario of the Holy Virgin was celebrated with 12 choirs in 1644 at S Francesco. Two passions ‘in stile recitativo’ by Vincenzo Amato, Rubino's successor (1665–70), survive in manuscript copies ranging from the mid-17th century to the early 20th.
Opera came late to Palermo; it was imported from Venice via Naples. The first opera to be performed was Giasone (1655), followed by Ciro(1657), Xerse (1658) and Artemisia (1659, given in the Teatro della Misericordia). Comparison of the Palermo librettos with the first Venice editions shows that these were Cavalli’s, with additions by Francesco Provenzale acquired at the time of their performance in Naples, and with additional local variants. These variants must have been extensive in the case of Elena (1661), also by Cavalli, of which Marc’Antonio Sportonio proclaimed himself composer in the Palermo libretto.
Alessandro Scarlatti was born in Palermo in 1660. Vincenzo Amato, the last of the Sicilian polyphonists, was a relation (probably a cousin) of Scarlatti’s mother, and it is probable that he and Sportonio were his first teachers. The first opera by Scarlatti performed in Palermo was Il Pompeo (1690); he dominated the Palermo theatre from Naples for at least 15 years, and the subsequent history of music in Palermo is substantially that of its opera houses. The earliest performances of opera, up to the end of the 17th century, were given in the Teatro della Misericordia and the Teatro della Corte del Pretore. The Teatro S Cecilia was specially built by the Unione dei Musici and opened on 28 October 1693 with L’innocenza pentita: o vero la Santa Rosalia (libretto by Vincenzo Giattino, music by Ignazio Pollice – both from Palermo); it provided a ready outlet for the Neapolitan school in the 18th century. Domenico Scarlatti is registered as having been a member of the Unione dei Musici, and present in Palermo, from 1720–22.
The Teatro Marmoreo or ‘nuovo teatro della musica’ (see illustration) on the coast was completed on 17 April 1682 and was inaugurated a week later with a serenata to a text of Baldassare Gonzales by Bonaventura Aliotti, maestro di cappella of the cathedral and senate. Designed by Paolo Amato, brother of Vincenzo and architect to the senate of Palermo, it was intended to provide a luxurious setting for the outdoor musical entertainments that had been traditional on that spot for nearly a century.
The Teatro della Corte del Pretore, later known as the Teatro di S Lucia or Teatro di S Caterina, devoted at first to opera buffa, came into regular service in 1726. The powerful Valguarnera family directed its reconstruction in 1809, when it was enlarged and renamed the Real Teatro Carolino, and became the foremost theatre in the city. It was one of the very few in Italy to remain open the whole year. A collection of its music (260 volumes of manuscript scores, including 171 complete operas) was recently discovered in Boston. The theatre was visited by the most celebrated opera companies and singers, and its artistic directors included Natale Bertini, Giuseppe Mosca and Pietro Generali who succeeded each other between 1813 and 1828, and Donizetti, in 1825–6, when his new opera Alahor in Granata was performed there. The repertory was similar to that of other Italian theatres of the period: operas by Cimarosa, Paisiello, Guglielmi, Fioravanti, Paer and Mayr predominated at first; to these were added the successes of Rossini (from 1816), Donizetti and (from 1829) Bellini, and finally (from 1844) Verdi almost completely dominated the seasons. During the Revolution of 1848 and after the unification of Sicily with the Kingdom of Italy (1860), the Real Teatro Carolino changed its name to the Real Teatro Bellini and the seasons gradually became shorter.
The Politeama Garibaldi was built by the city council to a design by Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda and opened in 1874. It is a singular theatre with a liftable roof to accommodate various kinds of spectacle, from circus to opera. The opera seasons were gradually transferred to it; on 24 April 1896 Puccini's La Bohème had its first successful performance there. The Teatro Massimo, designed by G.B.F. Basile, opened on 16 May 1897 with Verdi’s Falstaff. It is one of the largest theatres in the world, with a total area of 7730 m2, a stage of 1214 m2, five tiers of boxes and 3200 seats.
The Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana (formed in 1958) gives a rich season of symphony concerts, three a week, from October to June. The Politeama Garibaldi was its home from 1968 to 1974, after which it moved to the Cinema-Teatro Golden. It has created a huge following for symphonic music, especially among young people. Concerts have been promoted by various organizations: the Associazione Palermitana dei Concerti Sinfonici (1922–31); the Società dei Concerti del Conservatorio (1945–52); the Amici della Musica (founded 1946), the Goethe Institut (founded 1962) and the Opera Universitaria (founded 1973). Opera seasons at the Teatro Massimo continued until 1974, when it was closed for restoration and operatic activity moved to the Politeama. It reopened on 12 May 1997.
The Settimana di Monreale, a festival of religious, liturgical and spiritual music (1949–50 and from 1957), is given in the historic churches of Palermo and Monreale. Six Settimane Internazionali di Nuova Musica were organized by the Gruppo Universitario per la Nuova Musica (GUNM) in the years 1960–63, 1965 and 1968. GUNM drew its support from the major musical organizations of the city, having prepared them with a season of concerts of contemporary music in 1959–60. The first Settimana broke the monopoly on new music previously held by Darmstadt and made the public aware of some important composers, such as Bussotti, Clementi, Donatoni, Evangelisti, Kayn and the Palermitans Sciarrino, Arrigo and Belfiore.
The Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory originated in a ‘pia casa degli spersi’, called the Conservatorio del Buon Pastore (1618). Musical tuition was introduced, after the example of Neapolitan conservatories, at the end of the 17th century. Nicola Logroscino was maestro di cappella there from 1758 to 1764. After a crisis, it flourished again under the direction of Pietro Raimondi (1833–52). In the 20th century some distinguished musicologists have taught there, including A. Favara, F. Mompellio and N. Pirrotta. The Istituto di Storia della Musica dell’Università, founded by Luigi Rognoni in 1958, has helped to stimulate a revival of interest in music, and has particularly encouraged contemporary music. It began publishing the series Musiche Rinascimentali Siciliane in 1970, Puncta (musicological studies) in 1974 and Dafni (musical texts and studies) in 1991. Collage, an international yearbook for new music and visual arts, was published at Palermo (1963–70). The Centro d'Avviamento all'Arte Lirica, a school associated with the Teatro Massimo, was active from 1965 to 1977. Organizations arising in the 1970s and 80s included Brass Group (jazz concerts and training), Ars Nova (amateur tuition, concerts and symposia), Folkstudio (folk music research and editions) and the Associazione per la Musica Antica Antonio Il Verso (early music and opera). The most important chamber orchestras are Gli Armonici and the Zephyr Ensemble (renowned for contemporary music). The CIMS (Centro per le Iniziative Musicali in Sicilia) was constituted in 1982 by Sicilian universities and concert societies; it maintains a centre of documentation for contemporary music and an archive of folk music recordings. CIMS is the seat of the Mediterranean Musical Conference and of its yearbook Memus.
GroveO (R. Pagano)
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G. Sorge: I teatri di Palermo nei secoli XVI, XVII, XVIII (Palermo, 1926)
F. De Maria: Il Regio conservatorio di musica di Palermo (Florence, 1941)
I. Ciotti and O. Tiby: I cinquant’anni del Teatro massimo (Palermo, 1947)
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O. Tiby: I polifonisti siciliani del XVI e XVII secolo (Palermo, 1969)
L. Bianconi: ‘Sussidi bibliografici per i musicisti siciliani del Cinque e Seicento’, RIM, vii (1972), 3–38
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P.E. Carapezza: ‘Le sei Settimane internazionali di nuova musica di Palermo (1960–68)’, Di Franco Evangelisti e di alcuni nodi storici del tempo (Rome, 1980), 55–66
D. Hiley: ‘The Norman Chant Traditions: Normandy, Britain, Sicily’, PRMA, cvii (1981), 1–33
R. Pagano: ‘Le attività musicali nella Sicilia del Settecento’, La Sicilia del Settecento (Messina, 1981), 859–99
D. Hiley: ‘Quanto c'è di normanno nei tropari siculo-normanni?’, RIM, xviii (1983), 3–28
L. Maniscalco Basile: Storia del Teatro Massimo di Palermo (Florence, 1984)
M.S. Maraventano: Le attività culturali a Palermo negli ultimi venti anni, 1945–65: i periodici, la musica, il teatro (Rome, 1984)
D. Gramit: ‘The Music Paintings of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo’, Imago Musicae, ii (1985), 9–49
R. Pagano: Scarlatti, Alessandro e Domenico: due vite in una (Milan, 1985)
G. Leone: L'opera a Palermo dal 1653 al 1987 (Palermo, 1988)
G. Collisani and D. Ficola, eds.: Musica ed attività musicali in Sicilia nei secoli XVII e XVIII, i: ‘I quaderni del conservatorio’ (Palermo, 1988)
D. Ficola, ed.: Musica sacra in Sicilia tra rinascimento e barocco (Palermo, 1988)
D. Tortora: ‘Roma e Palermo centri di nuova musica negli anni Sessanta’, Musica/Realtà (1988), 87–105
S. Giacobello: Una stagione operistica (1793–94) al Teatro Santa Cecilia di Palermo (Palermo, 1990)
D. Tortora: ‘Nuova Consonanza’: trent'anni di musica contemporanea, 1959–1988 (Lucca, 1990)
A. Tedesco: Il Teatro Santa Cecilia e il Seicento musicale palermitano (Palermo, 1992)
G.M. Borio: Musikalische Avantgarde um 1960 (Laaber, 1993), 118–46
P.E. Carapezza: ‘La musica dipinta’, Nuove effemeridi, no.27 (1994), 80–93
R. Pagano: ‘Libretti siciliani a Berkeley’, Ceciliana per Nino Pirrotta, ed. M.A. Balsano and G. Collisani (Palermo, 1994), 229–79
PAOLO EMILIO CARAPEZZA, GIUSEPPE COLLISANI
