City in Italy, in the Marches region. At the peak of the Malatesta family’s splendour in the early 15th century, Du Fay, on his first visit to Italy, probably stayed in Pesaro and Rimini (1420–26), writing the motets Vasilissa ergo gaude (1420) for Cleofe Malatesta, Apostolo glorioso (1426) for Pandolfo Malatesta and the chanson Resveilles vous for the wedding of Carlo Malatesta and Vittoria Colonna (July 1423). During the same period Hugo de Lantins was also probably in the service of the Malatestas. Later in the century an anonymous contemporary chronicler reported spectacular musical events in Pesaro for the wedding of Costanzo Sforza and Camilla of Aragon, referring to polychoral singing heard during the ceremony in the cathedral (28 May 1475). The Mass was celebrated with the concurrence ‘of numerous organs, pipes and trumpets, and drums, accompanying two separate groups of many singers, the one alternating with the other, and there were about 16 singers in each’ (De Marinis, 1946, p.11).
From the time of Duke Francesco Maria I the Urbino court began to gravitate towards Pesaro. Under Guidobaldo II (duke from 1538) the court's musical activity received a boost with the presence of Paolo Animuccia, Leonardo Meldert, Dominique Phinot and the singer and instrumentalist Virginia Vagnoli. Phinot's five-voice Mottetti were the first music book published by Bartolomeo Cesano (active in Pesaro 1554–9), who also published one of Vincenzo Ruffo's books of Madrigali (1555) and G.B. Corvo's Divina et sacra hebdomadae sancte (1556).
In the 16th century a family of harpsichord makers maintained a workshop in Pesaro; 14 of their instruments built between 1533 and 1600 have survived. Zarlino, in his Istitutioni harmoniche (Venice, 1558, p.164), remarked that in 1548 he commissioned ‘Maestro Dominico Pesarese raro et eccellente fabricattore di simili instrumenti’ to construct a harpsichord that could give the temperament and modulation of the three genera, the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic. The instrument, which has not yet been located, provided 19 divisions to the octave, with extra keys for all the sharps as well as between E and F and B and C. Other instrument makers were Tibaldo Fattorini (16th century) for lutes, Carlo Cortesi (fl 1612), Carlo Brandini, Antonio Mariani (d 1680), Sabatino Sacchini (fl 1686) for bowed instruments, and Antonio Pace (17th century) and Vincenzo and Francesco Polinori (18th century) for organs.
In the second half of the 16th century the Augustinian monk Paolo Lucchini (c1535–1598) was a music teacher in Pesaro, as his treatise Della musica shows. This work, of which a contemporary manuscript copy exists (I-PESo 2004), covers many aspects of 16th-century music theory and practice and is subdivided into three main sections: ‘Della theorica’, ‘Del valore delle note e delle proporzioni’, and ‘Della pratica del contrapunto e del comporre’. The theorist Ludovico Zacconi (1555–1627), a native of Pesaro, began his musical studies in 1575 with Lucchini before settling in Venice about 1577. He returned to Pesaro in 1596 to be prior of the Augustinian monastery until his retirement in 1612; he remained in Pesaro until his death, writing the second part of his Prattica di musica (Venice, 1622).
Vincenzo Pellegrini (1594) and Pietro Pace (1597) are mentioned in cathedral documents. In the 17th century numerous musical performances took place at the homes of the nobility, and in the premises of academies such as the Accademia dei Disinvolti (founded 1645).
The event that helped to link musical life in Pesaro with that of other Italian centres was the establishment of the Teatro del Sole, designed and decorated by Niccolò Sabbatini (1574–1654), a native of Pesaro. It was inaugurated during Carnival 1637 with Hondedei’s Asmondo, and throughout the century staged works that had already appeared mainly in Rome and Venice. It was semicircular and the stage was relatively small (about 8 metres square), but it had elaborate scenery and machinery. The first part of Sabbatini’s Pratica di fabricar scene e machine ne’ teatri (Pesaro, 1637–8) is a description of the new theatre. Major improvements in its structure were made by the construction of one box for dignitaries in 1678 and the erection of three tiers of boxes between 1682 and 1694, when performances were suspended. In the 18th century works that appeared in Naples, Venice and Rome were performed there as well as works by local composers, including the premières of G.M. Ruggeri’s Armida abbandonata (1715) and G. De Sanctis’s La serva scaltra (1762). In 1723 and 1790 additional improvements were made in the boxes and ceiling of the theatre.
On 6 March 1816 the city council decided to build a new theatre on the same site, to provide employment for needy workmen. It was designed by the architect Pietro Ghinelli, completed on 30 January 1817 and named Teatro Nuovo. During the period of construction the Teatrino della Pallacorda was used for opera performances, and continued to be until the end of the century. Rossini was the city’s most illustrious native composer, and the Teatro Nuovo opened on 10 June 1818 with his opera La gazza ladra, under his direction: throughout the century Rossini’s works were the most often performed. In 1854 the theatre was closed for a year for renovations; it reopened as the Teatro Rossini. After Rossini’s death a series of performances, which included Semiramide, Otello and the Stabat mater (with Teresa Stolz), were organized in August 1869 and called ‘Pompe Funebri Rossiniane’. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th works by Leoncavallo, Puccini and Mascagni (with a première of his Zanetto on 2 March 1896) dominated the seasons.
The Biblioteca Oliveriana, founded in 1756, holds musical sources, librettos and stage-setting documents. In accordance with Rossini's will, a Liceo Musicale was founded in 1882 (a conservatory from 1940); it has been directed by renowned figures including Pedrotti, Mascagni, Zanella, Zandonai, Alfano and Liviabella. A workshop for electronic music was established in 1971. The library contains manuscript and printed sources (c20,000 volumes) and a collection of portraits of musicians. The conservatory has published Cronaca musicale (1896–1917) and an Annuario. It houses the Tempietto Rossiniano, which has an extensive collection of the composer's autographs, including some operas, the Petite messe solennelle and the chamber compositions of his Paris period.
In 1955 the Fondazione Rossini (established 1940) set up the Centro Rossiniano di Studi; it publishes a Bollettino, has edited chamber compositions in the series Quaderni Rossiniani and in 1979 began the critical edition of Rossini's complete works. Since 1980 the Rossini Opera Festival has been held annually during August. The house where Rossini was born is now a small museum.
DEUMM (F. Piperno)
GroveO (P. Fabbri)
C. Cinelli: Memorie cronistoriche del Teatro di Pesaro dall’anno 1637 al 1897 (Pesaro, 1898)
G. Radiciotti: ‘La musica in Pesaro’, Cronaca musicale, x (1906), 21–8, 46–9
G. Radiciotti: ‘La cappella musicale del duomo di Pesaro (sec. XVII–XIX)’, Cronaca musicale, xviii (1914), 41–8, 65–75
E. Paolone: ‘Codici musicali della Biblioteca Oliveriana e della Biblioteca del R. Conservatorio di musica di Pesaro’, RMI, xlvi (1942), 186–200
T. De Marinis, ed.: ‘Le nozze di Costanzo Sforza e Camilla d’Aragona celebrate a Pesaro nel maggio 1475: narrazione anonima, accompagnata da trentadue miniature di artista contemporaneo’, Nozze Ricasoli–Firidolfi Ruffo di Guardialombarda (Florence, 1946)
A. Melica: ‘Catalogo ragionato della Raccolta Rossini del Conservatorio di Pesaro’, Bollettino del Centro rossiniano di studi, v (1960), 31–4, 53–7, 90–92
B. Cagli and M. Bucarelli, eds.: La casa di Rossini (Modena, 1989) [exhibition catalogue]
D. Fornaciari: L'ombra sacra della Quercia d'Oro: musica e spettacolo alla corte dei Della Rovere di Pesaro e Urbino nel 500 (diss., U. of Florence, 1990–91)
A. Brancati, ed.: I centodieci anni del Liceo musicale Rossini (1882–1992) oggi Conservatorio in Pesaro (Pesaro, 1992)
E. Gamba and V. Montebelli, eds.: Macchine da teatro e teatri di macchine: Branca, Sabbatini, Torelli scenotecnici e meccanici del Seicento – Catalogo della mostra (Urbino, 1995)
ELVIDIO SURIAN/MARCO SALVARANI