Italian city in the province of Perugia, Umbria. The development of musical life in the city was due to the patronage of three bishops, all belonging to the Eruli family. Bernardo (144874), Costantino (147495) and Francesco (14951540). Between 1465 and 1471 they endowed the cathedral with a new organ and enlarged the number of musicians. The cappella was officially founded in 1561 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and Bishop Fulvio Orsini (15657) and Bishop Pietro Orsini (158091) increased its revenue. During Pietro Orsini's reign Father Giovanni Troiano was maestro di cappella and Fathers Nevio Roscio and Marcantonio Contolini served as organists. Between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 18th Antonio Liberti and his son Vincenzo were active as maestri di cappella. Vincenzo dedicated his five-part Il secondo libre de madrigali (1609) to Bishop Maffeo Barberini (160817). From 1614 to 1617 the famous soprano castrato Loreto Vittori sang in the cappella, before being called to Rome by Barberini. Several later maestri di cappella composed oratorios, among them G.B. Fronduti (170317) and Giuseppe Radicchi (175976).
There is evidence for musical and theatrical performances given in the palaces of the nobility from the end of the 16th century under the aegis of the Accademia degli Ottusi. In 1639, having been banished to Spoleto, Loreto Vittori composed his opera La Galatea there. The Accademia was also responsible for the construction of the Teatro de Nobili in the Piazza del Duomo. Authorization for its construction was granted in 1657; for Carnival 1661 Francesco Vannarelli's La Fedra was performed there. The rectangular wooden hall was altered to a horseshoe shape in 1667 and equipped with 60 boxes in four tiers. Between 1749 and 1751 the number of boxes was increased from 15 to 18 per tier, and the theatre was re-inaugurated in autumn 1751 with Niccolς Jommelli's Ipermestra, composed for the occasion. The theatre was again restored and reopened in 1802 with Li tre Orfei by Marcello Bernardini. 1880 saw the completion of a reconstruction in masonry of the old wooden theatre, which had gradually become unusable; it was renamed the Teatro Cajo Melisso.
The Teatro Nuovo, designed by Ireneo Aleandri, was built in 185464 on the site of the church of the monastery of S Andrea, itself built on Roman foundations. On a horseshoe plan, it has four tiers of boxes and about 1200 seats. Every year performances are given there by the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale, a group founded in 1947 to provide opportunities for young singers.
It was as a result of this enterprise that G.C. Menotti chose Spoleto as the seat of the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds), which was inaugurated in 1958 and takes place in June and July each year. The festival, experimental in character, revolves around music drama with the addition of chamber and symphony concerts, as well as ballet, plays, films and exhibitions. An important catalyst of the festival was Thomas Schippers, artistic director until 1965 and musical director until 1975. The artistic direction, after being in the hands of Menotti in 1966 and 1967, passed to Massimo Bogianckino (196871), Romolo Valli (19728), Rafaello de Banfield (1979) and Menotti (1984). The musical director from 1978 was Christian Badea, who was succeeded in 1987 by Spiros Argiris.
The collaboration of Luchino Visconti as director was also very important. He staged Macbeth for the inaugural festival (1958), followed by Il duca d'Alba (1959), Salome (1961), La traviata (1963) and Manon Lescaut (1973). In May 1977 the festival was expanded to Charleston, South Carolina (representing the other of the two worlds); productions from Spoleto are performed there each year during May and June.
DEUMM (M. Pascale)
ES
GroveO (G. Ciliberti and P. Gallarati)
L. Fausti: Notizie artistiche del Duomo di Spoleto (Foligno, 1914)
O. Sansi: Il teatro nuovo di Spoleto: notizie cronistoriche dal 1840 al 1864 (Spoleto,1914)
L. Fausti: La cappella musicale del Duomo di Spoleto (Perugia, 1916)
O. Sansi: Il Nobile Teatro di Spoleto (Spoleto, 1922)
L. Fausti: Memorie storiche dell'Accademia Spoletina, Atti dell'Accademia Spoletina (192326) (Spoleto,1926); repr. in L'Accademia Spoletina, ed. F. Antolini (Spoleto,1977)
O. Sansi: Notizie cronistoriche aggiunte al Nobile Teatro di Spoleto, ibid.
M. Rinaldi: Storia di un teatro, La Scala, no.44 (1953), 1518
C. Jolly: The Festival of Two Worlds, Opera, ix (1958), 5517
I. Luchetti Lopa: La cappella musicale del Duomo di Spoleto nei secoli XVIXVIII, Spoletium, xviii (1973), 1722
G. Metelli: Antonino Liberti maestro di cappella di Spoleto, Spoletium, xxiv (1979), 913
W. Weaver: 25 anni di musica, Spoleto Festival 1982 (Spoleto, 1982), 6583
M. Natale, ed.: Spoleto trent'anni di Festival: gli spettacoli, gli autori, i partecipanti, gli artisti 19581987 (Spoleto, 1987)
G. Ciliberti: Documenti per una storia dell'oratorio musicale a Spoleto nei secoli XVIIXVIII: una cronolgia dei libretti, Spoletium, xxxvixxxvii (1992), 836
GALLIANO CILIBERTI, PAOLO GALLARATI