Florence

Florence. It. city, capital of Tuscany, of great beauty and cultural significance. Sacred mus. flourished there from 14th cent. and reached a high-point in 16th cent. under patronage of Medici family. At the same periods a tradition of secular mus. in the form of madrigals and Ballate developed. Florence is also regarded as the birthplace of opera, which emerged as an offshoot of the court th. fests. held at the celebration of Medici weddings together with the interest of Florentine intellectuals, musicians, and poets in ancient Greek musical and dramatic theories. In particular, the informed meetings held at the homes of Giovanni de’ Bardi and Jacopo Corsi resulted in the composition of musical dramas by Peri, Caccini, and Cavalieri. First opera is generally believed to have been Peri's Dafne (1594–8), perf. in several versions before 1604, followed by his Euridice (1600). Pastorals by Monteverdi and Gagliano were perf. in Florence soon after their premières in Mantua.

A rich period occurred at the end of the 17th cent. under Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici (1663–1713). It was in his court that Cristofori built the first piano. The prince himself directed operas in the Villa di Pratolino, held nightly chamber concerts, and patronized church mus. During the 18th cent., Neapolitan and Venetian composers tended to dominate the Florentine musical scene. Its internationalization can be attrib. to the extinction of the Medicis in 1737 and their succession by the aristocratic families Habsburg and Lorraine. During the 19th cent., Florence was a centre of symphonic and chamber mus. rather than opera. A pf. factory with Viennese craftsmen was opened in 1828 and a Philharmonic Soc., the first in It., was founded in 1830. Beethoven's symphonies were better known in Florence than in the rest of It. Even so, opera—chiefly at the Teatro della Pergola—was not neglected. First perfs. were given of Donizetti's Parisina (1833) and Verdi's Macbeth (1847) and f. It. ps. of Weber's Der Freischütz (1843) and Meyerbeer's Dinorah (1867). The city's mus. life declined after 1870 until its revival in c.1913 by Bastianelli and Pizzetti, who were based in Florence as both critics and musicians. They concentrated on contemporary mus. On the occasion in 1923 when Casella cond. Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Puccini met Schoenberg. In 1928 Vittorio Gui founded and cond. one of It.'s first permanent orchs., the Orchestrale Fiorentina, and in 1933 Guido M. Gatti instituted the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a fest. held annually in May and June. It soon became internationally renowned for adventurous opera prods. and excellent concerts. Gui's orch. was re-named Orchestra del Maggio and has been cond. by Walter, Furtwängler, de Sabata, Mitropoulos, and Bruno Bartoletti. Directors of the fest. incl. Mario Labroca (1937–44), Francesco Siciliani (1950–6), and Riccardo Muti (1969–81). Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex had its It. première at the Maggio Musicale in 1937. Operatic f.ps. incl. Dallapiccola's Volo di notte (1940), Prokofiev's War and Peace (1953), Pezzati's Il sognatore (1982), and Bussotti's L'ispirazione (1988).