Music in Bologna, musicians in Bologna.
Giuseppe Verdi’s operas in Bologna (1843-1901), including an appendix about Bologna and Giuseppe Verdi’s death, Lucca, Lim 2001, LX, 471 pp.

Review:
Rassegna musicale italiana, VII, 21, 2001-2002, p.45 (Piero Mioli).
Slovenski muzikolosko drustvo, 16, 2001, p.55, (Primož Kuret).

The project of collecting  all publications of the Bolognese press on Verdi’s operas performed at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna until 1901 is dedicated to the great composer on the centenary of his death and on the occasion of the events for Bologna 2000 as a  European capital of culture.
The anthology gathers about 500 articles which appeared on Bolognese daily papers and periodical publications from the first representation of one of Verdi’s operas on the scenes of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna (1843)  to the composer’s death (1901). It had been a time span involving relevant political changes, the most important of which was the indipendence of Italy, nevertheless being  sufficiently homogeneous as regards the history of melodrama. At that time several newspapers were active and, even in the different style and opinions of the various newspapers and magazines all over 60 years approximately, there emerges quite a uniform picture. In those years the Bolognese cultural ferment is documented by the almost contemporary presence of as many as six Bolognese prestigious daily papers, namely  Monitore di Bologna, Gazzetta dell’Emilia, L’Ancora, La Stella d’Italia, L’Unione and La Patria. Towards the end of the 19th century, then, there proliferated satirical magazines, often including Bolognese dialect sections, among which “Ehi! Ch’al scusa, E’ permesso?… and La Striglia.
Apart from the Teatro Comunale, another two important theatres were active in those years: the Teatro del Corso and the Teatro Contavalli, which are both lost today, the former owing to wartime-events, the latter owing to negligence; even the Teatro Brunetti (today’s Teatro Duse), the Nosadella Theatre and other minor theatres often used to put on opera performances. These theatres used to stage many of Verdi’s operas , but today it is extremely difficult to go back to their chronology; besides, these performances used to be considered as definitely less important than the ones stages at the Teatro Comunale. Therefore, I have considered as relevant the reviews about the works staged at the Teatro Comunale, excepting the years 1853 54, 1866 67 and 1874 75 during which the Comunale, which was being closed during restorations, moved all activities to the Teatro del Corso, the Contavalli and the Brunetti. As to the list of Verdi’s works staged at the Teatro Comunale, I have followed the critical Repertory of performances and musical executions from 1763 to 1966, edited by Sergio Paganelli in vol. II of “Due secoli di vita musicale. Storia del Teatro Comunale di Bologna”, edited by L. Trezzini, Bologna 1987, to which the reader is referred as far as general information is concerned. The stagings of Verdi’s operas at the Teatro Comunale from 1843 to 1901 (including the ones at the Corso, the Contavalli and the Brunetti during the period of closing of the Comunale and the Messa da Requiem) were about 70, with 23 titles staged.

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