La corrispondenza tra Francesco Florimo e Lauro Rossi

Abstract

The Florimo-Rossi letters

The correspondence between Francesco Florimo (librarian of the Naples Conservatory for over thirty years ) and Lauro Rossi (composer and director first of Milan and subsequently of Naples Conservatory) is an invaluable source of information for scholars on musical life in Italy during the nineteenth century.
The 230 letters sent by Rossi to Florimo between 1846 and 1884 are incorporated in one of the 34 volumes of correspondence collected by Florimo and preserved at the «S. Pietro a Majella» Conservatory of Naples.
The present article proposes to examine the more interesting themes discussed by Florimo and Rossi over the years in their intense epistolary relationship. Among the subjects particularly dear to the two correspondents is the constant reference to the importance of the Archives of the Naples Collegio di Musica as an inexhaustible source of musical documentation. Rossi frequently appeals to Florimo requesting copies of scores or, in turn, sending them himself. In addition (of great importance for information on the works of Lauro Rossi), there are letters giving evidence on the preparative stages of operas and accounts of their performance. There is also proof of the desire of the Macerata musician to stand for the position of director of the Naples Conservatory in 1863, of his determination to take in hand the renovation of the didactics in line with the reform of musical education and institutions desired by the then Minister of Public Education, Cesare Correnti. Many letters broach the subject of reorganization of the teaching of music, a decisive topic at the time for the future of the Neapolitan conservatory and of Italian musical institutions. In addition, the language and modality of communication between the two artists are considered, with reference to the allusions and mixture of institutional language and the informal style of the simple notelet. The paper is completed by a classification of the letters in chronological order and by unpublished archival documents.