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Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
and
opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as
Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote man ...
,
Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''be ...
,
Vincenzo Bellini Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; ; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings. A central figure of the era, he was admired not only ...
,
Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...
, and, later in the century,
Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...
, composers with whom one or another of the Ricordi family came into close contact.Gossett 2006, p. 97 Founded in
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
in 1808 as G. Ricordi & C. by violinist
Giovanni Ricordi Giovanni Ricordi (3 March 1785 – 15 March 1853) was an Italian violinist and the founder of the classical music publishing company Casa Ricordi. The musicologist Philip Gossett described him as "a genius and positive force in the history of Ita ...
(1785–1853), the Ricordi company became a totally family-run organization until 1919, when outside management was appointed. Four generations of Ricordis were at the helm of the company, Giovanni being succeeded in 1853 by his son Tito (1811–1888) (who had worked for his father since 1825). Tito's son was
Giulio Giulio () is an Italian given name. It is also used as a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name A–K * Giulio Alberoni (1664–1752), Italian cardinal and statesman * Giulio Alenio (1582–1649), Italian Jesuit missionary and s ...
(1840–1912). He had also worked for his father, beginning full-time in 1863, and then took over from 1888 until his death in 1912. Finally, Giulio's son, also named Tito, (1865–1933) replaced his father until 1919.Macnutt (i) 1998, p. 1317 By the 1840s and throughout that decade, Casa Ricordi had grown to be the largest music publisher in southern
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and in 1842 the company created the musical journal the ''Gazzetta Musicale di Milano.'' As younger employees under their fathers and then as leaders of the company, the succeeding Ricordis made great strides in establishing publishing relationships with opera houses outside of Milan, including
La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th cen ...
in Venice and
Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is a historic opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and a ...
in Naples. They also established branches of the company within Italy – in 1864 it expanded to
Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
and then to
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
(1865),
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
(1871) and
Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...
, as well as in London (1875) and Paris (1888). With this expansion under the elder Tito, another of his accomplishments was in modernizing printing methods. With the acquisition of rival publishers, by 1886 Ricordi handled 40,000 editions as well as the Italian rights to Wagner's operas. In the 20th century, the company's expansion continued with acquisitions and new branches, which included those in New York (1911), São Paulo (1927), Toronto (1954), Sydney (1956), and Mexico City (1958).Macnutt (i) 1998, p. 1318 In its early days, the company established itself under the portico of the Palazzo della Ragione and then close to the
La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...
opera house after 1844, eventually moving to its present location on the via Berchet. However, these premises suffered severe damage from aerial bombardment during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, but their collections had already been safely stored away. Following reconstruction after the war, Ricordi was converted to a limited corporation by the family in 1952 and in 1956 it became a
publicly traded A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...
company. With 135,500 editions by 1991, Ricordi was acquired in 1994 by
BMG Music Publishing Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music com ...
, which in turn was purchased by
Universal Music Publishing Group Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is a global music publishing company and is part of the Universal Music Group. Universal Music Publishing has been ranked the #1 music publisher in market share by Billboard for multiple consecutive quart ...
in 2007. It is now Italy's largest
music publisher A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers began to play a role in the management of the intellectu ...
.


Beginnings

Giovanni Ricordi, a violinist, leader of a small orchestra in Milan, as well as "a genius and positive force in the history of Italian opera," in 1803 had a firm, a ''copisteria'', which specialized in producing manuscript copies of music for local music groups, and very quickly, he became official copyist for two theatres. He entered into what became a short-term partnership with Felice Festa, an engraver and music seller, but that ended in June 1808. The first work, which the new company published in 1808, was a guitar piece by Antonio Nava. This was followed in 1814 by the first catalogue, which contained 143 items. Ricordi Company history
on ricordicompany.it
The 1814 catalogue included mostly piano arrangements of operatic tunes and some individual numbers as well as pieces for guitars, but Macnutt notes the most important single inclusion as being the complete vocal score of
Simon Mayr Johann(es) Simon Mayr (also spelled Majer, Mayer, Maier), also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr (14 June 1763 – 2 December 1845), was a German composer. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the R ...
's 1806 opera, ''Adelasia ed Aleramo'', which was regularly performed at La Scala until 1820. Throughout these years he was acutely aware of the limitations of copyright law, as varied as it was throughout both the country and the continent. While he was able to secure performance rights to individual numbers and then, engraving them onto copper plates, easily make reproductions from there, he found that the full orchestral scores were still guarded in Italy, although German and French publishers were printing entire scores with impunity.Gossett 2006, pp. 98—99 In fact, in regard to the printing of full scores in Italy, Macnutt in his article "Publishing" in Sadie, notes that: "The full scores published in Italy in the first half of the century were eight Rossini scores printed in
lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
by wo rival publishersRatti Cencetti & Comp. in Rome in the 1820s and a single Bellini opera, ''
Beatrice di Tenda ''Beatrice di Tenda'' is a tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini, from a libretto by Felice Romani, after the play of the same name by . Initially, a play by Alexandre Dumas was chosen as the subject for the opera, but Bellini had reserva ...
'', published by Pittarrelli about 1833, also in Rome."Macnutt (ii) 1998, p. 1163 It was through the gradual accession to the rights to control La Scala's archives, as well as subsequently-produced operas, that he was able to bypass the limitations on publishing full scores, and—as Gossett notes—"not be its employee but a private entrepreneur from whom theatres rented materials". In contrast, many of Ricordi's competitors produced "hackwork manuscripts" in no way based on the composers' autographs. In 1844, the company produced its "Gran Catalogo", which focused on music for the theatre, and included the work of what it called its "house composers," which included Rossini, Bellini, Mercadante, Donizetti and Verdi. In addition, another of Giovanni's strategies was to acquire—beyond just the publishing rights—the right to represent the composers to the opera companies and theatres that would present their work, so that successive performances elsewhere would bring in additional royalties. In that way, Giovanni and his successors acquired more-or-less total rights to their composers' works. As Rossini's operas gave way to those of Bellini, the rise of Donizetti followed until his death, and then the preeminence of Verdi, the position of each composer was strengthened by this growing strategy. As business expanded, it became clear to Giovanni that also producing string and choral parts, for which there would be great demand by opera house orchestras, was another means of expanding the firm's involvement and also assuring composers that there would be uniformity.Gossett 2006, p. 101 However, although Ricordi began to publish full scores from the 1850s, they were never made available for sale, only for rent to opera houses. Quite quickly, as Verdi's operas became more and more popular, this approach extended to producing all of the orchestral parts for each opera, most especially the three great successes of the 1850s, ''
Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had c ...
'', '' Il trovatore'', and '' La traviata'', and those that followed when Tito Ricordi headed the firm.


The company under Giulio Ricordi

With the nickname Jules Burgmein,
Giulio Ricordi Giulio Ricordi (19 December 1840 – 6 June 1912) was an Italian editor and musician who joined the family firm, the Casa Ricordi music publishing house, in 1863, then run by his father, Tito, the son of the company's founder Giovanni Ricordi. ...
contributed a very great deal to the prestige of the Casa Ricordi as it also produced several magazines (''La gazzetta musicale'', ''Musica e musicisti'' and ''Ars et labor''), and various other once famous publications (''La biblioteca del pianista'', ''l'Opera Omnia di Frédéric Chopin'', ''L'arte musicale in Italia'', ''Le Sonate di Domenico Scarlatti''). The Ricordi company also published Giuseppe Verdi's later operas, Giulio having established a relationship with the composer as a young man. Over a ten-year period, he convinced Verdi to give the young librettist and composer
Arrigo Boito Arrigo Boito (; born Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito; 24 February 1842 10 June 1918) was an Italian librettist, composer, poet and critic whose only completed opera was ''Mefistofele''. Among the operas for which he wrote the libretto, libretti ar ...
the opportunity to help him to revise the original 1857 ''
Simon Boccanegra ''Simon Boccanegra'' () is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play ''Simón Bocanegra'' (1843) by Antonio García Gutiérrez, whose play ''El trovador'' had bee ...
'', a "trial run" to plant the idea of Verdi creating a new opera. They presented the revised ''Boccanegra'' in March 1881. In alliance with Verdi's wife and Verdi's friend, the conductor
Franco Faccio Francesco (Franco) Antonio Faccio (8 March 1840 – 21 July 1891) was an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Verona, he studied music at the Milan Conservatory from 1855 where he was a pupil of Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti and, as scholar W ...
, Ricordi's strategy was to lure the ageing composer out of retirement to compose another opera. While this strategy took some years to achieve, it proved to be successful, as was the opera, ''
Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the La Scala, Teatro alla Scala, M ...
'', which brought Verdi great acclaim in Milan in 1887. It was followed by ''
Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...
'' in 1893, both set to libretti by Boito. Giulio also had the good sense to promote younger composers of merit, most especially the operatic career of
Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...
. Others included
Amilcare Ponchielli Amilcare Ponchielli (, ; 31 August 1834 – 16 January 1886) was an Italian opera composer, best known for his opera La Gioconda (opera), ''La Gioconda''. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla. Life and work Born in Paderno Fasolaro ( ...
,
Alfredo Catalani Alfredo Catalani (19 June 1854 – 7 August 1893) was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas '' Loreley'' (1890) and '' La Wally'' (1892). ''La Wally'' was composed to a libretto by Luigi Illica, and features Catala ...
, Carlos Gomes, and
Umberto Giordano Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 186712 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas. His best-known work in that genre was Andrea Chénier (1896). He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Se ...
. Their relationship began in 1884 with the company's support for the printing of the libretto of the young Puccini's first opera ''
Le villi ''Le Villi'' (''The Willis'' or ''The Fairies'') is an opera–ballet in two acts (originally one) composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story "Les Willis" by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. Karr ...
'' without charge, when it premiered on 31 May 1884 at the Teatro Dal Verme. Fellow students from the
Milan Conservatory The Milan Conservatory, also known as the Conservatorio di Milano and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, is a Music school, college of music in Milan, Italy. History The conservatory was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital ...
formed a large part of the orchestra, and the performance was enough of a success that Casa Ricordi purchased the opera. When revised into a two-act version with an intermezzo between the acts, ''Le villi'' was performed at La Scala in Milan on 24 January 1885, and the score was published in 1887. To Puccini in particular, Giulio became something of a father-figure, feared (since Giulio often needed to be censorious over Puccini's dilatory work habits) but deeply trusted. In 1888 the company acquired the music publishing firm of Lucca & Canti; a company which had formed 10 years earlier with the merging of the publishing firms of Giovanni Canti and
Francesco Lucca Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is one of the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (disambiguation) ...
. Canti was notably Verdi's first publisher and Ricordi gained the rights to his early compositions through this acquisition. Additionally, under Giulio the company went into the business of printing advertising
poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
s that were extremely popular throughout Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ricordi company posters included works by celebrated
graphic artists A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...
such as
Leonetto Cappiello Leonetto Cappiello (9 April 1875 – 2 February 1942) was an Italian and French poster art designer and painter, who mainly lived and worked in Paris.
, Luigi Emilio Caldanzano,
Ludovico Cavaleri Ludovico Cavaleri (1867–1942) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born in Milan. A self-taught member of the school of Lombard Naturalism in its last stages, Cavalieri abandoned his medical studies in 1888 to devote himself exclusively to p ...
,
Marcello Dudovich Marcello Dudovich (21 March 1878 – 31 March 1962) was an Italian painter, illustrator, and poster designer. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Adolfo Hohenstein, Giovanni Maria Mataloni and Leopoldo Metlicovitz he is considered one of the ...
, Adolfo Hohenstein (also known as Adolf), Franz Laskoff,
Leopoldo Metlicovitz Leopoldo Metlicovitz (17 July 1868 – 19 October 1944) was an Italians, Italian Painting, painter, illustrator and Poster artist, poster designer. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Adolfo Hohenstein, Adolf Hohenstein, Giovanni Maria Mataloni ...
, Giovanni Mario Mataloni, Aleardo Terzi and Aleardo Villa.


Relationships with composers

Having already acquired the La Scala holdings, in 1839 Giovanni bought the copyright to Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, '' Oberto'', as well as to his future compositions, thus marking the beginnings of a long working relationship with that composer by three generations of Ricordis, most especially Giulio Ricordi. However, it is known that Verdi was unhappy with the elder Tito on occasion over what appeared to be the publisher's "sanctioning, for financial gain, mutilated performances of his works". These concerns carried over to the 20th century. However, relationships with composers had begun well before 1839. In fact, shortly after Rossini's ''
Tancredi ''Tancredi'' is a ''melodramma eroico'' (''opera seria'' or heroic opera) in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi (who was also to write ''Semiramide'' ten years later), based on Voltaire's play ''Tancrède (traged ...
'' had been staged in Venice in 1813, the composer made the acquaintance of Giovanni, who was then starting his business in Milan although still involved with La Scala. A strong relationship was established between publisher and composer and, between 1846 and 1864, the company published all of his operas for piano and voice, with the composer becoming "...ruefully aware that music which he had reused from what he took to be a failed opera would now pon publicationbe seen to have been recycled." Although Rossini agreed to the publication of his work, it was not without some reservations: writing to Tito Ricordi on 14 December 1864, he accepts that publication will reveal that, "The same pieces of music will be found in various operas," but notes that the time pressure to compose so many works meant that, "I barely had time to read the so-called poetry to set to music." In all, Rossini also worked with three generations of Ricordis. In 1815, the young Donizetti, then almost 18, traveled from Bergamo to Bologna with the aim of further studies, all this having been orchestrated by his teacher Simon Mayr. In addition to providing money, he equipped his young pupil with two letters, one of which was addressed to Giovanni Ricordi, for whom he had been an editorial consultant for some years. Mayr recommend the young man to the publisher, the result being that Donizetti's first composition to be published, a set of variations on a theme from Mayr's 1813 opera '' La rosa bianca e la rosa rossa'', appeared later that year. It marked the beginning of a lifelong business arrangement between Donizetti and the Ricordi company, except for difficulties in 1839 over the handling of ''
Gianni di Parigi ''Gianni di Parigi'' is an 1839 ''melodramma comico'' (''opera buffa'') in two acts with music by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Felice Romani, which had previously been set by Francesco Morlacchi in 1818 and by Giovanni Antonio Speranza in 1 ...
''. By 1840, the firm had control of hiring material for many composers: it had acquired
Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Ro ...
's ''
Il crociato in Egitto (''The Crusader in Egypt'') is an opera in two acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, with a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. It was first performed at La Fenice theatre, Venice on 7 March 1824. The part of Armando was sung by the famous castrato, Giovanni Batt ...
'' in 1824, followed by 19 operas by Rossini, and eight by Bellini, along with the significant group of today's lesser-known composers such as
Saverio Mercadante Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti or Gioa ...
,
Jeanne Rivet Jeanne Rivet (1850-1913) was a French composer of songs and music for piano. Her compositions were widely published during her lifetime. Little is known about Rivet’s life. The composer Justin Clerice dedicated his ''Menuet No. 3'' to her in 1890 ...
,
Nicola Vaccai Nicola Vaccai (15 March 1790 – 5 or 6 August 1848) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas, and a singing teacher. Life and career as a composer Born at Tolentino, he grew up in Pesaro, and studied music there until his parents sent him ...
,
Giovanni Pacini Giovanni Pacini (11 February 17966 December 1867) was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas. The fam ...
, and the brothers
Luigi Ricci Luigi Ricci may refer to: * Luigi Ricci (composer) (1805–1859), Italian composer * Luigi Ricci (vocal coach) (1893–1981), Italian assistant conductor and vocal coach * Gino Ricci (1910-?), Italian javelin thrower {{hndis, Ricci, Luigi ...
and
Federico Ricci Federico Ricci (22 October 1809 – 10 December 1877), was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. Born in Naples, he was the younger brother of Luigi Ricci, with whom he collaborated on several works. Federico studied at Naples as had hi ...
. However, in spite of good relationships with their publishers, 19th century composers' scores suffered massive changes from what they originally wrote. Long after the deaths of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, a variety of changes continued to be made to scores at the behest of people such as conductors who (as Gossett notes), if they "want an extra trombone, it was added, and its origin was soon masked...the entire system encouraged a ''laissez-faire'' attitude".... It was not until the late 19th century that the full orchestral scores of these four major composers were published by Ricordi and this "marked the beginning of the modern era of publishing".


The company from the 20th century forward

The company under Tito Ricordi II With the death of Giulio, the firm was headed by his son, Tito II, who has been described as someone who "lacked both charm and judgement. He and Puccini disliked each other..", the result being that the composer's ''
La rondine ''La rondine'' (''The Swallow'') is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and . It was first performed at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo (or the Thé� ...
'' was published by a rival company, Sonzogno, which also handled the work of Mascagni and
Leoncavallo Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo (23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it is his 1892 opera ''Pagliacci'' that remained his lasting co ...
, " uccini'smost successful contemporaries". Upon Tito's retirement in 1919 management passed outside the family, although, with the company's control over the work of Verdi and Puccini, it retained its pre-eminence. Preparation of critical editions Many poor quality published scores from the 19th century had been poorly-copied or had become severely cut or severely added-to,Gossett 2006, p. 97 leading Macnutt to note that the additions to the scores had created "totally inauthentic versions," which were still being used well into the 20th century by performers:Macnutt (i) 1998, pp. 1318—1319 "the widely held view asthat the existing scores (particularly of operas from the first half of the 19th century) whether for sale or hire, often offer inaccurate or incomplete texts". This led
musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...
Philip Gossett Philip Gossett (September 27, 1941 – June 12, 2017) was an American musicologist and historian, and Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago. His lifelong interest in 19th-century Italian opera bega ...
to the view that "by the end of the 9thcentury, materials rented by Ricordi were frequently far from the composer's original".Gossett 2006, p. 104—105 Since 1964, under the direction of the company's then-new president, Guido Rignano,
critical editions Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range i ...
using the composers' autographs and many other sources—including access to the Verdi autographs granted to scholars by the Carrara-Verdi family at the
Villa Verdi Villa Verdi is the estate house that composer Giuseppe Verdi ordered built in 1848 on farmland he had owned for four years and where he lived from that year until the end of his life. It is in the village of Sant'Agata (Villanova sull'Arda), Sant' ...
—have been prepared with increasing cooperation from Ricordi, which has allowed scholars to view the original autographs and has become a collaborator in the preparation of these critical editions. Under the auspices of the University of Chicago's Center for Italian Opera Studies, Philip Gossett has been General Editor for critical editions of Verdi's operas,Patricia Brauner
"What is a Critical Edition?"
/ref> as well as those for many of Rossini's operas produced in collaboration with the Fondazione Rossini in Pesaro. Gossett was involved there until 2005; since then he has been working with music publisher
Bärenreiter Bärenreiter (Bärenreiter-Verlag) is a German classical music publishing house based in Kassel. The firm was founded by Karl Vötterle (1903–1975) in Augsburg in 1923, and moved to Kassel in 1927, where it still has its headquarters; it ...
in Germany, which most recently has produced a critical edition of ''
Maometto II ''Maometto II'' (or ') is an 1820 opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Cesare della Valle. Set in the 1470s during a time of war between the Turks and Venetians, the work was commissioned by the Teatro di San Carlo i ...
'' soon to be published The Fondazione Donizetti, in the composer's hometown of Bergamo, has been Ricordi's collaborator in the production of critical editions of his operas under the direction of Professor
Roger Parker Roger Parker (born London United Kingdom, 2 August 1951) is an English musicologist who was previously Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King's College London. His work has centred on opera. Between 2006 and 2010, while Professor of Music at ...
of King's College in London and Gabriele Dotto, who led Ricordi's editorial department from 1992 to 2001. Similarly, preparation of critical editions of Bellini's operas began in 1999 by Casa Ricordi working in collaboration with the
Teatro Massimo Bellini The Teatro Massimo Bellini is an opera house located on Piazza Vincenzo Bellini in Catania, Sicily, southern Italy. Named after the local-born composer Vincenzo Bellini, it was inaugurated on 31 May 1890 with a performance of the composer's mas ...
in the composer's hometown of Catania. ''
I Capuleti e i Montecchi ''I Capuleti e i Montecchi'' (''The Capulets and the Montagues'') is an Italian opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of ''Romeo and Juliet'' for an opera by Nicol ...
'' was the first to appear under the imprint of the University of Chicago. ''
La sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (; ''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...
'' is also available from Chicago in an edition edited by musicologists Luca Zoppelli of the University of Friborg, Switzerland, and Alessandro Roccatagliati of the University of Ferrara, Italy, members of a group for the Ricordi project, which also includes Fabrizio Della Seta and Claudio Toscani, editor of ''Montecchi''. All of this cooperation has "served gradually to enhance Ricordi's reputation among scholar and performers" and the extent to which the huge project has already advanced and will advance is illustrated on th
Universal Music Publishing Classical Critical Editions
website. Other ventures Since World War II, these have included such enterprises as
Dischi Ricordi Dischi Ricordi was an Italian record company founded on by and Franco Crepax (brother of Guido Crepax), active from 1958 to 1994. History Dischi Ricordi had its seat in Milan (Via Giovanni Berchet, 2). In 1994, the company was bought by B ...
, the company's recording label, which began in 1958, but was preceded by the company entering into the popular music business and founding "Radio Record Ricordi" ("RRR") ten years earlier. The first record release was Cherubini's ''
Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...
'' performed by Maria Callas, but the period also saw the beginning of its popular music activities. Ricordi has also developed a role in the publishing of contemporary music, with a catalogue including the work of
Giorgio Battistelli Giorgio Battistelli (born 25 April 1953) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. A native of Albano Laziale (province of Rome), he studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel. Battistel ...
,
Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...
,
Sylvano Bussotti Sylvano Bussotti (1 October 1931 – 19 September 2021) was an Italian composer of contemporary classical music, also a painter, set and costume designer, opera director and manager, writer and academic teacher. His compositions employ graphic n ...
,
Franco Donatoni Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory ...
,
Lorenzo Ferrero Lorenzo Ferrero (; born 1951) is an Italian composer, librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and has written over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral, ...
,
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,
Giacomo Manzoni Giacomo Manzoni (born Milan 26 September 1932) is an Italian composer. He studied composition from 1948 in Messina with Gino Contilli, and continued his studies from 1950 to 1956 at the Milan Conservatory. In 1955 he obtained a doctorate in ...
,
Kevin Puts Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for his opera ''The Hours (opera), The Hours'' and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera ''Silent Night (opera), Silent Night'' and a Grammy Award i ...
, Clara Sinde Ramallal,
Nino Rota Giovanni "Nino" Rota Rinaldi (; ; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also composed ...
,
Salvatore Sciarrino Salvatore Sciarrino (born 4 April 1947) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. Described as "the best-known and most performed Italian composer" of the present day, his works include ''Quaderno di strada'' (2003) and ''La porta d ...
, Ana Serrano Redonnet, and
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. This began in 1984 with the world premiere of ''
Prometeo ''Prometeo'' (''Prometheus'') is an "opera" by Luigi Nono, written between 1981 and 1984 and revised in 1985. Here the word "opera" carries the generic Italian meaning of "works", as in work of art, and not its usual meaning in English. Indeed, ...
'' by
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to a libretto by
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, presented under the musical direction of
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.


See also

* Casa Ricordi (film)


References

Notes Sources * Ashbrook, William (1982), ''Donizetti and his Operas'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Gossett, Philip (2006), "Enter Giovanni Ricordi" and "Casa Ricordi, Transmissions, and Performing Traditions", in ''Divas and Scholar: Performing Italian Opera'', pp. 97–106. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. * Gossett, Philip (ii) (2004), in Senici, Emanuele (ed.), '' The Cambridge Companion to Rossini'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. * Jensen, L. (1989), ''Giuseppe Verdi and Giovanni Ricordi, with Notes on Francesco Lucca: From 'Oberto' to 'La traviata' ''. New York: Music-Garland Publishing. * Macnutt, Richard (i) (with
Roger Parker Roger Parker (born London United Kingdom, 2 August 1951) is an English musicologist who was previously Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King's College London. His work has centred on opera. Between 2006 and 2010, while Professor of Music at ...
) (1998), "Ricordi" in
Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...
, (Ed.), ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...
'', Vol. Three, pp. 1317–1319. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. * Macnutt, Richard (ii) (1998), "Publishing" in
Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...
, (Ed.), ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...
'', Vol. Three, pp. 1154–1166. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. * Osborne, Richard (1990), ''Rossini'', Ithaca, New York: Northeastern University Press. * Wulf, Franz, "Making Masterpieces", ''Opera Now'', December 2014, pp. 31–33. (History of the Ricordi company)


External links


History of the Ricordi company
on ricordicompany.it. (In English)
"The history of Casa Ricordi"
on ricordi.it. (In English)
Ricordi history and listings at IMSLP

Universal Music Publishing Classical Critical Editions website
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