Degrada, Francesco

Degrada, Francesco , esteemed Italian musicologist; b. Milan, May 23, 1940. He studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Milan Cons., obtaining a simultaneous arts degree from the Univ. of Milan (1964). He joined the music history faculty of the Univ. of Milan in 1964, where he was prof, (from 1976) and director of the arts dept. (from 1983). He also taught at the Milan Cons. (1966–73) and gave lectures at various European and U.S. univs., including N.Y.U. (1986). His interest in Baroque music led him to organize the chamber group Complesso Barocco di Milan in 1967, with which he was associated as director and harpsichordist until 1976. His research ranges from the Renaissance period to the contemporary era. In addition to numerous scholarly articles in various publications, he has also ed. WORKS by Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Durante, D. Scarlatti, and Sarti.

Writings

Al gran sole carico d’amore. Per un nuovo teatro musicale (Milan, 1974; 2nd ed., 1977); Sylvano Bussotti e il suo teatro (Milan, 1976); Antonio Vivaldi da Venezia all’Europa (Milan, 1977); // palazzo incantato. Studi sulla tradizione del melodramma dal Barocco al Romanticismo (2 vols., Florence, 1979); Vivaldi veneziano europeo (Florence, 1980); ed., Studi Pergolesiani/Pergolesi Studies (4 vols., N.Y., 1986, 1988, 1999, 2000); Andrea Gabrieli e il suo tempo (Florence, 1988); Illusione e disin-canto: Mozart e altri percorsi settecenteschi (Florence, 2000).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire