Life
His entire creative trajectory, from training to full maturity, took place consistently within the great stream of Italian Romanticism, reaching the threshold of post-unification Realism.
Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata was born in Würzburg in 1807 and moved to Florence at a very young age, where he studied piano. After graduating in law, he embarked on a musical career, composing ballets and theatrical operas. His first opera, Iginia d’Asti, was successfully performed in Pisa in 1838, but found no reception in Bologna, prompting him to focus more on criticism than on composition.
He collaborated with various publications such as the "Gazzetta musicale di Milano" and "La Patria," distinguishing himself for acute and often severe reviews. He participated in the Risorgimento uprisings of 1848, but after the restoration of Grand Duke Leopold II, he abandoned active politics, dedicating himself to music and civic duties.
He was among the founders of the Florence Conservatory in 1862, of which he became the first director, contributing to giving the city a central role in musical training. He promoted the spread of German instrumental music and collaborated with the Caecilian Movement for the renewal of sacred music. He discovered the Squarcialupi Codex at the Laurentian Library, strengthening his reputation as a scholar and collector.
He died in Florence in 1881, leaving instruments and books to the Conservatory, today preserved in the Museum of Musical Instruments.
Aneddoto
Home concerts
In his villa on via delle Pinzochere in Florence, he organized musical evenings with symphonies and quartets, attracting great names such as Liszt and Wagner.Works
Casamorata composed three theatrical operas, including Iginia d’Asti (1838), ballets, cantatas, four symphonies, concertos for flute and clarinet, as well as numerous chamber pages and sacred music with fourteen masses. He also wrote a harmony manual, a singing course that remained unpublished, and various theoretical essays, including one on organ building. Part of his production remained in manuscript or was dispersed, but his activity as a critic and musical promoter made him a reference figure in nineteenth-century Italy.