Italian conductor and musicologist Alberto Zedda has died in Pesaro at the age of 89. A leading authority on 19th century Italian opera, the maestro was a world expert on Rossini – a passion, which was central to his esteemed career. He was one of the founders of the Rossini Opera Festival and a committee member of the Rossini Foundation in Pesaro.

Alberto Zedda

Zedda was born on January 2, 1928 in Milan where he studied with Antonio Votto and Carlo Maria Giulini and where he made his conducting debut in 1956 with Il barbiere di Siviglia. So began a life-time love affair with the operas of Gioachino Rossini.

In 1957, Zedda won the International Italian Radio and Television Competition for conductors and invitations quickly followed from across Italy and overseas, launching his international career. He conducted at all the important opera houses in Europe as well as at San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera where he served as Director of Italian repertory, Covent Garden and the Mariinsky.

Zedda was Music Director of the Festival della Valle D’Itria of Martina Franca and, most notably, the long-standing Director of the...