Franco Abbiati

Franco Abbiati (Verdello, 1898 – Bergamo, 1981) was one of the most influential Italian music critics of his generation, with a career closely associated above all with Milan. His training included a diploma in composition from the Turin Conservatory, obtained in 1929, and the study of musicology under Cesari.

After working for the daily Secolo sera between 1928 and 1934, he succeeded Cesari at the Corriere della Sera, where he remained until his retirement in 1973. In 1949 he founded the monthly magazine La scala, which he edited until its closure in 1963. His interest focused especially on opera and, within it, on the revival of authentic performance practice.

Abbiati published a five-volume history of music (1939–1946), which he later revised and expanded into four volumes (1967–1968). The work was well received although, being the product of a single author, it was inevitably incomplete. His commentary on twentieth-century composers, especially Italians of his own generation, is considered valuable as a contemporary testimony.

His four-volume study of Verdi (1959) incorporates numerous letters and documents previously unpublished, and it remains a point of reference for scholars of the composer.