Alberto Zedda

Conductor and musicologist Alberto Zedda was widely recognized as one of the world's most prominent authorities on the operas of Gioachino Rossini. Zedda made his debut in 1956 leading the Polytechnic chamber group of Milan. In 1969, he published the first-ever critical edition of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and he was personally responsible for at least three more. He remained active later in life, publishing the book Divagazioni Rossiniane in 2012, and spent many years as the artistic director of the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Italy. Zedda died in that city on March 6, 2017.