What is "palestrina"

Palestrina may refer to:

• Palestrina, a city in the Italian region Lazio
• Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina, based in the city
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, an Italian Renaissance composer
• Palestrina (opera), an opera by Hans Pfitzner
• an opera by Johann Sachs

Palestrina (ancient Praeneste; , Prainestos) is an ancient city and comune (municipality) with a population of about 21,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina.

It is the birthplace of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Palestrina is an opera by the German composer Hans Pfitzner, first performed in 1917. The composer referred to it as a Musikalische Legende (musical legend), and wrote the libretto himself, based on a legend about the Renaissance musician Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who saves the art of contrapuntal music ( polyphony) for the Church in the sixteenth century, through his composition of the Missa Papae Marcelli. The wider context is that of the European Reformation and the role of music in relation to it. The character of Cardinal Borromeo is depicted, and a General Congress of the Council of Trent is the centrepiece of Act II.

The conductor of the premiere was Bruno Walter. On 16 February 1962, the day before he died, Walter ended his last letter with: ''"Despite all the dark experiences of today I am still confident that Palestrina will remain. The work has all the elements of immortality"''.