Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas.
In 1817 he was made conductor of the college orchestra, composing a number of symphonies, and concertos for various instruments – including six for flute about 1818–1819, and whose autograph scores are in the Naples conservatory, where they were presumably first performed with him as soloist. The encouragement of Rossini led him to compose for the opera, where he won considerable success with his second such work (Violenza e Constanza), in 1820.
In 1817 he was made conductor of the college orchestra, composing a number of symphonies, and concertos for various instruments – including six for flute about 1818–1819, and whose autograph scores are in the Naples conservatory, where they were presumably first performed with him as soloist. The encouragement of Rossini led him to compose for the opera, where he won considerable success with his second such work (Violenza e Constanza), in 1820.
In 1817 he was made conductor of the college orchestra, composing a number of symphonies, and concertos for various instruments – including six for flute about 1818–1819, and whose autograph scores are in the Naples conservatory, where they were presumably first performed with him as soloist. The encouragement of Rossini led him to compose for the opera, where he won considerable success with his second such work (Violenza e Constanza), in 1820.
His next opera Elisa e Claudio was a huge success, and had occasional revivals in the 20th century, most recently by Wexford Festival Opera in 1988. He worked for a time in Vienna, in Madrid, in Cádiz, and in Lisbon, but re-established himself in Italy in 1831.
This influence took the form of greater stress on the dramatic side. ===Return to Italy, 1831=== When Mercadante returned to Italy after living in Spain and Portugal, Donizetti's music reigned supreme in Naples, an ascendancy which did not end until censorship problems with the latter's Poliuto caused a final break.
He was invited by Rossini to Paris in 1836, where he composed I Briganti for four of the best-known singers of the time, Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Lablache, all of whom worked closely with Bellini.
These included Il giuramento which was premiered at La Scala to 11 march 1837.
Many performances of his operas were given throughout the 19th century and it has been noted that some of them received far more than those of Verdi's early operas over the same period of time. Throughout his life he generated more instrumental works than most of his contemporary composers of operas due to his lifelong preoccupation with orchestration, and, from 1840, his position as the Director of the Naples conservatory for the last thirty years of his life.
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas.
4 (September 1950), pp. 564–565.
4 (October 1952), pp. 311–321 (Accessible by subscription) Wittmann, Michael (1998), "Meyerbeer und Mercadante? Überlegungen zur italienischen Meyerbeer-Rezeption." In: Sieghart Döhring, Arnold Jacobshagen (eds), Meyerbeer und das europäische Musiktheater, Laaber 1998, pp. 352–385. Wittmann, Michael (2001), "Mercadante", in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart 12, with coprehensive list of works. Wittmann, Michael (2014), "Die Wiederentdeckung Saverio Mercadantes auf der Opernbühne.
His next opera Elisa e Claudio was a huge success, and had occasional revivals in the 20th century, most recently by Wexford Festival Opera in 1988. He worked for a time in Vienna, in Madrid, in Cádiz, and in Lisbon, but re-established himself in Italy in 1831.
4 (October 1952), pp. 311–321 (Accessible by subscription) Wittmann, Michael (1998), "Meyerbeer und Mercadante? Überlegungen zur italienischen Meyerbeer-Rezeption." In: Sieghart Döhring, Arnold Jacobshagen (eds), Meyerbeer und das europäische Musiktheater, Laaber 1998, pp. 352–385. Wittmann, Michael (2001), "Mercadante", in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart 12, with coprehensive list of works. Wittmann, Michael (2014), "Die Wiederentdeckung Saverio Mercadantes auf der Opernbühne.
His next three operas are more or less forgotten, but an abridged recording of Maria Stuarda, Regina di Scozia was issued by Opera Rara in 2006.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05