Saverio Mercadante





Saverio Mercadante in a portrait by Andrea Cefaly (Museo di San Martino, Naples)


Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 1795 – 17 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as prolific a number of works as either; and his development of operatic structures, melodic styles and orchestration contributed significantly to the foundations upon which Giuseppe Verdi built his dramatic technique.




Contents





  • 1 Biography

    • 1.1 Early years


    • 1.2 Return to Italy, 1831


    • 1.3 Later works



  • 2 Operas


  • 3 References


  • 4 External links




Biography



Early years


Mercadante was born in Altamura, near Bari in Apulia; his precise date of birth has not been recorded, but he was baptised on 17 September 1795. Mercadante studied flute, violin and composition at the conservatory in Naples, and organized concerts among his compatriots.[1] The opera composer Gioachino Rossini said to the conservatory Director, Niccolo Zingarelli, "My compliments, Maestro – your young pupil Mercadante begins where we finish".[1] 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.[1]




Saverio Mercadante's birthplace and house located on the street corso Federico II di Svevia, Altamura (the plaque dates back to Italy's fascist period)





Saint Biagio's Chapel, Altamura, in front of his house. On the steps of this church, young Saverio Mercadante used to play the flute (Italian: zufolo)


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 three operas are more or less forgotten, but an abridged recording of Maria Stuarda, Regina di Scozia was issued by Opera Rara in 2006. 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 Cadiz, and in Lisbon, but re-established himself in Italy in 1831. 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. While there, he had the opportunity to hear operas by Meyerbeer and Halévy, which imparted a strong influence on him, especially the latter's La Juive. This influence took the form of greater stress on the dramatic side.



Return to Italy, 1831




Composer
Saverio Mercadante


When Mercadante returned to Italy after living in Spain and Portugal, Donizetti's music reigned supreme in Naples,[2] an ascendancy which did not end until censorship problems with the latter's Poliuto caused a final break. But Mercadante's style began to shift with the presentation of I Normanni a Parigi at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1832: "It was with this score that Mercadante entered on the process of development in his musical dramaturgy which, in some aspects, actually presaged the arrival of Verdi, when he launched, from 1837 on, into master works of his artistic maturity: the so-called "reform operas".[2]


The beginnings of the so-called "reform movement", of which Mercadante was part, arose from the publication of a manifesto by Giuseppe Mazzini which he wrote in 1836, the Filosofia della musica.[3]


In the period after 1831 he composed some of his most important works. These included Il giuramento which was premiered at La Scala in November 1837. One striking and innovative characteristic of this opera has been noted:


..it marks the first successful attempt in an Italian opera premiered in Italy of depriving the prima donna, or some other star singer, of her until-then inalienable right of having the stage to herself at the end. By doing this, Mercadante sounded what was to be the death knell of the age of bel canto.[4]

Early in following year, while composing Elena da Feltre (which premiered in January 1839), Mercadante wrote to Francesco Florimo, laying out his ideas about how opera should be structured, following the "revolution" begun in his previous opera:


I have continued the revolution I began in Il giuramento: varied forms, cabalettas banished, crescendos out, vocal lines simplified, fewer repeats, more originality in the cadences, proper regard paid to the drama, orchestration rich but not so as to swamp the voices, no long solos in the ensembles (they only force the other parts to stand idle to the detriment of the action), not much bass drum, and a lot less brass band.[4]

Elena da Feltre followed; one critic found much to praise in it:


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A work of harmonic daring, subtlety and originally orchestrated, it suddenly makes sense of oft quoted comparisons between Mercadante and Verdi. It has the overall coherence one looks for and finds in middle and late Verdi – a surprising anticipation, for Elena da Feltre dates from 1838, the year before Verdi's first opera[5]


These temporarily put him in the forefront of composers then active in Italy, although he was soon passed by Giovanni Pacini with Saffo and Giuseppe Verdi with several operas, especially Ernani.



Later works


Some of Mercadante's later works, especially Orazi e Curiazi, were also quite successful. 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.[6]


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.[1] From 1863 he was almost totally blind.


In the decades after his death in Naples in 1870, his output was largely forgotten, but it has been occasionally revived and recorded since World War II, although it has yet to achieve anything like the present-day popularity of the most famous compositions by his slightly younger contemporaries: see Donizetti's compositions and Bellini's compositions.


The French soloist Jean-Pierre Rampal notably recorded several Mercadante concertos for flute and string orchestra*, including the grand and romantic E minor concerto, which has since gained some popularity among concert flautists.


  • Not all the concertos are for string orchestra. Some are for larger ensembles. The Concerto in E minor, is, however, for flute and strings.


Operas































































































































































































































































































































































































































TitleGenreActsLibrettoPremièreCity, theatreNotes

L'apoteosi d'Ercole
dramma per musica2 acts
Giovanni Schmidt

19 August 1819
Naples, Teatro San Carlo


Violenza e costanza, ossia I falsi monetari
dramma per musica2 acts
Andrea Leone Tottola

19 January 1820
Naples, Teatro Nuovo
Revised as: Il castello dei spiriti: Lisbon, 14 March 1825

Anacreonte in Samo
dramma per musica2 acts
Giovanni Schmidt

1 August 1820
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Anacréon chez Polycrate by Jean Henri Guy.

Il geloso ravveduto
melodramma buffo2 acts
Bartolomeo Signorini

October 1820
Rome, Teatro Valle


Scipione in Cartagine
melodramma serio2 acts
Jacopo Ferretti

26 December 1820
Rome, Teatro Argentina


Maria Stuarda, regina di Scozia
dramma serio2 acts
Gaetano Rossi

29 May 1821
Bologna, Teatro Comunale


Elisa e Claudio, ossia L'amore protetto dall'amicizia
melodramma semiserio2 acts
Luigi Romanelli

30 October 1821
Milan, Teatro alla Scala
Based on Rosella, ossia Amore e crudeltà by Filippo Casari

Andronico
melodramma tragico2 acts
Giovanni Kreglianovich

26 December 1821
Venice, Teatro La Fenice


Il posto abbandonato, ossia Adele ed Emerico
melodramma semiserio2 acts
Felice Romani

21 September 1822
Milan, Teatro alla Scala

Amleto
melodramma tragico2 acts
Felice Romani

26 December 1822
Milan, Teatro alla ScalaBased on Shakespeare play Hamlet.

Alfonso ed Elisa
melodramma serio2 acts
26 December 1822
Mantua, Teatro NuovoBased on Filippo by Alfieri; Revised as Aminta ed Argira for Reggio Emilia, Teatro Pubblico, 23 April 1823

Didone abbandonata
dramma per musica2 acts
Andrea Leone Tottola

18 January 1823
Turin, Teatro RegioBased on Metastasio

Gli sciti
dramma per musica2 acts
Andrea Leone Tottola

18 March 1823
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Les scythes by Voltaire.

Costanzo ed Almeriska
dramma per musica2 acts
Andrea Leone Tottola

22 November 1823
Naples, Teatro San Carlo

Gli amici di Siracusa
melodramma eroico2 acts
Jacopo Ferretti

7 February 1824
Rome, Teatro Argentina
Based on Plutarc.

Doralice
melodramma2 acts
18 September 1824

Vienna, Kärntnertortheater


Le nozze di Telemaco ed Antiope
azione lirica7 acts
Calisto Bassi

5 November 1824
Vienna, KärntnertortheaterPastice, with music by other composers.

Il podestà di Burgos, ossia Il signore del villaggio
melodramma giocoso2 acts
Calisto Bassi

20 November 1824
Vienna, KärntnertortheaterUnder the title of Il signore del villaggio given in Naples at Teatro del Fondo on 28 maggio 1825 (in Neapolitan dialect); Titled Eduardo ed Angelica, given in Naples at the Teatro del Fondo in 1828.

Nitocri
dramma per musica2 acts
Lodovico Piossasco Feys

26 December 1824
Turin, Teatro RegioWith recitatives by Apostolo Zeno

Ipermestra
dramma tragico2 acts
Luigi Ricciuti

29 December 1825
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Eschilo

Erode, ossia Marianna
dramma tragico2 acts
Luigi Ricciuti

12 December 1824
Venice, Teatro La FeniceBased on Voltaire

Caritea regina di Spagna, ossia La morte di Don Alfonso re di Portogallo
(Donna Caritea)
melodramma serio2 acts
Paolo Pola

21 February 1826
Venice, Teatro La Fenice

Ezio
dramma per musica2 acts
Pietro Metastasio

2 February 1827
Turin, Teatro Regio

Il montanaro
melodramma comico2 acts
Felice Romani

16 April 1827
Milan, Teatro alla ScalaBased on August Lafontaine

La testa di bronzo, ossia La capanna solitaria
melodramma eroicomico2 acts
Felice Romani

3 December 1827
Lisbon, Teatro privato dei Baroni Quintella a Laranjeiras

Adriano in Siria
dramma eroico2 acts
Pietro Metastasio

24 February 1828
Lisbon, Teatro de São Carlos

Gabriella di Vergy
dramma tragico2 acts
Antonio Profumo

8 August 1828
Lisbon, Teatro de São CarlosBased on Gabrielle de Vergy by Dormont de Belloy; Revised with a text by Emanuele Bidera for Genoa, Teatro Carlo Felice, 16 June 1832

La rappresaglia
melodramma buffo2 acts
Cesare Sterbini

21 February 1829
Cadiz, Teatro Principal

Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio
melodramma giocoso1 atto
Stefano Ferrero

10 February 1830
Cadiz, Teatro PrincipalBased on Cervantes

Francesca da Rimini
melodramma2 acts
Felice Romani

1831
Composed for Madrid but probably not performed there.

Zaira
melodramma tragico2 acts
Felice Romani

31 August 1831
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Voltaire

I normanni a Parigi
tragedia lirica4 acts
Felice Romani

7 February 1832
Turin, Teatro Regio

Ismalia, ossia Amore e morte
melodramma3 acts
Felice Romani

27 October 1832
Milan, Teatro alla Scala

Il conte di Essex
melodramma3 acts
Felice Romani

10 March 1833
Milan, Teatro alla Scala

Emma d'Antiochia
tragedia lirica3 acts
Felice Romani

8 March 1834
Venice, Teatro La Fenice

Uggero il danese
melodramma4 acts
Felice Romani

11 August 1834

Bergamo, Teatro Riccardi


La gioventù di Enrico V
melodramma4 acts
Felice Romani

25 November 1834
Milan, Teatro alla ScalaIn parte Based on Shakespeare

I due Figaro
melodramma buffo2 acts
Felice Romani

26 January 1835
Madrid, Teatro PrincipeBased on Les deux Figaro by Honoré-Antoine Richaud Martelly; Composed in 1826.

Francesca Donato, ossia Corinto distrutta
melodramma3 acts
Felice Romani

14 February 1835
Turin, Teatro RegioBased on Byron; Revised by Salvatore Cammarano for the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 5 January 1845.

I briganti
melodramma3 acts
Jacopo Crescini

22 March 1836
Paris, Théâtre-Italien
Based on Die Räuber by Schiller; Revised for Milan's Teatro alla Scala, 6 November 1837.

Il giuramento
melodramma3 acts
Gaetano Rossi

11 March 1837
Milan, Teatro alla ScalaUner the title of Amore e dovere given in Rome in 1839.

Le due illustri rivali
melodramma3 acts
Gaetano Rossi

10 March 1838
Venice, Teatro La FeniceRevised for the Teatro alla Scala, 26 December 1839.

Elena da Feltre
dramma tragico3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

1 January 1839
Naples, Teatro San CarloCompleted in the autumn of 1837.

Il bravo, ossia La veneziana
melodramma3 acts
Gaetano Rossi

9 March 1839
Milan, Teatro alla ScalaBased on La vénitienne by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and The Bravo, a tale by James Fenimore Cooper.

La vestale
tragedia lirica3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

10 March 1840
Naples, Teatro San CarloGiven under the title of Emilia in Rome in the autumn of 1842; As San Camillo given in Rome in 1851.

La solitaria delle Asturie, ossia La Spagna ricuperata
melodramma5 acts
Felice Romani

12 March 1840
Venice, Teatro La Fenice

Il proscritto
melodramma tragico3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

4 January 1842
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Le proscrit by F. Soulié.

Il reggente
dramma lirico3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

2 February 1843
Turin, Teatro RegioBased on Gustave III ou Le bal masqué by Eugène Scribe; Revised with changes for Trieste, 11 November 1843.

Leonora
melodramma4 acts
Marco D'Arienzo

5 December 1844
Naples, Teatro NuovoBased on Lenore by Gottfried August Bürger; Arranged as I cacciatori delle Alpi for Mantua in 1859.

Il Vascello de Gama
melodramma romantico1 prologo e 3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

6 March 1845
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Le naufrage de la Meduse by Desnoyers de Biéville.

Orazi e Curiazi
tragedia lirica3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

10 November 1846
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Horace by Pierre Corneille.

La schiava saracena, ovvero Il campo dei crociati
melodramma tragico4 acts
Francesco Maria Piave

26 December 1848
Milan, Teatro alla ScalaRevised for Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 29 October 1850.

Medea
tragedia lirica3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

Felice Romani

1 March 1851
Naples, Teatro San Carlo

Statira
tragedia lirica3 acts
Domenico Bolognese

8 January 1853
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Olympie by Voltaire

Violetta
melodramma4 acts
Marco D'Arienzo

10 January 1853
Naples, Teatro Nuovo

Pelagio
tragedia lirica4 acts
Marco D'Arienzo

12 February 1857
Naples, Teatro San Carlo

Virginia
tragedia lirica3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano

7 April 1866
Naples, Teatro San CarloBased on Alfieri; Composed in December 1849-March 1850.

L'orfano di Brono, ossia Caterina dei Medici
(Caterina di Brono)
melodramma3 acts
Salvatore Cammarano
Incomplete; only the first act exists.
Composed in 1869/1870


References


Notes




  1. ^ abcd Michael Rose, "Mercadante: Flute Concertos", booklet accompanying the 2004 RCA CD recording with James Galway and I Solisti Veneti under Claudio Scimone.


  2. ^ ab Couling (trans.) 1997, p. 6


  3. ^ Blaha, Peter 2006, (trans. Stewart Spencer), "A gratifying experience", Booklet accompanying the 1979 live Orfeo recording of Il giuramento


  4. ^ ab Kaufman, Tom, "The Neglected Bel Canto Composers", The Meyerbeer Fan Club, online at meyerbeer.com


  5. ^ Schmid, Patric April 1975, "Rediscovering Mercadante", Opera, vol. 26, No.4, p.332


  6. ^
    Kaufman, Thomas 1995, "Mercadante and Verdi", Opera Quarterly, date unk.: For example, Il giuramento received 400 performances and La vestale 150 compared to Giovanna d'Arco, Don Carlo (in all its versions), and Aroldo 's approx. 90 each.




Sources


  • Bryan, Karen M. (1988), "Mercadante's Experiment in Form: The cabalettas of Elena da Feltre", Donizetti Society Journal Number 6, London.

  • Couling, Della (trans.) (1997), "Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870)" Elena da Feltre ", in the booklet accompanying the 1997 recording of that opera at the Wexford Festival released on the Marco Polo label

  • De Napoli, Giuseppe, (1952) La triade melodrammatica altamurana: Giacomo Tritto, Vincenzo Lavigna, Saverio Mercadante, Milan.

  • Kaufman, Thomas G. (1993), "Mercadante", in the International Dictionary of Opera, vol. 2 pp. 858–861

  • Kaufman, Thomas G. (1996), "Catalogue of the Operas of Mercadante-Chronology of Performances with Casts", Bollettino dell Associazione Civica "Saverio Mercadante" N. 1; Altamura

  • Kaufman, Thomas G. (June 1997), "Mercadante and Verdi", The Opera Quarterly, vol. 13, No. 3

  • Gianturco, Elio, Review of Saverio Mercadante; nella gloria e nella luce, in Notes, Music Library Association, Second Series, Vol. 7, No. 4 (September 1950), pp. 564–565. (Accessible by subscription)

  • Notarnicola, Biagio (1948–49), Saverio Mercadante; nella gloria e nella luce, Rome: Diplomatica, 1948–49

  • Notarnicola, Biagio (1955), Verdi non ha vinto Mercadante, Rome

  • Palermo, Santo (1985), Saverio Mercadante: biografia, epistolario, Fasano

  • Petrucci, Gianluca and Giacinto Moramarco (1992), Saggi su Saverio Mercadante, Cassano Murge

  • Petrucci, Gianluca (1995), Saverio Mercadante l'ultimo dei cinque re, Rome

  • Rose, Michael (1998), "Mercadante, Saverio", in Stanley Sadie, (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Three, pp. 334 – 339. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. .mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output .citation qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-maintdisplay:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
    ISBN 0-333-73432-7
    ISBN 1-56159-228-5

  • Summa, Matteo (1985), Bravo Mercadante, Fasano

  • Walker, Frank, "Mercadante and Verdi", Music & Letters, Vol. 33, No. 4 (October 1952), pp. 311–321 (Accessible by subscription)


External links





  • Saverio Mercadante at Encyclopædia Britannica


  • A Mercadante discography at the Wayback Machine (archived 27 October 2009) (rather outdated)


  • Free scores by Saverio Mercadante at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

  • The Mutopia Project has compositions by Saverio Mercadante


  • Saverio Mercadante on enjoyaltamura.com (biog) (in Italian)











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