Editing Saverio Mercadante (section)

==Biography==
===Early years===
Mercadante was born illegitimate in [[Altamura]], near [[Bari]] in [[Apulia]]; his precise date of birth has not been recorded, but he was baptised on 17 September 1795.<ref name="zucker">{{cite web |last1=Zucker |first1=Stefan |title=Saverio Mercadante: Liszt thought him Italy's best composer |url=http://www.stefanzucker.com/saverio-mercadante |website=stefanzucker.com |access-date=11 May 2019}}</ref> Mercadante studied flute, violin and composition at the conservatory in [[Naples]], and organized concerts among his compatriots.<ref name="RCAFluteConcertos">Michael Rose, "Mercadante: Flute Concertos", booklet accompanying the 2004 RCA CD recording with [[James Galway]] and [[I Solisti Veneti]] under [[Claudio Scimone]].</ref> The opera composer [[Gioachino Rossini]] said to the conservatory Director, [[Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli|Niccolo Zingarelli]], "My compliments, Maestro – your young pupil Mercadante begins where we finish".<ref name="RCAFluteConcertos" /> 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.<ref name="RCAFluteConcertos" />

[[File:Saverio Mercadante - birthplace and house.jpg|thumb|Mercadante's birthplace and house located on the street ''corso Federico II di Svevia'', [[Altamura]] (the plaque dates back to Italy's [[Fascism|fascist period]])]]
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.

[[File:Mercadante-young.jpg|thumb|upright|Mercadante]]
He worked for a time in [[Vienna]], in [[Madrid]], in [[Cádiz]], 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 [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini]]. While there, he had the opportunity to hear operas by [[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]] and [[Fromental Halévy|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===
When Mercadante returned to Italy after living in Spain and Portugal, Donizetti's music reigned supreme in Naples,<ref name="Couling">{{harvnb|Couling|1997|p=6}}</ref> 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 di Torino|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".<ref name="Couling" />

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''.<ref name="Blaha">Blaha, Peter 2006, (trans. Stewart Spencer), "A gratifying experience", Booklet accompanying the 1979 live Orfeo recording of ''Il giuramento''</ref>

In the period after 1831 he composed some of his most important works. These included ''[[Il giuramento]]'' which was premiered at [[La Scala]] to 11 march 1837. One striking and innovative characteristic of this opera has been noted:
<blockquote>..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.<ref name="Kaufman">Kaufman, Tom, [http://www.meyerbeer.com./negl-belcanto.htm "The Neglected Bel Canto Composers"], ''The Meyerbeer Fan Club'', online at meyerbeer.com</ref></blockquote>

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:
<blockquote>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.<ref name="Kaufman" /></blockquote>

''Elena da Feltre'' followed; one critic found much to praise in it:
{{quote|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<ref>Schmid, Patric April 1975, "Rediscovering Mercadante", ''Opera'', vol. 26, No. 4, p. 332</ref>}}

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

===Later works===
[[File:Saverio Mercadante by F. Garibotti - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON010747 B.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Saverio Mercadante, composer (1836-1870).]]
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.<ref>{{harvnb|Kaufman|1997}}: 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.</ref>

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.<ref name="RCAFluteConcertos"/> From 1863 he was almost totally blind and dictated all his compositions.<ref name="zucker" />

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 [[Gaetano Donizetti#Donizetti's compositions|Donizetti's compositions]] and [[Vincenzo Bellini#Complete works of Bellini|Bellini's compositions]].

The French soloist [[Jean-Pierre Rampal]] notably recorded several Mercadante concertos for flute and string orchestra,{{efn|1=Not all the concertos are for string orchestra. Some are for larger ensembles. The Concerto in E minor, is, however, for flute and strings.}} including the grand and romantic E minor concerto, which has since gained some popularity among concert flautists.
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