Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870)
- Concerto (in si bemolle maggiore) per il Clarinetto, Op.101
Performers: Fabrizio Meloni (clarinet); Orchestra di Verona; Alberto Martini (conductor)
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Italian composer, conductor and teacher. He was an illegitimate child
whose parents did not marry because of their different social rank; his
father belonged to the local nobility, and his mother was a maidservant
in his household. Instead, Saverio was adopted by his father as a
foundling. The looting of Altamura in 1799 in retaliation for its
republicanism dissipated the family finances, and Mercadante’s youth was
spent in poverty, with no educational prospects. The family’s
circumstances did not improve until after the French occupation in 1806,
when his father took an administrative post in Naples. He had shown
early musical promise, learning the guitar and clarinet from his
half-brother, and the move to Naples made a professional training at the
conservatory possible. A forged birth certificate was obtained,
enabling him to take up a state bursary, and he entered the
Conservatorio di S Sebastiano in 1808. While a student there, he wrote a
number of instrumental pieces, including music for three ballets. His
first opera premiered on Jan. 4, 1819, and, less than three years (and
precisely five operas) later, his Elisa e Claudio successfully opened at
La Scala in Milan. He composed another popular opera, Caritea, regina
di Spagna (“Caritea, Queen of Spain”; better known as Donna Caritea), in
1826. He was involved with Italian opera in Spain and Portugal from
about 1827 to 1830. During rehearsals for Gabriella Mercadante met his
future wife Sofia Gambaro (1812-1898), whom he married on 9 July 1832.
From 1833 to 1840 was maestro di cappella at Novara Cathedral.
In 1835 he came in contact with the music of Giacomo Meyerbeer, and his
next opera, Il giuramento (“The Oath”; performed in 1837 and considered
to be his best opera), reflects the lessons he learned from that
composer. Early in 1838 he applied to suceed Zingarelli as director of
the Naples Conservatory a post he held until his death. Thereafter he
continued to attempt a more harmonious blend of drama and music and led
the way toward simplified vocal lines, originality, and thoughtful,
serious composition. In addition to operas, he wrote sacred music
(including a number of masses), cantatas and hymns, orchestral pieces,
and a variety of chamber music. In 1862 Mercadante suffered a stroke
that left him completely blind. In 1869 he produced his Mass in G Minor,
but his intention of returning to opera with a setting of Cammarano’s
posthumous libretto Caterina di Brono was never completed. He had
reached the finale of the first act when he suffered another stroke, and
this time did not recover; he died after a short illness. Mercadante’s
extraordinary fame during his lifetime was followed by comprehensive
oblivion after his death. His works never became part of the established
operatic repertory in the second half of the 19th century, and in the
20th century he was at best seen as a precursor of Verdi. This narrowly
aesthetic judgment of his operas ignores the commercial context in which
Mercadante worked, which was more akin to the world of modern show
business. While some revivals of his works in recent years have led to a
general revision of this assessment, however, there has been no new
musicological interpretation of his work.
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