Tiziana Grande

Tiziana Grande

From Naples to Europe. Spread and Popularity of Mercadanteʼs Operas in the First Half of 19th Century

During his lifetime, Mercadante was acknowledged as one of the prominent Italian composers and his operas received the attention of the European contemporary press. Mercadanteʼs operas began staging in 1822 in many Courtʼs Theatres and were also performed by touring companies all over Europe and overseas. It is well known that throughout the 19th Century the demand for the Italian opera became so high that it could only be satisfied through a remarkable mobility of singers, composers, impresari, in a new operatic market. On the one hand, the widespread success of the Italian opera made the fortune of famous impresari such as Domenico Barbaja - who assumed a sort of monopoly of the theatrical life in Europe after 1820, by engaging a long list of singers and composers with long-term contracts;1 on the other hand, it enhanced the circulation of freelance artists and increased the costs of the opera staging as a whole. Indeed, cities such as Paris, London or Madrid used to pay artists far more than any Italian theatre.2

As many talented young musicians educated at the Naplesʼ Collegio di musica, Saverio Mercadante had been trained early to face the stage and to become a professional composer.3 The ambition for a theatrical career outside Naples was a

1 See pAoloGIoVANNI mAIoNe - FrANCeSCA Seller, Da Napoli a Vienna: Barbaja e lʼesportazione di un nuovo modello impresariale, in Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) e il teatro musicale a Vienna.

Convenzioni, innovazioni, contaminazioni stitlistiche, ed. Rudolph Angermüller, Elena Biggi

Parodi, Lucca, lIm, 2012, pp. 405-420. 2 See JoHN roSSellI, Il sistema produttivo, 1780-1880, in Storia dellʼopera italiana, ed. Lorenzo

Bianconi, Giorgio Pestelli, second part, vol. 4: Il sistema produttivo e le sue competenze, Torino, edT, 1987, pp. 77-165. See also pAolo CASCIo, Un modelo de temporada de Ópera Italiana en el

Teatro Príncipe. La correspondencia desde Milán del empresario D. Cristóbal Fernández de la

Cuesta en 1826, «Cuadernos de música iberoamericana» 17, 2008, pp. 61-77. 3 Saverio Mercadante definitely left the Collegio di Musica on April 9th 1820, as reported in TommASINA BoCCIA, Il Conservatorio di musica di Napoli negli anni di studi e della direzione di

Saverio Mercadante nei documenti dellʼArchivio Storico in Mercadante 1870-2020, ed. Antonio

common goal for most students and an indispensable prerequisite for a future return, full of honors and fame, to the Neapolitan scenes.4 The will to succeed in professional operatic career and to fight the envy, the wickedness, the rivalries that characterized the enviroment, pushed some of the students to sign a sort of pact before leaving the College. Probably born as a goliardic community, such an alliance was based on relationships of true friendship between very close fellows, grown together for years and ready to ensure mutual support in facing the outside world. The pact consisted of a series of rules often quoted in many letters as articles of a Code, called by Mercadante Codice Geratelliano (i.e. probably for Cerretelliano by the name of the violinist Antonio Cerretella). Affiliates to the group used to call themselves ʼPistacchiʼ:5 «I have no doubt that returning among you Pistacchi will awaken the ancient spirits in me»6 wrote Mercadante to Florimo from Novara in 1835. In another letter, he emphasized the spirit of friendship of old friends, inspired by the utmost correctness and sincerity:

You neglect me, you do not write to me when it would be needed, you reply to my letters just when you like and then you claim the right to abuse me, slander me, to overwhelm me and to silence me, putting me on the wrong side. I am older than you, so I was first to study that Geratellian code, and although you agree on the progress made since those times, yet I do not give up on your chatter: That said, letʼs be frank, forgive each other and donʼt confuse our laziness with friendship, since as I believe you unchanged towards me so you must believe me, without ever taking advantage of some slight lack to scold me.7

Caroccia, Paologiovanni Maione, Napoli, Edizioni del San Pietro a Majella, 2020, p. 20. About the professional training received by the students of Naples Conservatory, see pAoloGIoVAN-

NI mAIoNe - FrANCeSCA Seller, «Saranno destinati a far conoscere il loro valore»: gli alunni

“napoletani” e le scene cittadine, in Lʼinsegnamento dei conservatori, la composizione e la vita musicale nellʼEuropa dellʼOttocento, ed. Licia Sirch, Maria Grazia Sità, Marina Vaccarini, Lucca, lIm, 2012, pp. 329-363. 4 On the new role of music composers in society in the early 19th Century, see luCIo TuFANo,

Aspetti della professionalità musicale (1785-1815), in Cultura, e lavoro intellettuale: istituzioni, saperi e professioni nel Decennio francese, ed. Anna Maria Rao, Napoli, Giannini, 2009, pp. 276296. 5 The Belliniʼs biographer Francesco Pastura already wrote about the alliance among “Pistacchi”.

See FrANCeSCo pASTurA, Bellini secondo la storia, Parma, Guanda, 1959, pp. 47-49. 6 «Non dubbito che trovandomi fra voi Pistacchi, mi si sveglino gli antichi spiriti», letter from

Saverio Mercadante to Francesco Florimo, Novara 7th July 1835, (I-NC Rari Lettere 19.12/106) published in SANTo pAlermo, Saverio Mercadante. Biografia, epistolario, Fasano, Schena editore, 1985, pp. 141-143: 141. 7 «[…] Tu mi trascuri, non mi scrivi quando ve ne sarebbe bisogno, riscontri le mie quando ti piace e poi ti arroghi il diritto di strapazzarmi, calunniarmi, per impormi e farmi tacere, mettendomi dalla parte del torto. Sono piú vecchio di te, quindi prima studiai quel codice Gera-

Some articles of this maybe never-written Code deserve our attention because they tell us about the professional mentality of the young musicians educated at Naplesʼ College. After completing their studies, the young composers and instrumentalists had trained to better fit into the theatrical world undertaking a professional path that would have given them a dignified life. The demand for theatrical performances was abundant and the primary purpose of the young students was that ironically described in article 55: earn the day and set aside as much money as possible when things are going well.8 Mercadante wrote to Florimo about this, when he realized that his Spanish adventure was coming to an end: «In the midst of this uncertainty I took the party of accumulating as many effective sounding colonnati, earning cash on the side, to better consolidate the Article 55 and put aside a half pound of spaghetti».9

The young composers were also attentive to the tricks that helped the success of a performance. According to article 29, “The applause at first performance”, they knew they had to rely on a good number of true friends among the audience of a première to ensure the success of a new opera. Mercadante tells us about it, writing to Florimo from Turin in the autumn 1831: «You would have been pleased to see the Marchese Galeati, with his family and followers, making noise, as did the good and excellent Duchessina di Noja on the first evening of the Zaira – il Principino Dentice, and all the Neapolitans helped to run the show very well, since I used Article 29 the applause at first performance».10

telliano, e benché accordi i progressi fatti daʼ tempi, pure non allaccio alle tue chiacchiere: Ciò posto facciamo franchi dei franchi, perdoniamoci scambievolmente e non confondiamo la nostra pigrizia con lʼamicizia, poiché comʼio ti credo invariabile cosí mi devi credere, senza mai approfittare di qualche lieve mancanza per darmi addosso […]», letter from Saverio Mercadante to Francesco Florimo from Novara, 3rd June 1839, (I-NC Rari Lettere 19.12/115) published in pAlermo, Saverio Mercadante, cit., pp. 196-197: 196. 8 The scholar Giorgio Sanguinetti reminds us that in order to respond to the great demand for ever new works, music students of the early nineteenth century were trained to compose at a frenetic pace. He wrote, indeed: «Every professionally trained Italian composer was able to compose an opera in five weeks, or less if necessary. This was the result of training, and not of genius.». See GIorGIo SANGuINeTTI, The art of Partimento, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 7. 9 «In mezzo a questa incertezza ho preso il partito di vedere ammassare quanto piú posso colonnati effettivi, sonanti e fuori banco, ad ogetto (sic!) di soliditare meglio lʼarticolo 55 e crescere nu miezzo ruotolo de vermicelli.», letter from Francesco Mercadante to Francesco Florimo, Madrid 2nd November 1830 (I-NC Rari Lettere 19.12/92) published in pAlermo, Saverio

Mercadante, cit., pp. 88-92: 91. 10 «Tʼavrebbe fatto piacere vedere il Marchese Galeati, con famiglia e seguito fare chiasso, come fece la buona e ottima Duchessina di Noja la prima sera della Zaira – Il principino Dentice, e tutti i Napolitani hanno aiutato la barca benissimo, poiché mi servii dellʼarticolo 29 di applauso in prima sera». The letter is datable September 1831 and refers about the first Turinʼs representation of the opera La Testa di Bronzo (I-NC Lettere 20.5/17). Itʼs published in pAlermo,

Gray eminence of the ʼPistacchiʼ, Francesco Florimo11 weaved the threads of relationships and made sure that everyone helped each other, especially outside Naples. It is well known that Mercadante gave a hand to Bellini on his arrival in Milan,12 just like years later, he received help from Bellini in Paris:

Mercadante writes to me on his arrival to Paris, he hopes to find you a friend as you have always shown him to be. He hopes you will benefit him with your connections and relationships. I replied that you have not changed with anyone, and particularly you would not have changed with him; that your friends in Paris would be his friends, that he would find you in Paris as you found him the first time you saw him in Milan, that your friendship was of beneficiary to him. Iʼm sure you would agree with what I wrote to him and I have no doubt that you will express yourself personally to Mercadante, who is the only composer who praises and appreciates you.13

Many years later, another friend, Michele Carafa, claimed his role in allowing Mercadante to receive the Légion dʼhonneur from the French government.14 Florimoʼs

Saverio Mercadante, cit., pp. 105-109: 106. 11 Fellow student of Mercadante and Bellini at the Neapolitan music College, Francesco Florimo carried out all his musical activity in Naples, covering the role of music librarian in San Pietro a Majella from 1826 to 1888 and also that of director of vocal concerts since 1827. See roSA

CAFIero, Florimo, Francesco in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Roma, Istituto dellʼEnciclopedia

Italiana, vol. 48, 1997, pp. 349-353. For a better comprehension of the influence that Florimo had on the artistic careers of many of his friends see ANToNIo CAroCCIA, La corrispondenza salvata. Lettere di maestri e compositori a Francesco Florimo, Palermo, Mnemes, 2004. 12 See mArIA roSA AdAmo - FrIedrICH lIppmANN, Vincenzo Bellini, Torino, erI, 1981, pp. 55-222. 13 «Mercadante mi scrive che venendo a Parigi spera di trovarti amico come sempre glielo hai dimostrato. Spera che gli gioverai con le tue conoscenze e coi tuoi rapporti. Io gli risposi che tu non cambiavi con alcuno, e particolarmente non avresti cambiato con lui; che li tuoi amici di Parigi sarebbero stati gli amici suoi ancora, chʼegli avrebbe trovato te in Parigi come tu trovasti lui la prima volta che lo vedesti a Milano, che tanta amicizia ti ha usato. Sono sicuro che tu penserai come gli scrissi e non dubito punto che [lo] mostrerai a Mercadante che ti ha sempre stimato ed [è] il solo tra i compositori che ti loda e tʼapprezza», letter from Francesco

Florimo to Vincenzo Bellini, Naples 9-11th July 1835, published in Vincenzo Bellini Carteggi, critical edition ed. Graziella Seminara, Firenze, Olschki, 2017, pp. 544-546: 546. See also AdAmo - lIppmANN, Vincenzo Bellini cit., pp. 223-311. Actually, Mercadante and Bellini lived together in the College just for a few months, since Mercadante left it on April 1820 and Belliniʼs presence is attested at least starting from the 28th January 1820 as recorded in Naples

Conservatoryʼs Archivio Storico. See Cm NA as, San Pietro a Majella preunitario, Copie di deliberazioni e appuntamenti, II.6.1, c. 365r. 14 Michele Carafa (1787-1872), studied in Naples with Francesco Ruggi and Fedele Fenaroli. From 1840 to 1858 he taught counterpoint and composition at the Paris Conservatory becaming one of the most prestigious figures of Italian music in France.

interest in the matter had been great, and Carafa finally replied to him:

You knew, for your interest, that only thanks to me Mercadante had the decoration of the Légion dʼhonneur. My friend Auber and all my collegues did nothing but sign the application that I presented. I have been twice to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (the first time with Auguste Aymé) to bring the request signed by the Music Section, and to commit the minister to support our petition […].15

Mutual support between old Collegeʼs mates was also based on the awareness of the musical talent of each of them. The article 151 of the Code declared without hesitation: «The best is the one who earns the most». In this letter written from Turin in 1831, Mercadante rejoiced at Belliniʼs ability to increase his fee for the benefit of all other composers, recognizing the undisputed excellence of his friend:

From what Romani has written to me, it seems that he [Bellini] is ahead with his work, and that the libretto is very interesting and well suited to the Company. He can only make good music, be successful, and bring his pay to 18,000 francs letting all of us shout like eagles, and laugh out loud, referring on article 151 that the best is the one who earns the most.16

The oath between ʼPistacchiʼ implied a strong sense of belonging and fidelity to the Neapolitan composition school, of which they felt they were heirs. The responsibility of keeping up its fame was linked to the awareness of the high teachings they had received. Often more celebrated abroad than at home, the musicians trained in Naples always remained obliged to the city and to the College. Mercadante wrote to Florimo, indeed: «Despite ungrateful to his children, long life to the Casalone the home of composers, and if we do not have the talent of our great masters, at least we

15 «Sapevate, per vostra regola, che io solo ho fatto avere la decorazione della Legione dʼonore a Mercadante. Il mio amico Auber, e gli altri miei colleghi, non hanno fatto altro che firmare la domanda che io ho presentato. Io sono stato due volte dal Ministro degli Affari Esteri (e la p.ma volta con Auguste Aymé) per portare la domanda, firmata dalla Sezione musicale, e per impegnare il ministro ad appoggiare la nostra petizione […]», letter from Michele Carafa to

Francesco Florimo, Paris 28th March 1853 (I-NC Rari 19.5/22), published in CAroCCIA, La corrispondenza salvata cit., pp. 61-62. 16 «Da quanto mi scrive Romani, pare che [Bellini] sia avanti con il suo lavoro, e che il libro sia interessantissimo e ben adatto alla Compagnia, lui non potrà che fare una buona musica, incontrare, e portare la paga a 18.000 fr. lasciando gridare tutti noi altri come aquile, e ridere a crepapancia, appoggiandosi allʼart.151 che il piú bravo è chi guadagna di piú». The letter refers to Belliniʼs Norma, which was performed on 26th December 1831 at Milan Teatro alla

Scala. The passage is taken from the same letter quoted in footnote n. 9; see pAlermo, Saverio Mercadante, cit., pp. 105-109: 108. On the pay obtained by Bellini for his operas see also

JoHN roSSellI, Bellini, Milano, Ricordi, 1995, p. 84.

must with every effort show ourselves not inferior to all these titled charlatans».17

Coming from the Music College of Naples represented, at the time, a sort of “quality license” to which Italy and Europe looked with interest. It is known that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Neapolitan conservatories had become the most important professional music schools in all of Europe.18 At the beginning of the nineteenth century, fame continued to exist but the dialectic between an “old” Neapolitan school (i.e. that of Cimarosa and Paisiello) and a “new” Neapolitan school became a familiar topic to the international music press, which usually considered the emerging composers as unworthy of their ancestors. It must be considered, in truth, that the composers of the ʼnewʼ school shared the common fate to start their careers in the shadow of Rossini and that this did not facilitate their reception among the foreign audience. 19

When Mercadante staged his first opera LʼApoteosi di Ercole at San Carlo Theatre in 1819, the «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung», reported the news as follows:

Towards the end of August, a new work entitled LʼApoteosi di Ercole received the greatest acclaim at the San Carlo of Naples. Mr Mercadante, a new composer still very young who was a pupil of Zingarelli, made his debut with this opera and caused such a stir that he was immediately commissioned to compose a comic opera, in which style, however, as Zingarelli believes, he might not succeed so well. The Italian newspapers are completely silent on this work, because in Naples the impresario Barbaglia and the director Rossini deal with the direction of theatres and with music critics too, and probably also have an indirect or direct influence on other Italian magazines. Furthermore, Zingarelli is a very strong opponent of Rossini and madame Colbrand was not brilliant in this performance.20

17 «Benché ingrato con i suoi figli, pure, evviva il Casalone, la patria dei compositori, e se non abbiamo il talento dei nostri gran Maestri, almeno dobbiamo con ogni sforzo non mostrarci inferiori a questi ciarlatani titolati». The letter is datable February 1838 (I-NC Rari Lettere 19.12/113) and itʼs published in pAlermo, Saverio Mercadante. Biografia, epistolario cit., pp. 181-184: 183. 18 As Giorgio Sanguinetti states, «it is not an exaggeration to say that every European composer in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was exposed, directly or indirectly, to the influence of the Neapolitan masters». See SANGuINeTTI, The art of Partimento cit., p. 7. 19 The subject is extensively treated by FrANCeSCA plACANICA, Saverio Mercadante and France (1823-1836), PhD Thesis, University of Southampton, 2013. 20 «Gegen Ende Augustʼs wurde zu Neapel auf St. Carlo eine neue Oper, lʼApoteosi di Ercole betitelt, mit vielem Beyfall gegeben. Herr Mercadante, ein angehender, noch sehr junger Compositeur und Schüler Zingarelliʼs, debütirte mit derselben und erregte dadurch grosses Aufseheu, bekam auch sogleich den Auftrag, eine opera buffa zu componiren, in welchem Style aber, wie Zingarelli glaubt, es ihm vieileicht nicht so gut gelingen möchte. Die italianischen Zeitungen schweigen über diese Oper gänzlich, weil in Neapel der Impresario Barbaglia und der

Director Rossini das theatralische Ruder und die dasigen Zeitungsschreiber leiten, wohl auch

It is known that in the 1820s Barbaja put a lot of efforts into commissioning new operas to young composers with the hope of discovering the ʼnew Rossiniʼ. At that time the composer from Pesaro was the undisputed ʼgeniusʼ of the Neapolitan scenes. Yet, Zingarelliʼs opposition towards Rossini was probably more an invention of the press and the critics, eager to give life to a new querelle between Rossinisti and Zingarelliʼs students, than a real hostility. 21 It has been already highlighted, in fact, that Zingarelliʼs teaching, althought faithful to tradition, was also marked by serious studies of the European instrumental culture and was not so dully conservative, providing students with the tools to welcome in a non-passive way the melodramatic models in vogue at that time.22

Five months later, in april 1820, the German journal gave brief news of the success of the announced Mercadanteʼs comic opera given at Naplesʼ Teatro Nuovo, intitled Violenza e Costanza. This opera in two acts seems to be the first of Mercadanteʼs work to have been staged out of Italy, having been performed in 1822 in Berlin and in Münich with the title Il castello degli spiriti (Die Geisterburg) [figure 1].23 On the occasion of the Münichʼs performance on June 22nd 1822, the reviewer of the «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitungʼs» had probably for the first time the opportunity to listen to Mercadanteʼs music live and to write:

The Royal Italian Theatre gave two new operas called Il castello degli spiriti by Mercadante and la Fedra by Orlandi. The first, a comic opera, is based on a very funny fairy tale, but it has not maintained the great reputation enjoyed by the

mittel-oder unmittelbar auf andere italienische Zeitungen Einfluss haben. Hierzu kommt noch, dass Zingarelli ein sehr starker Gegner Rossiniʼs ist, und dass d.e Colbrand in dieser

Oper nicht glänzte», see «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung» XXI/45, 10th November 1819, col. 758. 21 Still in 1877, an editor of the «Gazzetta Musicale di Milano», G. Villanti, wrote that on the occasion of the inauguration of a Zingarelliʼs portrait in 1835, a sonnet entitled La musica dei fracassisti was declaimed in the Neapolitan Collegeʼs library. The quarrel between Rossinisti and Zingarelliʼs students was traditionally traced to this episode, even if in the brouchure published for that occasion there is no trace of that sonnet. See «Gazzetta Musicale di Milano»

XXXII/12, 25th March 1877, p. 95. See also Componimenti recitati in occasione della inaugurazione del ritratto del cavaliere Niccolò Zingarelli: alla presenza di sua eccellenza D. Niccolò Santangelo, Napoli, tip. Osservatore medico, 1835. 22 See mArCello CoNATI, Florimo e Mercadante in Francesco Florimo e lʼOttocento musicale, ed.

Rosa Cafiero, Marina Marino, Reggio Calabria, Jason, 1999, pp. 121-133. On Zingarelliʼs teaching method see FlorImo, Cenno Storico sulla scuola musicale di Napoli, I, Napoli, Rocco, 1869, p. 485 and GIorGIo SANGuINeTTI, Decline and Fall of the “Celeste Impero”: the Theory of composition in Naples during the Ottocento, «Studi Musicali» XXXIV/2, 2005, pp. 451-502. 23 leoNe ANdreAToTTolA, Die Geisterburg. Eine scherzhaftes Drama in zwey Akten in Musik gesezt von Mercadante. München, Hübschmann, 1822 (d-mBS). The German libretto contains just a synopsis since the opera was performed in the original language.

young composer in Italy. On the other hand, we found little originality and a too evident imitation of Rossini.24

The comic and sentimental opera was still the most widespread operatic genre in 1820s. It represented a high level and enjoyable entertainment and it had lower costs for the theatrical staging. Moreover, in comic and sentimental operas, the original music could more easily be interpolated with local folk melodies and arias composed for the occasion, according to a very common practice of that time. In the cosmopolitan world of opera of the beginning of nineteenth Century, indeed, lasting convention provided the keys to appreciation of foreign spectators, but cultural differences sometimes represented an obstacle to the comprehension of Italian comic opera.

When the successful opera semiseria Elisa e Claudio, first represented in Milan in 1821, was staged for the first time in Münich on December 1822, the «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitungʼs» reviewer highlighted the good reception of the work, but invited the detractors of the Italian Opera to listen to it with the right disposition, pointing out the different attitudes towards ʼhumorʼ among northern populations and Italians:

Yesterday in Residenz Royal Court Theater we witnessed a new comic opera in 2 acts, entitled Elisa and Claudio, with music by Mr. Maestro Mercadante. You have to take an Italian comic opera for what it is there for, for an easily and funny farce. And the most curious thing is that in the midst of funny things our feeling often creeps into a sweet agitation, and we, as in several parts of the opera discussed here, donʼt know whether to laugh or cry. Italians often do both, and so it suits them. But if our German seriousness goes out of deep analyses, if we look too strictly for novelty, thoroughness, depth, where one only wanted to appeal lovingly through seductive forms, then we completely ignore the point of view from which these merry products of the southern sky are to be judged. In short, there is no need to seek the shade of German oak groves in an Italian orange garden […].25

24 «München. Das königliche italianische Theater gab in kurzer Zeit zwey neue Opern, nähmlich

Il castello degli spiriti von Mercadante, und la Fedra von Orlandi. Die erste, eine komische Oper, gründet sich auf eine sehr unterhaltende Fabel, hat aber keineswegs den grossen Ruf, welche der junge Tonsetzer in Italien geniesst, hier ganz bewährt. Finden wir von der andern Seite wenig Originalität und eine zu offenbare Nachahmung von Rossini». See «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf den österreichischen Kaiserstaat» VI/50, 22nd

June 1822, col. 399. 25 «Im königl. Hoftheater an der Residenz sahen wir gestern eine neue Opera buffa in 2 Aufzüngen, betitelt: Elisa e Claudio, mit music von Hrn. Maestro Mercadante. – Man muss eine italianische opera buffa für das nehmen, wofür sie sich gibt, für einen lustigen Schwank, für eine leicht unterhaltende Posse. Und das ist gerade das spasshafteste, dass in Mitte des tollsten

Zeuges unser Gefühl nicht selten eine süsse Rührung beschleicht, und wir, wie an mehreren

Mercadante himself considered Elisa e Claudio his unsurpassed triumph for many years. The opera had many representations as documented by the surviving librettos or magazineʼs reviews and it was also the first Mercadanteʼs opera to be staged overseas in New York in 1832 thank to Lorenzo da Ponte [figure 2].26 This work absolutely helped to spread the composerʼs fame as evidenced by some biographies published on European magazines in those years.27

Elisa e Claudio was also the first Mercadanteʼs opera to be staged at Parisʼ Théâtre Italien in November 1823, during a benefit evening for Giuditta Pasta. Its reception was weak in spite of the great expectation.28 The evening included, in addition to Mercadanteʼs title, a one-act reduction of Paisielloʼs Nina pazza per amore. Due to the length of the program it was necessary to cut many pieces of Elisa e Claudio. 29 The French press focused on the weakness of the libretto, finding it terribly boring. Regarding the music, it deplored the abundance of thematic materials which made the listening “a too labourious experience”: «[…] the composer has sweated blood and water to produce the effect of piling theme upon theme which no happy transition can link and blend, resulting in a mass of jolts to the ear; this mosaic of notes in all tones […] may offer the elements of twenty finales, but they are too diverse to reach a single one satisfactorily».30

Stellen der hier besprochenen Oper, nicht recht wissen, ob wir darüber lachen oder weinen sollen. Der Italiener thut oft beydes und so ist ihm wohl. – Geht aber unser deutscher Ernst aus Zergliedern, suchen wir allzustrenge nach Neuheit, Gründlichkeit, Tiefe, wo man nur durch reitzende Formen lieblich ansprechen wollte, so verrücken wir gänzlich den Standpunct, von welchem aus diese heitern Kinder, man muss in einem italienischen Orangenwäldchen eben so wenig den breiten Schatten deütscher Eichenhaine […]». See «Allgemeine musikalische

Zeitung, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf den österreichischen Kaiserstaat» VII/6, 18th January 1823, col. 47. 26 luIGI romANellI, Eliza and Claudio, or, Love protected by friendship [music by Saverio Mercadante], New York, Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1827 (uS-CA). In the first ten years, between 1821 and 1831, Elisa and Claudio was performed out of Italy in: München (1822), Berlin (1822), Barcelon (1823), München (1823), London (1823), Paris (1823), Innsbruck (1824), Paris (1824), Lisbon (1824), Wien (1824), Madrid (1824), Odessa (1824), Dresden (1825), Majorca (1825), Budapest (1825), Paris (1827), Berlin (1828), Paris (1828), Saint Petersburg (1829), Santiago (1830), Buenos

Ayres (1831), Corfú (1831). 27 See for istance Mercadanteʼs biographies published in the Parisian magazine «Le Miroir des spectacles, lettres, des moeurs et des arts», 21 June 1822 p. 4 or in the Londoner «The Harmonicon», May 1824, pp. 90-91. 28 Françoise Henry Joseph Castil-Blaze had already reported enthusiastic appreciation on the opera given at Milan Teatro alla Scala. See «Journal des débats», Paris 30th November 1821 and 2nd January 1822. 29 plACANICA, Saverio Mercadante and France cit., pp. 53-82. 30 «Le Corsaire» 24 November 1823, quoted in ivi, p. 73.

In comparison with the success of Paisielloʼs Nina, immediately following the performance of Elisa e Claudio that night, the real encounter with Mercadanteʼs music was somewhat disappointing for the French public and critics, and once again gave the opportunity to compare the most appealing old Neapolitan opera school (considered authentic) with the new Neapolitan school.

Figure 1: luIGI romANellI – SAVerIo merCAdANTe, Die Geisterburg, München, Hübschmann, 1822. (Bayerische StaatsBibliothek München). Libretto. Source: <www.opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de> (last consultation 31 March 2021). Figure 2: luIGI romANellI – SAVerIo merCAdANTe, Eliza and Claudio New York, per Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1832. (Harvard College Library). Libretto. Source: <www.babel.hathitrust.org> (last consultation 31 March 2021)

After the staging of Elisa e Claudio at the Thé â tre Italien, the music of this opera resurfaced in Paris in 1825 at the Thé â tre de lʼOdé on in the Luc Gué né eʼs pastiche Les Noces de Gamache [Fig. 3].31 This work has nothing to do with the opera Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio that Mercadante wrote in Cadiz in 1828.32 It is a

31 Les Noces de Gamache. Opéra Bouffon en Trois Actes, Paroles de M.M. Sauvage et Dupin, Musique de Mercadante, Arrangé pour le scène Francaise Par M. Guénée, Paris, chez C. Lafi tte, [1825]. 32 A manuscript of the opera, entitled Nozze di Gamaccio / (D. Chisciotte) / Musica di Saverio Mer-

single-composer pasticcio including music taken from two of Mercadanteʼs operas, LʼApoteosi di Ercole and Elisa e Claudio and reshuffled.33 As demonstrated by the studies of the scholar Francesca Placanica, this work represents a very interesting study-case to understand the consumption and reception of Italian opera out of Italy, which often passed through unusual and non-ordinary paths.34 The libretto of the pastiche, in french language, did not have any relation with the two original librettos set to music by Mercadante. The music was arranged by Luc Guénée, a violinist and composer who included in Les Noces de Gamache three new musical numbers written by him and inspired to Spanish dance rhythms, probably to meet the expectations of the Parisian audience who was well aware of the settings of Cervantesʼ work.

The diffusion of Mercadanteʼs Elisa e Claudio and its transformation into Les Noces de Gamache was important for the spread of Mercadanteʼs name in Paris although, in the following years, France would always remain skeptical about the successes that the composer was simultaneously collecting in Lisbon, Madrid and Cadiz.35 Mercadanteʼs cold reception in France was probably also favored by the article on The state of music in Italy, France and Germany written by François-Joseph Fétis and published in the «Revue Musicale» of February 1827.36 After having expressed appreciation on Elisa and Claudio, the famous Belgian musician and musicologist deplored Mercadanteʼs following works and wrote that the composer had disappointed the initial expectations. As a matter of fact, no other Mercadanteʼs opera was staged at the Parisʼ Théâtre Italien after Elisa e Claudio in 1823 and before I briganti in 1836.37

cadante, dated Cadice 7 9bre 1828, is held in Naplesʼ Conservatory Library (I-NC 29.6.18). See

AdelA preSAS, Creaciòn y vida de Saverio Mercadante en España. Don Chisciotte alle nozze di

Gamaccio (Cadiz, 1830), Madrid, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2018. 33 mArk eVerIST, Music at Paris Odeon, 1824-1828, Berkley-Los Angeles-London, University of

California, 2002, pp. 189-198. 34 plACANICA, Saverio Mercadante and France cit., pp. 83-132. 35 «Il est difficile de décider si les acteurs et la pièce ont satisfait le public, ou sʼil les à entendus avec indifférence», wrote the «Revue musicale» on the occasion of the first representation of

Mercadanteʼs Il posto abbandonato, revisioned for Lisbon in 1828. See «Revue musicale» IV/2,

August 1828, p. 43. 36 FrANçoIS-JoSepH FéTIS, Examen de lʼètat actuel de la musique en Italie, en Allemagne, en Angleterre et en France, «Revue musicale» I/3, February 1827, pp. 80-88. 37 For the list of operas staged in those years at the Parisʼ Théâtre Italien see JeAN moNGrédIeN

Le Théâtre Italien de Paris 1801-1831: chronologie et documents, vol. VI 1825-1826, Lyon, Symetrie – [Venezia], Palazzetto Bru-Zane, 2008. Michael Wittmann writes on relation between Mercadante and Paris: «[…] all Mercadanteʼs operas of 1832-6 had at best a succès dʼestime. He was far less popular with the audiences than Bellini and Donizetti, a state of affairs clearly reflected in Rossiniʼs decision not to invite him to compose an opera for the Théâtre Italien in Paris until the Spring of 1836 […], and even then asked for an opera buffa or semiseria». See mICHA-

Figure 3: SAVERIO MERCADANTE, Le Noces de Gamache, musique arrangée pour la scène française par Mr Guenée, Paris, Lafitte, [1825]. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, <www.gallica.bnf.fr> last consultation 31 March 2021).

Before Paris, Elisa e Claudio had been staged in England too, in May 1823. In London, the reception had been even worse. Rossiniʼs preponderance at the Kingʼs Theatre left no room for easy successes. In 1823 the Italian operas performed had

el WITTmANN, Mercadante, (Giuseppe) Saverio (Raffaele), in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. John Tyrrel and Stanley Sadie, New York, Grove, 20012, pp. 438-448.

been:38

La Clemenza di Tito Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro Mozart Elisa e Claudio Mercadante La Gazza Ladra Rossini Tancredi Rossini La Donna del Lago Rossini Otello Rossini Ricciardo e Zoraide Rossini Matilde e Corradino39 Rossini

On May 1823 the «Quarterly music Magazine & Review» laconically declared: «Elisa e Claudio was heard only to be condemned»40 and «The Harmonicon» wrote shortly after:

It is impossible to describe anything more stupid than this drama, (written by a certain Romanelli); which may somehow account for the dullness of the music. It is said that it was performed sixty nights successively in Milan; an assertion more easily made than proved: if true, it shews, as it has been observed, the degraded state of taste and intellect in Italy. The whole opera does not convey an original idea; it is borrowed mainly from Rossini, - that is to say, his singularities are copied, not his beauties.41

Some years later, in 1835, the same opera was to appear again at the Londonʼs English Opera House. Magazines announced: «On Saturday, and every night since, has been performed, with great effect and success, a new comic opera, founded on Eliza and Claudio, the music by Mercadante, and new-named No plot without danger».42

The habit of cutting and replacing some pieces, remodelling the opera and translating it, was still a common practice out of Italy for this kind of repertoire.43 The

38 JoHN eBerS, Seven Years of the Kingʼs Theatre, London, W. Harrison Ainsworth, 1828, p. 194. 39 Other title for Matilde di Shabran. 40 «The Quarterly music Magazine & Review» V/18, May 1823, pp. 262-263. 41 «The Harmonicon» I/5, May 1823, p. 72. 42 «The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc.» 973, 12th September 1835, p. 589. 43 The scholar Cristine Jeanneret in one of her studies on operaʼs migration in the northern

Countries, states: «By the mid-eighteenth century, Italian opera was a truly European and cosmopolitan phenomenon, having being literally transported, adapted, translated and even sometimes mutilated to survive in different contexts», see CrISTINe JeANNereT, Costumes and Cosmopolitanism: Italian Opera in the North, «Cambridge Opera Journal» 32/1, March 2020,

fortune of Mercadanteʼs works outside Italy cannot be understood and evaluated without the knowledge of the theatrical practices that were normally put in place to meet the expectations of foreign audiences and to adapt the shows to the needs of different theaters and different orchestras and artistsʼ companies. Even the «Revue Musicale» remarked on the London performance of 1835:

This work is nothing more than a translation of Mercadanteʼs work known as Elisa and Claudio. Following the method of the English arrangers, the most important pieces have been cut, shortened or deleted, and have been replaced with small melodies whose fusion with Italian music has a rather bizarre effect, which shocked no one in London.44

The fate of Elisa e Claudio was no different in Austria. It was first staged in Wien in 1824 under the Barbaja management and it had a good success and ʼpiacque fino al fanatismoʼ as Florimo wrote;45 but in Dresden, in the next year 1825, it underwent numerous changes and added so many new pieces and airs to induce the reporter to declare: «it is quite another thing from what it was when it first made its appearance».

46

We can suppose that the numerous alterations and new version that Elisa e Claudio underwent in many European countries hindered the correct reception of Mercadanteʼs music, even if they increased the musicianʼs popularity.47 As a possible consequence, the foreign professional musical press was often stingy with Mercadante, and sometimes malicious too. When the opera Didone abbandonata

pp. 27-51. 44 «Cet ouvrage nʼest autre quʼune traduction de lʼopera de Mercadante connu sous le nom dʼElisa et Claudio. Suivant la méthode des arrangeurs anglais, les morceaux les plus importants ont été coupés, écourtés ou supprimés, et ont été remplacés par de petites melodies donʼt lʼamalgame avec la musique italienne fait une effect assez bizarre, mais dont personne nʼa été choqué à Londres». See «Révue Musicale» IX/4, 25 october 1835, p. 344. 45 FrANCeSCo FlorImo, La scuola musicale di Napoli e i suoi conservatori, 3, Napoli, Morano, 1883, p. 113. 46 «The Harmonicon» IV/39, March 1826, p. 60. 47 Mercadanteʼs popularity outside Italy is also documented by the testimonies of street musicians coming from the South of Italy who, in the nineteenth century, used to go playing all over the world the most famous Italian opera arias, accompanying themselves with a harp and a violin. «My name is Francesco Pennella: for 17 years I have been traveling with this harp on which my grandfather played the songs of Cimarosa and Jommelli; and my father taught me those of Rossini and Mercadante». See I Viggianesi in FrANCeSCo de BourCArd, Usi e costume di

Napoli e contorni descritti e dipinti, Napoli, tip. Gaetano Nobile, 1853, 1, pp. 123-125: 124. See also Musicisti ambulanti e opera, dallʼarpa di Viggiano allʼorganetto porteño, in ANNIBAle eNrI-

Co CeTrANGolo, Dentro e fuori il teatro. Ventura degli italiani e del loro melodramma nel Rio de la Plata, Isernia, Cosmo Iannone, 2018, pp. 19-42.

was performed for the first time in Turin, in 1823, the «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung» commented:

Now, one might wonder why the same artist composes three works simultaneously in two or three months, like this time Mr. Mercadante in Milan [Adele e Emerico], Turin [Didone] and Mantua [Alfonso ed Elisa] [...]. There are, however, malicious tongues that claim that Mercadante really lets himself be helped by others and that much of his Dido belongs to Donizetti.48

The echo of the Italian success of Didone abbandonata (Turin 1823) didnʼt prevent the failure of its first performance at London Kingʼs Theatre in 1827. The manager of this theatre was John Ebers, who published a diary of his management at the end of his enterprise.49 Musical director was Charles Bochsa, an extraordinary harpist, conductor and composer, bold in business and already expelled from France in 1817 for a forgery charge. Arrived in London, he soon reached a prominent position in the townʼs musical environment, gradually obtaining the support of the court which appointed him Professor of the harp at the Royal Academy of Music in 1823 and musical director of the Kingʼs Theatre from 1826 to 1830.50 Between 1821 and 1830 the Kingʼs Theatre engaged many top class Italian singers as Giovanni Battista Velluti, Giuditta Pasta, Maria Malibran, Antonio Tamburini. From Ebersʼdiary we know that Mercadanteʼs Didone was staged in London in 1827 because an Ebersʼcollaborator, Giovanni Puzzi – sent to Italy to engage first class singers – put under contract the nineteen-year-old soprano Giacinta Toso, who later married him:

This lady he engaged at three hundred and fifty pounds, and the travelling expenses of herself and her father and mother, who accompanied her. He also brought with him Mercadanteʼs opera ʼDidoneʼ, intending it for the débût of Mademoiselle Toso; the composer himself having made some alterations in the opera to adapt it accordingly.51

The opera was performed in a benefit evening for Mad.e Puzzi and the young singer performed the role of Enea while Giuditta Pasta sang in the role of Dido.

48 «Nun könnte man fragen, wie es zugehe, dass ein und derselbe Kunstler, zur nämlichen Zeit drey Opern auf einmal binnen zwey, drey Monaten componirt, wie z. B. diessmal Hr. Mercadante für Mailand, Turin und Mantua [...]. Indessen giebt es böse Zungen, welche behaupten,

Mercadante habe sich wirklich von audern helfen lassen, und dass vieles in seiner Didone dem

Donizetti angehöre» «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung» XXV/5, 9th April 1823, col. 235. 49 See footnote 36. 50 NICHolAS Temperley, Bochsa, (Robert) Nicholas Charles in The New Grove Dictionary cit., 3, pp. 764-766. 51 eBerS, Seven Years cit., p. 318.

Further changes and cuts were made to the libretto for the English scenes:52 the performed opera was considerably shorter and Madame Pasta replaced Didoʼs cavatina in the first act Vedi, mio ben, di Venere with Il soave e bel contento from Paciniʼs Niobe, 53 while the Jarbaʼs aria sang by tenor Alberico Curioni in the second act «Cadrà fra poco in cenere» was replaced with the Gernandoʼs aria «Non soffrirò lʼoffesa» from Rossiniʼs Armida. The failure was complete and Mercadante was defined as «a poor imitator of Rossini»,54 but the most severe criticism was reserved to the non sense of the libretto and to the Finale in which Giuditta Pasta sang a last air defined «a long, tedious, ranting compilation» completely different from the composerʼs original one.55

Mercadanteʼs name no longer appeared in London Opera seasons until July 1830, when on the occasion of another benefit evening in honor of Henriette Méric-Lalande the serious opera Caritea regina di Spagna was first performed in London with an even worse outcome:56

A new opera by Mercadante was produced on Monday, the 26th of July, for the benefit of Madame Lalande, under the title of La Donna Caritea, a work on which to bestow a word of criticism would be a waste of time, and an unjustifiable trial of the reader patience. It is a poor imitation of Rossini, and… bears the stamp of imbecility in every part of it. This driveling affair was eminently unsuccessful […].57

For many years, until the success of Il Giuramento in 1837, Mercadanteʼs serious operas performed out of Italy were very few and mostly resounded along theatrical

52 The libretto has been digitised by the British Library: Didone, opera seria, in Due Atti. Musica di Mercadante. Rappresentata del teatro del Re, Haymarket, Giuglio 5, 1827 […], London, John

Ebers, 1827 (GB-Lbl). 53 This cavatina was originally written for Giovan Battista Rubini who played the role of Licida in the first performance given in Naplesʼ San Carlo Theatre on November 19th 1826, while

Giuditta Pasta played the role of Niobe. Transposed for sopran and published by Ricordi in 1827, it became one of Giuditta Pasta favouriteʼs trunk aria. The vocal score was also published in London. See GIoVANNI pACINI, Il soave bel contento. Cavatina, introduced by Madame Pasta in Mercadanteʼs opera of Didone at the Kingʼs Theatre, London, Goulding & DʼAlmaine, [1827] (GB-Lbl). 54 «The Harmonicon» V/8, August 1827, p. 171. 55 The whole final scene doesnʼt correspond to the Romaniʼs libretto. 56 Between Mercadante serious operas written before Il Giuramento, Caritea regina di Spagna was the more performed out of Italy, having been staged in Zara (1827), Barcelon (1828), London (1830), Madrid (1830), Majorca (1831), Odessa (1831), Lisbon (1834), Oporto (1835) and also in Havana (Cuba) in 1836. 57 «The Harmonicon» VIII/9, September 1830, p. 398.

routes of new trading cities such as Odessa.58 The succès dʼestime obtained by the opera I Briganti – his only work written for the Parisʼ Théatre Italienne in 1836 – and the unfavorable conditions in which this opera was performed,59 prevented its diffusion outside France and Italy except for some performances in German translation with the title Der Räuber.60

As already has been pointed out by Michael Wittmann, I Briganti can be considered the first Mercadanteʼs reform-opera,61 introducing a prolific period for the composer between 1837 and 1843, in which he wrote his most famous and inspired works that really had a notable success also abroad. «I owe this new career to you, who shook me from my lethargy, giving me back to a new musical life»62 he wrote to Florimo in 1839. «La rivoluzione», the renewed compositional process discussed in many letters to Florimo, led him to write operas that would best meet the taste of the foreign public.63 A taste extraordinarily summarized in a satirical article published next to a caricature of the journal «The Musical World» in November 1846. The lithographic sketch [Fig. 4] represented the small Mercadante in front of the big Charles Bochsa, the French musician that some years before had been musical director at the London Kingʼs Theatre at the time of the Didoneʼs first English performance; in the years 1843-1845 Bochsa landed in Naples, following the prima donna Anna Bishop, and was appointed musical director at the San Carlo Theatre.

58 The Odessa Opera House was built in 1810. According to Manferrari, between the 1824 and the 1848 it staged at least four Mercadanteʼs operas: Elisa e Claudio, Caritea, Gabriella di Vergy,

Leonora. The adventurous journey of an Italian Opera Company from Venice to Odessa was described in a long memory by the artist Vittore Pelli DʼAranno, hired from 1824 to 1827 by the

Odessa Theater as scene-painter. See umBerTo mANFerrArI, Dizionario universale delle opere melodrammatiche, Firenze, Sansoni Antiquariato, 1955, 2, pp. 322-327; see also VITTore pellI dʼArANNo, Memorie di me Vittore Pelli dʼAranno, «Bollettino storico della Svizzera Italiana»

VII/3, 1932, pp. 89-112. 59 See Mercadanteʼs letters from Paris published in pAlermo, Saverio Mercadante, cit., pp. 150165. See also «La Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris» III/13, 27th March 1836, pp. 99-101. 60 Die Räuber, große Oper in drei Aufzügen, nach Schillers Trauerspiel gleichen Namens, aus dem Italienischen des J. Crescini, zur beibehaltenen Musik von Mercadante, inʼs Deutsche übertragen von dem Freiherrn von Lichtenstein, Mainz, [1839]. On the attempts to re-import

Schillerʼs work in Germany see: ACHIm AurNHAmmer, Die Briganti des Mercadante – eine

Räuber-Oper vor Verdi in Der ganze Schiller. Programm ästherischer Erziehung, ed. Klaus Manger,

Heidelberg, Universitätverlag Winter, 2006, pp. 531-544. 61 mICHAel WITTmANN, Meyerbeer and Mercadante? The reception of Meyerbeer in Italy, «Cambridge Opera Journal» V/2, pp. 115-132. 62 «Questa nuova carriera la devo a te, che mi hai scosso dal mio letargo ridonandomi a nuova musical vita», letter from Saverio Mercadante to Francesco Florimo, Novara 7th January 1839, published in pAlermo, Saverio Mercadante. Biografia, epistolario cit., pp. 191-193: 192. 63 See, for instance, the famous letter written from Milan on the 1st January 1838 and published in ivi, pp. 178-179 in which Mercadante states: «Ho continuata la rivoluzione principiata nel

Giuramento […]» (Iʼm continuing the revolution started with Il Giuramento […]).

There, he witnessed the failure of the Mercadanteʼs opera Il Vascello di Gama, given in March 1845. The episode gave the opportunity to the journal to list what the English audience considered the main defects of Mercadanteʼs operas and leaves us an interesting testimony of the reception of Mercadanteʼs music outside Italy in the mid 19th Century:

When Bochsa was in Naples, Mercadante not only submitted to him the entire directions of his operas, but never failed to consult him about his new scores. Bochsa had his own blunt manner of giving his musical opinions, and he was wont to take Mercadante into a corner of the San Carlo after the rehearsal was over, and proffer him advice on his forthcoming operas. When Il Vascello di Gama – an opera written by Mercadante for Madame Bishop, and produced in March, 1845 – was in rehearsal, several of this corner-councils were held by Bochsa and Mercadante, and the former was want to address the latter somewhat as follows: “Listen to me, my dear Mercadante; your music is very fine indeed, very fine – yes! Your first act is admirable, excellent – very good – yes! But, in the second act – ah! yes! If you donʼt cut that long wind instrument – yes!, that long wind instrument symphony in the second act, before the duet of Madame Bishop and Colletti; if you donʼt curtail also the largo and stretta of your second finale; if you donʼt make the introduction of the third act less noisy, and less lengthy – yes, less lengthy; and if you persist in making Madame Bishop – yes, mind, in making Madame Bishop sing an interminable, yes, a very long adagio sostenuto, in the same act, perched on a rock in the middle of the sea, after three day of starvation – yes; and above all, my dear, if you donʼt entirely cut out… It was at this point of the dialogue that the artist took this sketch.64

64 «The Musical World» XXI/48, 28th November 1846, p. 602.

Figure 4: Mercadante and Bochsa. Lithographical Sketch. «The Musical World» XXI/48, 28th November 1846, p. 602. (Source: <www.ripm.org> last consultation 31 March 2021).

When Mercadante received the assignment of director of the Naplesʼ Conservatory of Music, he was again widely acclaimed by the foreign press, and honored through numerous articles and biographies. The authoritative position was welcomed as one of the most prestigious in the musical field, demonstrating that the Neapolitan Conservatory was still considered a forge of composers and performers destined to the world scenes. Mercadanteʼs fame as a learned musician, as a skilled harmonist and orchestrator, as a long-time composer, rapidly spread, growing around him an aura of respect and authority. But despite this attention and this popularity, his music was increasingly identified as a symbol of the lost primacy of Italian Opera and his works gradually disappeared from the international stages. While the Italian gazettes, and above all the Neapolitan gazettes, called him an undisputed genius and qualified his music as the real Italian music, Monsieur van Beneden wrote on the «Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris»:

This is what Italy seems to me about his composers. Bellini dead, Rossini mute, Donizetti writing in France, it is reduced to Mercadante, who is generally not liked, and which, it must be said, is not the pure expression of Italian taste. With his work a little diffi cult, it is said, generally rather, it is certain that this composer, that no composer, could be enough to feed the many theaters and, could he do so, he would inevitably spread a very tiring monotony of style. Rossini and Bellini are known by heart, Donizetti if he does not maintain his repertoire in Italy with new works, will soon achieve the same result [...] Where is the future?65

Figure 5: Das Gelübde (Il Giuramento), Musik von Mercadante, Wien, Kärnthnerthore Theater, 1832. Poster. (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, ©KHM-Museumsverband: <www.omnia.ie> last consultation 31 March 2021).

65 «Voilà oú me semble en étre lʼItalie à propos de ses compositeurs. Bellini mort, Rossini muet,

Donizetti écrivant en France, elle en est réduite à Mercadante, qui ne plait pas généralment, et qui, on doit le dire, nʼest pas la pure expression du goût italien. Avec son travail un péu diffi cile, dit-on, plut-il mème généralment, il est certain que ce compositeur, quʼaucun compositeur même ne pourrait suffi re à alimenter les nombreux théâtres de lʼItalie, et put-il le faire quʼil y répandrait inévitablement une monotonie de style fort fatigante. Rossini et Bellini sont sus par coeur, Donizetti sʼil nʼentretient pas son répertoire en Italie par de nouveaux ouvrages, arrivera bientôt au même résultat... Où est lʼavenir?», «Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris» VII/54, 20th September 1840, pp. 466-469: 467.