Biography
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was baptised on 17 September 1795 in Altamura near Bari and died on 17 December 1870 in Naples. He trained at the San Sebastiano Conservatory in Naples, latterly under Niccolò Zingarelli, and first made his mark in 1819 with the opera L'apoteosi di Ercole. From 1827 to 1831 he directed Italian opera companies in Madrid and Lisbon, before becoming maestro di cappella at Novara Cathedral in 1833. From 1840 until his death he headed the Naples Conservatory; a stroke left him blind in 1862, and he continued composing by dictation. With operas such as Il giuramento (1837) he advanced the dramatic reform of Italian opera and helped prepare the ground for Giuseppe Verdi.
On Stagelog
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