(Photo by Eaolovega) Oper Frankfurt is set to present the German premiere of Saverio Mercadante’s “Francesca da Rimini.” The Saverio Mercadante opera will get its first ever showcase on Feb. 26, 2023 followed by another seven performances thereafter; the final show in the run is set for April 8, 2023. The Mercadante opera will star Jessica Pratt in the titular {…}
The Manhattan School of Music has announced its fall 2019 performance season which will feature a number of orchestral, musical theater, and opera showcases. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on the vocal and operatic performances. The first major vocal showcase will be Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Fleet Street.” The production {…}
Those who missed out on the famed performances of “Il Bravo” from the Wexford Festival will get a chance to check the work out via ARTE.Tv starting on Easter Sunday. The stream will remain on ARTE’s digital streaming channels as part of its 2019 Opera season. The work received tremendous accolades, winning the award for Best Opera Production from The {…}
Every day up to 25,000 people disembark from the expanded cruise terminal in Venice and pour into the city’s narrow streets. Thousands more arrive by train and car. The water buses are so crowded that it would be preferable to walk, if it were not for the fact that the streets have become equally unbearable; so much so in fact, {…}
Wexford has a long history, dating back to at least 800 AD when it was founded by the Vikings. Walking around the town, along the quay or through its narrow streets, there is plenty of evidence of events and people who have shaped the town. A minutes walk from my B&B is Selskar Abbey, which dates back to the 1100s, {…}
In his time, Saverio Mercadante, baptized on Sept. 17, 1795, was a well-known and well-liked composer. We don’t live in his time. The Italian maestro, born in Altamura, was even given the approval of Rossini and it was under the guidance of the Italian genius that Mercadante really started dedicating himself to writing operas. Rossini even invited him to Paris {…}
One of the three operas being performed at this year’s Innsbruck Early Music Festival is Mercadante’s “Didone Abbandonata,” which may come as somewhat of a surprise to some, and begs the question: up to what point can a work be defined as “early music?” Many would certainly argue that Severio Mercadante’s music lies outside the definition. Yet, the director of {…}
A week ago we remarked that in the modern operatic canon, the works of Giacomo Meyerbeer are non-existent. That is even truer for Saverio Mercadante, a composer who was famous in his time but has not seen his works achieve anything resembling a revival. Baptized on Sept. 17, 1795 (the date of his “illegitimate” birth remains a mystery), he was {…}