Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (September 16, 1795 - December 17, 1870), was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. Born in Altamura, near Bari (Apulia), Mercadante studied music in Naples and at first showed an interest in instrumental composition. The encouragement of Rossini led him to compose for the opera, where he won considerable success with his seventh such work (Elisa e Claudio), in 1821. He worked for a time in Vienna, in Madrid, in Cadiz, 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 Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini and Lablache. While there, he had the opportunity to hear operas by Meyerbeer and Halevy 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.
After he returned to Italy in 1837, he composed some of his most important works, including Il Giuramento which was premiered at La Scala in 1837. These temporarily put him in the forefront of composers then active in Italy, although he was soon passed by Giovanni Pacini with Saffo and Giuseppe Verdi with several operas, especially Ernani. Some of his later works, especially Orazi e Curiazi, were also quite successful. He was made the director of the Naples conservatory in 1840. His sight failed during his sixties, and from 1863 he was almost totally blind. In the decades after his death, 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 Donizetti and Bellini.
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