Beyond the Shadows: The Music of Mercadante

Concert
Beyond the Shadows:
The Music of Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870)

To honor the 230th anniversary of Saverio Mercadante’s birth (1795, Altamura), We Are Puglia and the United Pugliesi Federation, with the support of Regione Puglia, present an evening dedicated to the composer, in partnership with Club Federiciano and the Coro Polifonico ‘Saverio Mercadante’

Introduced by
Bianca Tragni, author

Performed by
Angela Lomurno, soprano
Annunziata Loporcaro, soprano
Alfredo Luigi Cornacchia, piano

Program:

Music by
Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870)

“Qual prece o voto”
from the opera Orazi e Curiazi (Lomurno)

La sposa de lo marinaro
Neapolitan song (Loporcaro)

La prece dell’orfano
Chamber aria (Lomurno and Loporcaro)

“Madre che in ciel sei”
from the opera Elena da Feltre (Lomurno)

“La posa…ma negli estremi istanti”
from the opera Il Giuramento (Loporcaro)

“Di mille colpe reo”
from Le Sette Ultime Parole di Nostro Signore sulla Croce (Lomurno)

T’amo
Chamber aria (Loporcaro)

Ah! che nel dirti addio
Chamber aria (Lomurno)

L’uocchie de nenna mia
Neapolitan song (Loporcaro)

La resposta a Retella
Neapolitan song (Lomurno)

L’abbandonata
Chamber aria (Loporcaro)

Salve Maria
Sacred music (Lomurno)

La Stella
Chamber aria (Loporcaro)

Bianca Tragni, journalist, founder of Club Federiciano – Altamura, and author of a Mercadante biography, will introduce the audience to the life and significance of Saverio Mercadante’s work.

Born in Altamura, Saverio Mercadante learnt to play the flute from his older brother and moved to Naples around the time of the Parthenopean Republic and the Altamuran Revolution (1799). He became a virtuoso on the flute while training as an opera composer at the Naples Conservatory, embarking on a distinguished composing career that encompassed chamber music, numerous operas (which would bring him fame across Europe), as well as sacred music and popular songs. His first opera premiered at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples when he was only 24 years old.
Mercadante received commissions from La Scala in Milan, as well as in Rome, Bologna, Venice (La Fenice), Turin, Mantua, Vienna, Spain, and Portugal. He served as Maestro di Cappella in Novara, was invited to Paris by Rossini, and eventually became director of the Naples Conservatory. He earned the esteem of Verdi and collaborated with him; however, his popularity waned after the mid-19th century. While his works are less frequently performed today, Mercadante’s compositions retain their artistic merit, attracting the admiration of connoisseurs and esteemed performers like Petrucci, Trapani, Griminelli, Pavarotti, Domingo, Pertusi, Vargas, who recognized their enduring beauty.
The audience at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò will have the opportunity to enjoy some of his finest compositions, performed by Maestro Cornacchia (pianist, composer, and conductor of the Coro Polifonico ‘Saverio Mercadante’) and the choir’s soloists, sopranos Angela Lomurno and Annunziata Loporcaro.

Alfredo Luigi Cornacchia is a versatile musician: he works in various musical fields, from composition and arrangement to conducting choirs and orchestras, in addition to his intense activity as an accompanying pianist. He is also a tenured professor at the “E.R. Duni” Conservatory in Matera.

Angela Lomurno obtained her Second Level Academic Diploma from the “N. Piccinni” Conservatory in Bari and since 1999 has carried out an intense concert activity in Italy and abroad with a repertoire that ranges from opera to contemporary music. She was honored with inaugurating the musical celebrations organized by the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mercadante’s death.

Annunziata Loporcaro graduated in Singing from the “N. Piccinni” Conservatory in Monopoli (BA). She has worked in opera companies and choirs with operatic and contemporary repertoire. She also researches and performs folk, early, baroque, and renaissance music. She is the founder and soloist of the Libre Ensemble medieval music group. She inaugurated the musical celebrations organized by the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mercadante’s death.