MERCADANTE, SAVERIO RAFFAELE. - Musician, b. at Altamura in Sept. 1795, d. at Naples on 12 Dec. 1870, where he was a pupil of Zingarelli. In 1819 his first opera, L'apoteosi d'Ercole, was performed at the S. Carlo in Naples; it was followed by a series of approximately 60 operas, concluding with Virginia (1866).
The operas received most favorably were Elisa e Claudio (Milan 1821); I briganti (Paris 1836); Il giuramento (Milan 1837), which was the most frequently performed; Il Bravo (ibid. 1839); La vestale (Naples 1840); Gli Orazi e Curiazi (ibid. 1846). After serving from 1833 as choirmaster at the cathedral of Novara, in 1840, having been struck by blindness, he became director of the Naples Conservatory. Besides various instrumental works and works of diverse character, his production in the religious field was notable; it includes the oratorio Le sette parole di Nostro Signore, some twenty masses, 13 motets, 8 Magnificats, 5 Salve Reginas, 2 Tantum ergos for 5 voices, hymns, psalms, versicles, litanies, etc.
Saggio su la musica a Napoli nel sec. XIX da M. a Martucci, ibid., 35 (1928), pp. 198 and 331; S. A. Luciani, S. M., Bari 1945; B. Notarnicola, S. M., Roma 1949. Luigi Ronga