Virginia

by Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (1795 - 1870)
An opera, tragedia lirica, in three acts. Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano based on Vittorio Alfieri's tragedy of the same name (which was in turn taken from a story in Livy's Ab Urbe condita).

First performed: Naples, 7 April 1866 at the Teatro di San Carlo.
Revived for its United Kingdom premiere on 27 November 1976 at the Queen's University Festival; Belfast, Northern Ireland.

CHARACTERS

SYNOPSIS

Place: Ancient Rome

Virginia, a plebeian, is the virgin daughter of Virginio, a Roman soldier. She and Icilio, a patrician, are in love and wish to marry. However Appio Claudio has declared that patricians and plebs can not marry one another, a fact which makes their marriage impossible. At the same time Appio notices Virginia's beauty, and desiring her, attempts to force himself on her. Iclio intervenes, and while saving Virginia, is killed by Appio. Virginio comes to her aid, reminding Appio of Virginia's protection under Roman law as the daughter of a Roman citizen.

Thwarted, Appio plots to get Virginia through legal trickery, claiming that she is not Virginio's daughter but in fact a slave belonging to his associate Marco. The case is brought before a public tribunal and it appears that Appio will have his way. Rather than be forced to be with Appio, Virginia stabs herself to death. Her act of tragic bravery inspires a massive insurrection of plebeians against Appio and the patrician regime.

THE COMPOSER

While Mercadante never attained the international celebrity of Donizetti or Rossini, he composed as impressive a number of works as either, and it was he, more than they, who developed the operatic structures, melodic types and orchestral techniques that provided Giuseppe Verdi with the foundations upon which he built his art.

Born in Altamura, Mercadante studied at the conservatory in Naples, and organized concerts among his compatriots. Opera composer Gioacchino Rossini said to the conservatory Director, Niccolo Zingarelli, 'My compliments Maestro - your young pupil Mercadante begins where we finish'. In 1817 he was made conductor of the college orchestra, composing a number of symphonies, and concertos.

Rossini's encouragement led him to compose for the opera, where he won considerable success with Violenza e Constanza in 1820. His next three operas are more or less forgotten, but his next opera Elisa e Claudio was a huge success, and had occasional revivals in the 20th century.

He was invited by Rossini to Paris in 1836, where he composed I Briganti . 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. Under this influence he moved to a greater stress on the dramatic side of opera. He also introduced a number of innovations in the structure and staging of operas, moving away from the bel canto conventions.

After Mercadante returned to Italy in 1837, he composed some of his most important works. These included Il giuramento, which was premiered at La Scala in November 1837, and Elena da Feltre in 1838 (the year before Verdi's first opera).

These temporarily put him in the forefront of composers then active in Italy, although he was soon passed by Giovanni Pacini with Saffò and Giuseppe Verdi with several operas, especially Ernani.

Some of Mercadante's later works, especially Orazi e Curiazi, were also quite successful. Many performances of his operas were given throughout the 19th century, some of them far more than those of Verdi's early operas.

Due to his lifelong preoccupation with the orchestral scores, he generated more instrumental works throughout his life than most of his contemporaries. From 1863 he was almost totally blind.

Mercadante died in 1870, and his output was soon largely forgotten, although occasionally revived and recorded since World War II, it has yet to achieve anything like the popularity of his slightly younger contemporaries Donizetti and Bellini.