The theater mercadante.the history

The history of the Theater Mercadante is inserted in a picture of historical and cultural events of tall interest that you/they go together with the stories of a city as Naples, for a long time variegated in his/her dominations and crib of artistic concentrations that I am up to they have him connotata what European capital.

With the Jesuits' expulsion from the Kingdom in Naples and the forfeiture of their goods, the was created "Fund of separation of the profits" (1777-1778) managed by a military society that handled the construction of the Theater that taken the name from this (Theater of the Fund).

The initiative to give another regal theatrical organism to the city, although suggested by the speculative motives for the Fund, it evidently found immediate consents in king Ferdinando IV that so you/he/she could tie his/her name to the second city theater after St. Charles.

The Theater of the Fund was inaugurated July 31 st 1779 with The unfaithful Fedele, book of G. B. Lawrence, music of Cimarosa. Such work came in by exceptional provision of choreographies (of exclusive appanage of the Theater St. Charles) to underline the importance of an event that used some best musician and active librettista to Naples. And' probable to think that the sovereign Borbone wanted to destine this theater to the representation of "funny works" and other kind theatrical, unlike St. Charles devoted to the "heroic work." The same Lawrence in the introduction to the work The unfaithful Fedele clarifies to his/her notice that the destination of the Theater of the Fund <<you/he/she used a medium show, that discreetly participated so of the one, that to do, so that every had in the Capital a theater corresponding to his/her genius.>> (From her "foundation of the theater to the revolution of the '99" of Mauro Amato in The Theater Mercadante, the history, the edited by restauration Tobia R. Tuscan - Electa, Naples, 1989).

Between the opening and the amplification of other city theaters of private (Theater Florentines, New, St. Ferdinando) nature, it strengthens the hypothesis that the Borbonis intended (establishing a new regal Theater) to give the face of European capital to Naples more and more).

This underlines the awareness of the difference of role among a private theater, as you/he/she could be the New one or the Florentines and the Theater of the Fund that, if also submitted impresariale (as after all the Theater St. Charles) to management he/she remained always also a real theater with the whole greatest dignity that this involved.

The Fund already from his/her opening it was set as dense theater of events and, even if considered of "support" to St. Charles, in king Borbone's aims he/she remained worthy of tall consideration.

In 1782 The astrologer of Francis Bianchi was represented on which the arrows of Luigi Serio were sharpened, censor of the theatrical shows, but despite the worries of the Serious one on the "indecencies of the book", the King himself, incuriosito from such relationship, fell him to the before the work together with guests of rank. In the season 1784 are formed the best company actually had to that moment and among the singers it makes return to the Fund Ann Benvenuti, involved the preceding year in a scandal: the mother of Ascanio Caracciolo had scentedly paid both the singer and the entrepreneur of the Theater also to estrange her/it from Naples, since you/he/she had a relationship with his/her/their child.

The last entrepreneur of that year, Francis Milza, miserably failed for the tall cost of the season among the most qualitative of the Theater. Insofar the Society of the Fund of Separation was forced to take an interest in more active way of the management and the enterprise you/he/she was submitted Palliums to Joseph Lucchesi. The relationship was regulated in different way: to the entrepreneur the assignment was allowed only to organize the season, the financial burdens of the preparations were assumed by the Society that it also cashed in the collections.

Of the administration the abbot Galiani economic adviser of the Society of the Fund of the Separation of the Profits was entrusted, select for his/her theatrical competence. Galiani, in fact, to his/her activity of economist it placed side by side that of theatrical-opera author. You remembers the collaboration with the librettista Lawrence and the musician Paisiello for his/her masterpiece The imaginary Socrates.

But the management revealed him extremely difficult however, also because of the default of the tenants of the stages: noble families, for which the payment of the stages was the last of the worries. Besides the repertoire of the Fund changed, passing from the comedy for music to the serious Works, attesting himself/herself/itself in a choice of avant-garde.

With the Sacred Works in Lent some elements of the company of song of St. Charles and the collaboration were present it was also had for the representations of the ballets (introduced in the season 1786-87) until then of exclusive appanage of St. Charles and rigorously forbidden in the other theaters. Choreographer entrusted of the ballets, except few exceptions, it was Giovanbattista Giannini the same of St. Charles.

In 1799, with the fall of the kingdom and the advent of the Republic Partenopea, the Theater worked assuming the name of "Patriotic Theater." The craftsmen of the Republic were among those people that effected a radical change in the function of the public show eliminating the Funny work from the Theater.

This way while the New one and the Florentines kept on representing comedies in music, the Fund put in scene plays in character prose educational, with the purpose to spread the new ideas. Musical activity reduces him to some cantata and hymn during patriotic evenings. Among these the famous Patriotic Hymn of the Cimarosa that cost the possibility to remain in Naples to the composer when the monarchy was restored. On January 26 the "Patriotic Theater" it inaugurated with The Aristodemo of Mountains; in the room it was present the general Championnet that was hailed not by the public without dissents of adverse parts. But The Aristodemo was judged antipatriotic and the theater was closed with to change its doors. You reopened March 3 rd 1799 with a job in republican style Catone to Utica. The republican prince of the Fortress Filomarino assumed the enterprise representing of preference tragedies of Vittorio Alfieri, stimulus to the civil virtues.

In 1809 the famous entrepreneur Domenico Barbaja, already manager of the Real Theater St. Charles, took over the Theater of the Fund holding her/it up to 1829. In that period artistic activity parallelly developed him among the two theaters, with moves of shows from a stage to the other. And' under the Napoleonic regime that one are owed some greatest periods of shines and wealth of repertoire. To the Fund the trilogy dapontiana of the Don Giovanni was entertained, Her Wedding of Figaro, So fan all, that it decreed the definitive fortune of the great Mozart in Italy.

There was besides a dense activity of theater of prose with to alternate of two stable companies for the French and Italian prose. This confirmation the thesis that also the napoleonidis (Joseph Bonaparte and Gioacchino Murat) held in big account the affirmation in Naples as capital of oltralpe.

In 1815 with the restoration borbonica arrives to Naples Gioacchino Rossini. The musician was amount from Barbaja, that had had the opportunity to know its value listening to him/it in the theaters of the north Italy. Rossini was young (23 years), and judged by the Neapolitans I don't deign to hold up the comparison with the great ones entertained to St. Charles, since its fame was due to the Otto comic works, in how much of the 14 writings actually to then five were serious only and a semiseria. But the challenge with the serious work was defeated, since it triumphed to St. Charles with Elizabeth Regina of England. After the fire that damaged the city Massimo, waiting for the reconstruction, the genius Rossini transferred his/her Works to the Fund.

In 1822 it reached Naples Gaetano Donizetti, really when his/her predecessor Rossini departed, and he/she remained you up to 1838, creating and picking up successes. To the Fund it represented, among the other works, Lucy of Lamermoor. In that period, the Fund also knew the art of Vincent Bellini, of Francis Saverio Mercadante, of Joseph Verdi (Ernani, The Two Foscaris).

March 3 rd 1848 a strike of the masses and the artists, paid late it provoked a new closing from the entrepreneur, and it instigated the protests of the public for the cheap quality of the shows. The room was in a state of I degrade: it darkens stage, surrounded by smoked walls with such broken seats to produce dissents and claims that you/they forced to the closing. This way provisions were adopted for the restauration that, under architect Catalan guide, the new neoclassic taste was adjusted to. The new curtain was painted in few month from Michael of Naples (painter to which that is also owed of the "Theater Piccinni" of Bari). Another important restauration had effected in 1893: the façade of the Theater was referred in the actual style, on sketch of the Ing. Pietro Pulli.

With the unity of Italy the theaters real St. Charles and Fund passed to the Demanio suffering a situation financial precarious commune to other national theaters. This was consequence of the to disappear some local Courts, that were celebrated through the theaters and they publicized effecting sources of financing. After 1861 the combining managerial St. Charles and I Found you/he/she was not effected anymore. Such division impresariale brought a division of the tastes of the public. From a part who preferred the lyric work and for which the Fund remained always theater "support" of St. Charles, from the other the emergent bourgeois class that a type of different theater complained. In the decade 1860-70 the Fund suffered alternate stories: you/he/she was often given in dense and his/her tables Neapolitan actors also entertained as Anthony Petito, glorious Pulcinella, as point of meeting of diversified cultures attesting himself/herself/itself.

December 17 th 1870 a thick petition of signatures reached the Prefect motivation: to change the name of the Deep Theater in the Theater Mercadante, devoting him/it so to the musician of origin pugliese formed him to Naples.

The Theater little by little Mercadante became stage of the first great actors, "Italian." You remembers the argument that ignited among the Neapolitan public on two actresses that acted in the Theater: Fanny Sadowski (what you/he/she had taken in management the theater from 1869-70 with appreciable results) and Adelaide Ristori.

To who to give the gold palm? The Neapolitans clearly divided him and so also the journalistic world. Three the parties: the "Refreshing", the "Sadowskiani" and the... neutral. Troubles to parlar badly of the Refreshes! But, however, this didn't notch her/it "grandeur" of the actress in scene: a stately gesture was enough, a threatening or tender look, on the stage, to instigate hurricanes of applause. While you are Refreshing her/it Naples he/she left on the wings of the success, Pasquale Altavilla, with the sarcastic pen, from the Sancarlino he/she wrote a parody, as you/he/she had already done for Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti and all the others great that had passed for the Mercadante.

They remained, however, the fashions to you Refresh her/it: the bonnets, the toupès and even the lunches to you Refresh her/it.

With the advent of the Bella Epoque Naples having also had to surrender the scepter of capital, it didn't lose the cultural record. Rather the debate, in this sense he/she remained to high-level. In the theaters "the intelligentsia" town was represented in the best some ways, raising to national level the artistic production. The Mercadante absorbed these humors always entertaining prestigious companies. The Company of Sarah Bernardt introduced her to you Mrs. of the Camellias and Coquelin The Cyrano of Bergerac. In the 1899 Eleonora Duse and Ermete Zacconi they interpreted Gloria of Gabriele Di I announce. In this climate he affirmed in Naples the promoter of the reform of the Neapolitan theater: Eduardo Scarpetta. He transformed the "theater pulcinellesco" adjusting him/it to the stilemis of the bourgeois class, improving and bringing the character of Felice Sciosciammocca to the success, already invented by Anthony Petito, that Pulcinella constituted. In reality Petito had realized the changes in the tastes of the public, but Scarpetta brought to conclusion one "revolution", adjusting himself/herself/itself to the models in fashion of the pochadès, codifying the structure of the comedies and inserting a regal that estranged from the scheme "canvas."

In 1888 its most resounding success was represented to the Mercadante: Poverty and Nobility. The Mercadante was still "theater" for Scarpetta of an inauspicious comedy The child of Iorio, parody of the famous tragedy dannunziana. Represented in 1904, in a tragic evening in which the comedy was broadly whistled by its detractors because of the a lot of polemics had with Of announcement that the intentòs it causes. Scarpetta, morally defended also in a wise man by Benedict Croce, it won the cause against the "Prophet of Italy", but the bitterness of that terrible experience remained him.

The new century opens for the Mercadante with a heterogeneous repertoire: dialect, classical, nineteenth-century works, patriotic, historical, thematic social and bourgeois, entertaining besides, also Pirandello and Marta Abba. A figure hacks him and is that of the Neapolitan Roberto Bracco. In demand from the public that it attends his/her novelties. Actors of point interpret his/her works as Zacconi Emma Grammatica. To Bloodhound the dictated possession a headstone is owed, on purpose in 1922 in the atrium of the Mercadante to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Achille Torelli.

In the roaring years of the curtain-raiser-magazine, to the theater Mercadante was inaugurated the first gangway, with Totò and Lia Thomas, as it is in the historical memory of the actor Bob Vinci, the soubrette's nephew.

In 1958 there were restaurations for the damages caused by the war, but already in the '20 had been built the IV it spins of stages and the gallery and in the 1938 Francis Galante you/he/she had been entrusted of to refer the ceiling. It painted "Naples Marinara."

At the end of the years '50 beginning '60 the Mercadante lived some seasons as Stable Theater with the artistic direction of Franco Enriquez and in 1963 there was the definitive closing for due inagibilità to static reasons. July 6 th 1963 the Theater was transferred by the Demanio to the Commune in Naples. Only in 1979 they began the jobs of restauration, to two centuries from the inauguration of the room, to return a working theater to the city. The jobs have created new services: an experimental teatrino, a room of scenography with space underlying espositivo, ample camerini for the actors, ample spaces for the public on three levels. September 30 th 1986, with the theater still yard, the show has been inaugurated Life and works of Eduardo De Phillip. On May 16 1987 Roberto De Simone represents Histoire du Soldat of Igor Stravinskij. The show is realized in the stage without slacker. But the teacher De Simone has still represented in this theater, besides, an edition of You Cat Cinderella, Sung for Masaniello with the Inti-Illimanis, the ensamble of Middle Aetas and Her Tarantelle of the remorse.

From 1990 to 1992 you/he/she is effected the project "Theater of Naples-theater of the Mediterranean" directed by Maurice Scaparro. Within the project you/they are introduced, among the shows: Mr. Chisciotte, regal of Maurice Scaparro, Razors of Enzo Moscato, regal of Mario Martone and Tones Servillo, These ghosts of Eduardo De Phillip, with Luca De Phillip, regal of Armando Pugliese.

The season 1995-96 see the inauguration of the first theatrical placard, for a theater had been closing for thirty years even if alternated by artistic moments of great quality. The theatrical season is promoted by the Commune in Naples the E.T.I. and the Public Theater they Live. Ten shows in subscription of high quality, an elevated flow of public and an appreciable succession of the local and national press decree the success of an initiative that it finally recovers to the Theater Mercadante a role that was up to him and that it missed among the city artistic interlocutors.

For this third year of continuous activity, the Theater Mercadante still introduces a placard (ten shows in subscription) of national theatrical companies and actors of prestige, to which it places side by side, for the second season, a planning of contemporary theater (the review "Mercadante 2 / present Time" in collaboration with the E.T.I., the New Theater, the Gallery Toledo and the Public Theater Live) with shows of contemporary theatrical search.