The history of the Teatro Mercadante set in a framework of historical and cultural events of high interest that goes hand in hand with the story of a city like Naples has always been diverse in its rulers and the cradle of artistic concentrations that have compared the connoted as a European capital.












With the Jesuits were expelled from the Kingdom of Naples and the confiscation of their property, was created the "Fund Separation of lucre" (1777-1778) run by a military company which provided the construction of the theater that took its name from this ( Theatre Fund).

The initiative to give the city another body Theatre Royal, though suggested by speculative motives of the Fund, apparently found immediate acceptance in King Ferdinand IV so that he could link his name to the second city after San Carlo theater.

The Theatre of the fund was launched July 31, 1779 with The Faithful unfaithful, libretto by G. B. Lorenzi, music by Cimarosa. This work was exceptionally equipped with choreography (the exclusive prerogative of the Teatro San Carlo) to emphasize the importance of an event that made use of the best musician and librettist active in Naples. It 's likely to think that the Bourbon king wanted to dedicate this theater performance of "opera buffa" and other theatrical genre, unlike dedicated to St. Charles' "heroic work". The same Lorenzi in the introduction to the work's Unfaithful Faithful makes clear in his opinion that the destination of the Teatro del << Fund would serve as a pimp show, which participate fairly well the one, the other to do that, so that each had in the Capital a theater which corresponds to his genius. >> (From the "foundation of the theater to the revolution of '99" by Mauro Amato in Il Teatro Mercadante, history, restoration edited by Tobias R. Toscano - Electa, Naples, 1989).

Among other things, the opening and expansion of other theaters in the city of private nature (Fiorentini Theatre, New, San Fernando), strengthens the hypothesis that the Bourbons intend (by establishing a new Theatre Royal) to Naples increasingly face European capital).


This highlights the role of awareness of the difference between a private theater, how could it be the New or the Florentines, and the Theatre of the Fund which, though given to entrepreneurial management (as well as the Teatro San Carlo) was nevertheless a real theater with all the dignity that it meant more.

The Fund since its opening scene is both an eventful and, although considered "support" at the San Carlo, in the sights of the Bourbon king remained worthy of high regard.

In 1782 it represented The Astrology of Francesco Bianchi on which they pinned the arrows of Luigi Serio, censor of plays, but despite concerns about the Serio "indecencies of the booklet," the King himself, intrigued by the report, rushed to first opera in the company of guests of rank. In the 1784 season as the best company we had up to that point and returns among the singers Anna Welcome to the Fund, involved in a scandal last year, the mother of Ascanio Caracciolo had paid handsomely for both the singer and impresario of the Teatro just to get her away from Naples, for he had an affair with his son.

The last impresario of that year, Francis Spleen, failed miserably for the high cost of the season among the quality of the theater. Accordingly, the Company Fund Separation was forced to take an interest in more active management and the enterprise was entrusted to Giuseppe Lucchesi Palli. The ratio was adjusted in different ways: the impresario was left alone in charge of organizing the season, the financial burden of the preparations were made by the Company that also take collections.

Administration was in charge of the Abbot Galiani economic advisor of the Fund Company of the Separation of lucre, chosen for its theatrical competence. Galiani, in fact, his work as an economist flanked by that of playwright-operatic. Do you remember the collaboration with the librettist and the composer Paisiello Lorenzi for his masterpiece The imaginary Socrates.

But management still proved extremely difficult, partly because of the arrears of the tenants of the boxes: noble families, for which the payment of the boxes was the last concern. Moreover, the repertoire of the Fund changed, going from comedy to music to books series, coming in a choice of avant-garde.

With Sacred Works of Lent were some elements of the San Carlo company of singers and collaboration was also for the performances of ballets (introduced in the 1786-87 season) until then the exclusive prerogative of the San Carlo and strictly prohibited in other theaters. Choreographer of ballets commissioned, with few exceptions, was Giovanbattista Giannini, the same as the San Carlo.

In 1799, with the fall of the kingdom and the advent of the Neapolitan Republic, the theater functioned assuming the name of "Patriotic Theatre". The framers of the Republic were among those that they put into effect a radical change in the function of public performance, eliminating the Teatro Opera Buffa.















So while the New and the Florentines continued to represent in music plays, the Fund staged dramas in prose educational, in order to spread new ideas. The activity is reduced to some music and hymn sung during patriotic evenings. These include the famous Hymn Patriotic Cimarosa which cost the composer the opportunity to stay in Naples when the monarchy was restored. On 26 January, the "Patriotic Theatre" opened with The Mountains of Aristodemus, in this hall was the general Championnet that was acclaimed by the public is not without dissent of the opposing parties. But The Aristodemus was considered unpatriotic and the theater was closed by changing its doors. It opened March 3, 1799 with a work style Republican Catone in Utica. The Prince of the Republican Filomarino Rocca took the firm representing preference tragedies of Vittorio Alfieri, a stimulus to civic virtue.

In 1809, the famous impresario Domenico Barbaja, former manager of the Theatre Royal St. Charles, took over the theater of the Fund, holding it until 1829. At that time the artistic activity took place in parallel between the two theaters, with displacements of shows from a stage to another. And 'under the Napoleonic regime that has one of the major periods of splendor and wealth of repertoire. Fund was hosted dapontiana the trilogy of Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, which decreed the final fortune of the great Mozart in Italy.

Also there was a thick activities theater companies with the alternation of two stable, for the French and Italian prose. This confirms the thesis that even Napoleon's (Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat) held in high regard the claim as the capital of Naples from beyond the Alps.

In 1815 with the restoration of the Bourbons to Naples Gioacchino Rossini. The musician was Barbaja amount, which had got to know the value of listening to it in the theaters of northern Italy. Rossini was young (23 years), and judged by the Neapolitans not worthy to stand comparison with the large housed at the San Carlo, since its fame was due to the eight comic operas, because of the 14 written until then were only five series and a semi-serious. But the challenge was won with the work seriously, since triumphed at the San Carlo with Queen Elizabeth of England. After the fire that damaged the city Massimo, pending reconstruction, Rossini's genius moved his works to the Fund.

In 1822 he came to Naples, Gaetano Donizetti, Rossini just as his predecessor started, and remained there until 1838, creating success and reaping. Fund represented, among other works, Lucia di Lamermoor. During that period, the Fund also knew the art of Vincenzo Bellini, Francesco Saverio Mercadante, Giuseppe Verdi (Ernani, I Due Foscari).

On March 3, 1848 a strike of the masses and artists, paid late, a new closure caused by the impresario and prompted protests from the public for the poor quality of the shows. The room was in a state of decay: dark theater, surrounded by walls with smoked broken seats that generate disagreements and complaints that forced the closure. So they adopted measures for restoration under the guidance of the Catalans, was adapted to the new neoclassical style. The brand new stage curtain was painted in a few months by Michele in Naples (painter who was also one of the "Teatro Piccinni" of Bari). Another important restoration was implemented in 1893: the facade of the theater was rebuilt in modern style, designed by Ing. Peter Pulli.

With the unification of Italy the royal theaters San Carlo and the State Property Fund spent undergoing a precarious financial situation common to other national theaters. This was a consequence of the disappearance of local courts, which were celebrated by the theaters and propagated by implementing funding sources. After 1861 the combined fund management, and San Carlo was never implemented. This split led to a division of entrepreneurial public taste. On the one hand, those who liked the opera and for which the Fund was always drama "support" of the San Carlo, the other the emerging middle class that demanded a different kind of theater. In the decade 1860-70, the Fund suffered ups and downs: it was often given for rent and its tables also hosted Neapolitan actors such as Antonio Petito, Punchinello glorious, standing as a meeting place of diverse cultures.

On December 17, 1870 a large petition signatures came to the Prefect, motivation: change the name of the Fund in Theatre Teatro Mercadante, dedicating it to the musician, born in Puglia trained in Naples.

The Teatro Mercadante slowly, became the first great stage actors "Italians". Do you remember the quarrel flared up between the Neapolitan public on two actresses who acted in the Theatre: Fanny Sadowski (who ran the theater from 1869-70 with remarkable results) and Adelaide Ristori.

Who give the Palme d'Or? The Neapolitans were divided sharply and so did the journalistic world. Three parties: the "Restaurateurs", the "Sadowskiani" and ... neutral. Woe to speak ill of Ristori! But, however, this did not affect the "grandeur" of the actress on stage: it took was a grand gesture, a look fierce or tender, on the stage, unleashing a storm of applause. While Ristori left Naples on the wings of success, Pasquale Altavilla, with the sarcastic pen, from Sancarlino wrote a parody, as it had done for Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, and all others who had gone to great Mercadante.

There remained, however, fashions to Ristori: the hats, the Toupe and even dinners to Ristori.

With the advent of the Belle Epoque Naples despite having had to surrender the scepter of the capital, did not miss the cultural primacy. Indeed the debate, in this sense remained very high level. In the theaters, "the intelligentsia" town is represented in the best way, raising the national artistic production. Mercadante absorbed these moods, hosting companies increasingly prestigious. The Society of Sarah Bernhardt we presented The Coquelin The Lady of the Camellias, and Cyrano de Bergerac. In 1899 Eleonora Duse and Hermes Zacconi Gloria interpreted by Gabriele D'Annunzio. In this climate it was stated in Naples advocate of reform of the theater in Naples Eduardo Scarpetta. He became the "theater pulcinellesco" adjusting to the stylistic features of the bourgeois class, perfecting and bringing success to the character of Felix Sciosciammocca, already invented by Antonio Petito, who established Pulcinella. Actually Petito had sensed the changing tastes of the public, but Scarpetta he completed a "revolution", conforming to the models in vogue for farce, encoding the structure of the plays and inserting a direction that is away from the board "canvas".

In 1888 his most resounding success was represented at the Mercadante: Misery and Nobility. The Mercadante was still "theater" for a play Scarpetta unfortunate son Iorio, a parody of the famous tragedy of D'Annunzio. Represented in 1904, a tragic event in which the play was widely booed by his detractors because of the many controversies that I had with D'Annunzio sued. Shoe, also morally defended in a paper by Benedetto Croce, won the case against the "poet of Italy", but was the bitterness of that terrible experience.

The new century opened with a repertoire for Mercadante heterogeneous dialect, classical, nineteenth-century works, patriotic, historical, social issues and bourgeois, hosting among other things, Pirandello and Marta Abba. One figure stands out and is one of the Neapolitan Roberto Bracco. High demand from the public expects their news. Leading players interpret his works as Zacconi, Emma Grammatica. A Bracco must have the wording of a plaque, placed in the lobby of Mercadante in 1922 to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Achille Torelli.

In the heady times of variety-reviewed journal, the Mercadante theater was inaugurated the first catwalk, with Toto and Leah Thomas, as is the historical memory of the actor Bob Vinci, grandson of the soubrette.

In 1958 there were repairs for damage caused by war, but already in the 20's were built to the fourth row of boxes and the gallery and in 1938 Francesco Galante had been commissioned to redo the ceiling. He painted "Napoli Marinara".

In the late '50s early '60s Mercadante lived as the seasons Repertory Theatre under the artistic direction of Franco Enriquez and in 1963 it was closed definitively unfit for use due to static reasons. On July 6, 1963, the theater was transferred from the State to the City of Naples. Only in 1979 began the restoration, two centuries after the inauguration of the hall, to return a working theater in the city. The work has created new services: an experimental theater, a lounge setting with exhibition space below, large dressing rooms for actors, plenty of space for the audience on three levels. On 30 September 1986, the theater still site, was inaugurated the exhibition Life and Works of Eduardo De Filippo. On May 16, 1987 Roberto De Simone is Histoire du Soldat by Igor Stravinsky. The show is produced in the auditorium without seats. But Maestro De Simone represented still in this theater, among other things, an edition of La Gatta Cenerentola, Cantata for Masaniello with Inti-Illimani, the ensemble average of the Aetas and Tarantelle of remorse.

From 1990 to 1992, implemented the project "Theatre-Theatre of Naples in the Mediterranean", directed by Maurizio Scaparro. As part of the project are presented, including performances: Don Quixote, directed by Maurizio Scaparro, razors Enzo Moscato, directed by Mario Martone and Toni Servillo, Ghosts of Eduardo De Filippo, with Luca De Filippo, directed by Armando Pugliese.

The 1995-96 season saw the inauguration of the first theatrical poster for a theater closed for thirty years even if punctuated by moments of great artistic quality. The theater season is sponsored by the City of Naples, the ETI Campano and the Public Theatre. Ten shows in subscription high quality, high numbers of visitors and a welcome result of the local press and national decree the success of an initiative that finally recovers at the Teatro Mercadante, and it was a role that was missing between the artistic interlocutors citizens.












Theatre Mercadante