entry
Aug. 2003
When the Jesuits were expelled from the
Kingdom of Naples in the 1770s, a fund was set up to
handle the new wealth that had accrued to the Kingdom
from the confiscated property. One decision was to
build a new theater, appropriately called the Teatro
Fondo (after the "fund" that had underwritten
the construction). It was inaugurated in 1779 and was
intended to be more a vehicle for lighter theater,
such as the Comic Opera, and not to be in direct
competition with nearby San Carlo, generally given to
more serious works. Unlike smaller, private theaters
in Naples at the time, the Teatro Fondo was sponsored
by the state; thus, it was a "royal theater" like San
Carlo and was prestigious.
During the brief duration
of the Neapolitan
Republic in 1799, the name was changed to Il
Teatro Patriottico, and monarchist fluff such as Comic Opera was abolished in
favor of the more politically educational fare of
republican theater. Between 1809 and 1829, the theater
was managed by Domenico Barbaja,
also director of San Carlo. During that period, many
works that one would normally associate with San Carlo
—the works of Mozart, Rossini,
Donizetti, and Bellini, for example— were
commonly performed at the Teatro Fondo.
The name of the
theater was changed to the Mercadante Theater in 1870 to
honor Saverio Mercadante, a
prominent Neapolitan composer and director of the Naples Music Conservatory, who
had just passed away. Although obscure today, Mercadante
enjoyed a considerable reputation during his lifetime
and was mentioned in the same breath as Rossini,
Donizetti, Bellini and even Verdi as one of the great
Italian composers of the 19th century. His entire life
was bound up with Naples; he entered the Naples
Conservatory in 1808, became the composer–in–residence
at San Carlo in 1823, the director of the conservatory
in 1840, and from 1845-55 the director of San
Carlo.
For reasons having to do
with his support of the Carbonarist
Revolution in Naples in 1820-1, Mercadante
left Naples for a few years and worked in northern
Italy, Austria and Spain. Reconciled with the Bourbon
monarchy in Naples, he returned to continue his career
as composer and musical impresario. He is best
remembered, historically, as one who tried to revitalize
Italian instrumental music (as opposed to opera) and one
who introduced Neapolitan audiences to the music of
contemporary German composers. Mercadante was held in
such high esteem that when the Kingdom of Naples
collapsed before the forces
of Garibaldi, he was kept on as director of
the Conservatory, where he turned out an orchestral hymn
to Garibaldi, no doubt with the same professionalism as
a year earlier when he had composed the coronation music
for Francis II, the last King of Naples.
In the latter part
of the 19th century, the Mercadante Theater gradually
left music to San Carlo and concentrated on plays and,
later, vaudeville. The theater was damaged in WW2. Now,
after decades of difficult false starts, the Mercadante
has been restored and is once again in a position to
host significant contributions to the cultural life of
the city. As one sees the theater today, the façade is
the redone version from 1893, the decade of the great urban renewal of that part of the
city. Today, over 100 years later, the Mercadante is
flanked by bigger and, frankly, ugly buildings such that
it now stands out like a gem.
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