Washington Concert Opera: Saverio Mercadante's II Giuramento May 31, 2009

Mercadante was the most important composer in Italy in the period before Verdi, when Rossini and Donizetti were both resident in Paris. This opera established a new direction for Italian opera, with arias and cabalettas streamlined to maximize dramatic flow, vocal melodies imbued with colors and emotions specific to the dramatic situation, and more prominence given to the orchestra.