Luigi Mancinelli

Luigi Mancinelli (; 5 February 1848 – 2 February 1921) was an Italian conductor, cellist and composer. His early career was in Italy, where he established a reputation in Perugia and then Bologna. After 1886 he worked mostly in other countries, as principal conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London and at the "Old Metropolitan" Opera House in New York, and in other appointments in Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.

Mancinelli was highly regarded not only in the Italian repertory, in which he first came to prominence, but also in German and French opera. Despite his high reputation as a conductor, his compositions met with limited success, and none of them entered the regular repertoire.

Life and career Early years Mancinelli was born in Orvieto in central Italy. In Florence he studied composition with Teodulo Mabellini. In 1874 he moved to the Teatro Morlacchi in Perugia, as principal cellist and assistant maestro concertatore. He made his conducting debut there in Aida when the regular conductor was unable to appear, owing to temporary inebriety. In Italy he worked principally in Bologna, conducting opera at the Teatro Comunale, serving as maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Petronio and teaching at the Liceo Musicale, where his students included Giacomo Orefice. Throughout his career Mancinelli composed in addition to conducting. His first opera, Isora di Provenza (1884) was successful in Bologna but failed in Naples two years later. After that, Mancinelli's career was chiefly out of Italy. In June 1886 he conducted a concert in London, consisting of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and a selection of his own compositions. Having resigned his posts in Bologna, |group=n

Harris took over the management of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1888, and appointed Mancinelli its chief conductor, a post he held until 1905. When Harris and Mancinelli took over, the house was officially known as "The Royal Italian Opera House", and operas of any nationality were sung in Italian – Die Zauberflöte being given as Il flauto magico etc. Gradually the policy was changed so that generally operas were sung in the language in which they were originally written. By the 1890s Mancinelli was conducting performances of Faust and Roméo et Juliette in French and Lohengrin in German, although Die Meistersinger continued to be given in Italian translation until 1899, by which time Mancinelli had largely ceded the German repertoire to guest conductors from Germany, in this case Karl Muck. Among the British premieres conducted by Mancinelli was Verdi's final opera, Falstaff, in May 1894. The production featured alterations that Verdi had made to the score since the world premiere in Milan a year earlier, but some of Mancinelli's tempi raised critical eyebrows.

Mancinelli was chief conductor at the Madrid opera, 1887–1893, and at the Metropolitan Opera House (the "Old Met"), New York, 1893–1903. At the latter he conducted mostly Italian or French operas, including some relative rarities such as Semiramide, Orfeo ed Euridice, Lucia di Lammermoor and L'Africaine. In the German repertoire, he conducted Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and Tannhäuser (all given in Italian, as was the Met's practice at the time). He conducted the first Met performance of what became the familiar double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, although on that occasion the latter was given first.

He died in Rome on 2 February 1921, aged 72.

Works

Although Mancinelli was regarded by contemporaries as a conductor who also composed, he took his compositions with great seriousness, and was disappointed that they made little impact on the public. His "tragica lirica" Ero e Leandro, premiered at the Norwich Festival in 1896, was later given in Madrid, London, New York, and several Italian cities, but did not sustain a place in the repertory. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians comments that Mancinelli's lack of success as a composer:

Operas Isora di Aix, costume design by Alfredo Edel for Isora di Provenza Act 2 (1884). Isora di Provenza (3 acts, A. Zanardini; Bologna, 1884) Ero e Leandro (3 acts, Arrigo Boito; Norwich Festival, 1896) Paolo e Francesca (1 act, Arturo Colautti; Bologna, 1907) Sogno di una notte d'estate (3 acts, Fausto Salvatori; 1919)

Other stage works Messalina (Prelude and intermezzo for the drama by Pietro Cossa, 1876) Cleopatra (Symphonic intermezzi for the drama by Pietro Cossa, 1877) Tizianello (Five pieces for the comedy by E. Lombroso, 1880) Isaia (Cantata, words by Giuseppe Albini, 1887)

Film scores Frate Sole (Scored for chorus and orchestra from the tale by , Tespi-films, Rome; 1918) Giuliano l'Apostata (Scored for chorus and orchestra from the tale by Ugo Falena, Bernini-films, Rome; 1920)

Notes, references and sources