The Sunday Opera: Saverio Mercadante's "Il Bravo"

A forgotten tragedy from 1839 will be featured on this week’s Sunday Opera (12/10  3:00 p.m.) with the broadcast of Saverio Mercadante’s “Il Bravo.”  Based on a play that was, in turn, based on the novel “The Bravo” by James Fenimore Cooper, the libretto explores the inability of the Venetian government to properly care for its citizens.  Dino Di Domenico leads the cast as Il Bravo in this 1991 recording, and he’s joined by Adelisa Tabiadon, Janet Perry, Sergio Bertocchi, and Stefano Antonucci along with the Bratislava Philharmonic Chorus and The Italian International Orchestra with Bruno Aprea conducting.  After the opera, host Michael Kownacky has programmed more music of Mercadante in three concertos which include two for flute in E minor and E major, and a clarinet concerto in B major.