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''Virginia'' is an opera, a ''tragedia lirica'', in three acts by composer Saverio Mercadante. The Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano is based on Vittorio Alfieri's tragedy of the same name. Alfieri's play was in turn taken from a story in Livy's ''Ab Urbe condita''. Although initially written for performance in 1850 at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the subject matter of Mercadante's opera was objected to by the Bourbon government censors and performance was banned outright. That decision was widely ridiculed, not just in Italy, but throughout Europe. After the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1861, the ban on the opera no longer existed. The work finally had its premiere on 7 April 1866 at the Teatro di San Carlo.〔Wittmann〕 Although not the last opera composed by Mercadante, it was the last of his operas to reach the stage. ''Virginia'' has been rarely performed since its premiere, but a recent 2009 recording of the work was released on the Opera Rara label. ==Composition history== Mercadante first suggested ''Virginia'' as the subject of an opera to La Fenice in 1839, but the idea was rejected.〔 After the triumphant success of his 1846 opera ''Orazi e Curiazi'' in Naples, Mercadante was invited to tour the Austrian territories of Venice, Triest, and Milan conducting performances of his own works. He left Naples to begin the tour in August 1847, and, after a success in Milan, was asked by La Scala to compose a new work, ''La schiava saracena'' ("The Saracen slave"). That opera was supposed to premiere in January 1848, but a major revolutionary disturbance beginning on the 5th of that month postponed the opera's premiere and cut short Mercadante's tour.〔 Mercadante returned to Naples in March 1848〔 in the aftermath of revolutionary activity in that city, Salerno, and the Cilento region which had forced Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies to grant a constitution patterned on the French Charter of 1830 on January 29, 1848. A dispute, however, arose as to the nature of the oath which should be taken by the members of the chamber of deputies. As an agreement could not be reached and the King refused to compromise, riots continued in the streets. Eventually, the King ordered the army to break them up and dissolved the national parliament on March 13, 1849. Although the constitution was never formally abrogated, the King returned to reigning as an absolute monarch.〔Davis, p. ??〕 Deploring the pattern of events in his country, Mercadante selected Alfieri's ''Virginia'' as a means of expressing his criticism of the constitution's suppression. Alfieri's story, set in Ancient Rome, tells the tale of a plebeian revolt, spurred on by the tragic murder of the title heroine by her father, which leads to the founding of the Roman Republic tribunes and the Plebeian Council. Mercadante asked Cammarano, with whom he frequently collaborated, to write the opera's libretto. Cammarano obliged, giving Mercadante a finished libretto in late 1849. Mercadante began composing the opera in December 1849, completing it in March 1850.〔 ''Virginia'' was scheduled to première at the Teatro di San Carlo in March 1850. However, King Ferdinand II got word of the production and issued a ban on the opera's performance, even though Cammarano’s libretto carefully avoided any possible negative political implications. The censorship of the opera drew wide scorn for Ferdinand throughout Europe. In an attempt to appease the outcry, the Italian state offered a compromise, set the opera in Egypt and not Italy. Mercadante refused to comply. In the place of ''Virginia'', the premiere of Mercadante's ''Medea'' occurred in Naples on 1 March 1851.〔 In 1852, most likely out of an attempt at improving the state's public image, Ferdinand appointed Mercadante as inspector of the royal military bands, a post which led to the commissioning of several compositions for these musical groups (''Fantasia sull’inno russo''; ''Fantasia sull’inno borbonico''; etc.) However, Ferdinand never lifted the ban on the opera, and neither did his successor Francis II.〔 In 1861 the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was conquered by the Expedition of the Thousand under Giuseppe Garibaldi. Garibaldi served the Kingdom of Sardinia which was in the process of Italian unification.〔 While members of the deposed Royal House survived, they no longer carried any power, freeing Mercadante to present his opera. The work was finally premiered in Naples on 7 April 1866.〔 The premiere night performance of the work proved to be problematic, but the second performance of the opera was triumphantly received.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Virginia (Mercadante)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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