Errico Petrella

He also earned the latter's scorn for his compositional and dramatic crudities, which nonetheless played well on the stage.

Finally, in 1854, he took the Italian operatic world by storm with Marco Visconti (Naples, San Carlo, 1854) based on the novel of the same title by Tommaso Grossi.

With two exceptions (La Contessa d'Amalfi and I Promessi Sposi) his operas during the 1860s generally failed.

In 1872 his opera Manfredo, based on Lord Byron's poem, was produced in Naples, starring Gabrielle Krauss in her first appearance in Italy.

On this occasion the production was a great success and the composer was presented with a silver crown.