Luigi Mancinelli

[1] He studied organ and cello with his elder brother, Marino (who later became a well-known conductor in Italian opera houses) and then played as a cellist in the Orvieto cappella and the orchestra of the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.

[1][3] 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.

[5] Having resigned his posts in Bologna,[1] he accepted an invitation from the impresario Augustus Harris to join Alberto Randegger as conductor of a season in June and July 1887 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with a starry international cast and a wide repertoire of Italian, French, Austrian and German operas.

Within weeks of his appointment, a French critic commented, "Under M. Mancinelli's baton, his orchestra has achieved the homogeneity that it lacked at first; now it is worthy of Covent Garden".

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.

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.

[12] As at Covent Garden, Mancinelli introduced Falstaff, but with a starrier cast than in London, including Victor Maurel in the title role and Emma Eames and Zélie de Lussan as Alice and Nannetta Ford.

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.