Filippo Marchetti

Marchetti was a member of the late nineteenth century second-wave of Italian composers. As such, though his works are not now performed and he is virutally unheard of, he provided a transitory figure between the works of Verdi and Meyerbeer to the life-like qualities of Puccini's operas. Marchetti composed seven operas between 1856 and 1880 but only one was successful, "Ruy Blas." In fact, "Ruy Blas" was one of the few Italian operas that achieved any success during Verdi's period of excellence. Fortunate or not premiere performances of Marchetti's operas were often set against operas of composers like Verdi and Gounod. For the most part the works of Marchetti lacked coherence and contained excessive `dolce' characteristics especially when compared with the works of Verdi. ~ Keith Johnson