Donizetti Society

Mayr's life and works and his influence on 19th century Italian opera are slowly becoming better known. This page includes a short account of his life, a list of his operas, a brief selection of his other works and some books and scores of his work. The Guild Music site includes detailed notes on Mayr and those of his works that they have recorded.

The main institution promoting understanding, performance and research of Mayr's works is the Internationale Simon-Mayr-Gesellschaft, http://www.simon-mayr.de/ . It was founded in 1995 in Ingolstadt, close to Mayr's birthplace. For more information please contact: Internationale Simon-Mayr-Gesellschaft c/o Kulturamt, Unterer Graben 2, D-85049 Ingolstadt, tel. 0841-305 1813, fax 0841-305 1805, e-mail: simon-mayr-gesellschaft@ingolstadt.de .

Mayr's Life

Johann Simon Mayr was born in 1763 at Mendorf in Bavaria of “poor but honest parents”; his father was a respected organist in their village near Ingolstadt. He attained a free place at the Jesuit College of Ingolstadt where he learned grammar, humanities and philosophy. On leaving the Seminary he studied law at the University in Ingolstadt. He taught himself to play several string and wind instruments, and maintained himself financially by playing the organ of a local church. At the age of 24 years a Bavarian feudal lord took him under his wing. This patron of the arts gave the encouragement to set Mayr upon his career. Another patron, Canon Count Pesenti, a few years later, provided further assistance by placing him under the musical guidance of Bertoni, maestro di cappella at St. Marks, Venice.

When Mayr’s wife died, he married her sister and lived his later years “in tranquillity and serenity”. His only daughter married and produced her own children. With old age his eyesight failed, his finances were obviously frail and he died of a stroke, aged 82.

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Mayr's Career

In 1802 Mayr succeeded Carlo Lenzi as maestro di cappella of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo; in 1805 he was made director of the S. Maria Maggiore choir school, which he had just reorganised as the Lezioni Caritatevoli di Musica (Charitable Music Lessons). The Lezioni Caritatevoli had a two-fold design: to ensure that national professors were retained in the Basilica; and to assist the poor by providing them with a purposeful means of support through the different aspects of the music profession. Bergamo enjoyed a reputation for cultivating the art of music, especially singing, and gave to the stages of Europe the most renowned singers of the time, tenor voices in particular. The music school secured the fate of the David family’s three sons, Giacomo, Giovanni and Antonio, while Viaganoni, Nozzari and Donzelli all stood with Gaetano Donizetti on the ladder of fame. Donizetti received his musical training from Mayr at the Lezioni Caritatevoli from 1806 to 1815 and remained devoted to him throughout his life.

Mayr, who changed his name to Giovanni Simone Mayr, held the two posts of maestro di cappella and director of the choir school for the rest of his own life, despite offers of theatre directorships in Vienna, St. Petersburg, Lisbon, London, and other notable offers from Milan, Novara, Dresden, and from Napoleon to be Director of the Theatre and of the concerts at the Royal Court.

Mayr’s initial compositions were songs and liturgical works, until he wrote his first opera, Saffo, for Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Between 1794 and 1824 Mayr wrote 70 operas, for all the major Italian opera houses, with subsequent performances produced throughout Europe. Thereafter, he composed no more opera but wrote multifarious works, for all occasions in the church, the school and the town, including the arrivals of emperors and archbishops.

Mayr combined German harmony with Italian melody. His word-painting is exemplary, with woodwind “harmony” adding a full and complementary palette of colours. Others who imitated him overstepped his reasoned limits and drew disapproval from a contemporary commentator: “Perhaps it is not too late to return to the bounds which Mayr determined with such moderation and wisdom.”

Picture of San Maggiore in Bergamo

Santa Maria Maggiore

Mayr's piano, now in the Museo Donizettiano, Bergamo

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Mayr's Operas

Mayr wrote over 70 operas - a full list can be found in John Stuart Allitt, J.S Mayr, Father of 19^th Century Italian Music (reference below). The short list below includes only those works that have been recorded.

Recordings: Guild GMDD 7167/8 offer the first recording of the work performed in Ingolstadt.

Ginevra di Scozia, (1801), 2 act dramma serio eroico per musica2 act opera seria_

First performed: April 21, 1801 at the Teatro Nuova, Trieste (the inaugural opera)

Recordings: Opera Rara ORC23, Elizabeth Vidal, Daniela Barcellona, Antonino Siragusa, orchestra & chorus of the Teatro Lirico ‘Giuseppe Verdio', Trieste, conductor: Tiziano Severini.

La rosa bianca e la rosa rossa (1813), 2 act melodramma eroico - the start of Italian opera's interest in British history and the first libretto from Romani, who was to become the leading librettist of the bel canto era.

Recordings: Fonit Cetra RFCD 2007, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Susanna Anselmi, Luca Canonici, Coro Accademia, Milano & Orchestra Stabile di Bergamo, conductor: Thomas Briccetti

Medea in Corinto (1813), 2 act melodramma tragico - usually acknowledged as his greatest opera.

Recordings: Opera Rara ORC 11a RFCD 2007 (2 CDs), Jane Eaglen, Yvone Kenny, Bruce Ford, Raúl Giménez,Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra. conductor: David Parry.

There is an earlier version on Vanguard (VCS 10087/8/9 -LP but also on CD) with Marisa Galvany as Medea and the Clarion Concerts Orchestra and Chorus under Newell Jenkins.

Excerpts from Adelesia ed Aleramo(1806), Alfredo il grande(1819), Cora(1815), Elena(1814), Fedra(1820), Le finiti rivali(1803), Ginevra di Scozia(1801), La rosa bianca e la rosa rossa (1813)

This was issued originally by Opera Rara in LP form (ORH102) as part of their "A Hundred Years of Italian Opera" project, but no longer appears to be available in LP or CD.

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Mayr's other works

Mayr wrote a tremendous amount of other music, particularly in his capacity as maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. A very long list of them can be found in John Stuart Allitt, J.S Mayr, Father of 19^th Century Italian Music (reference below), but some pieces still await discovery. The short list below only includes works that have been recorded.

Samuele (oratorio in two parts), 1818, Orchestra Accademia di Stato di Minsk, conductor: Pierangelo Pelucchi, Nuova Era 7273/74 (2 CDs) .

La Passione (oratorio in two parts) 1794, Stabat Mater, "no. 5" in C minor, (oratorio), Vocalensemble Ingolstadt, Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt, conductor: Franz Hauk, Guild GMCD 7251/2 (2 CDs).

Grande Messa da Requiem (oratorio) Bergamo 1815, Civico Coro Filarmonico di Milano, Orchestra Stabile di Bergamo. conductor: Pierangelo Pelucchi, Agorá AG 131.2 (2 CDs)

Messa in C minor, (oratorio) Einsiedeln 1826, Vokalensemble Ingolstadt, Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt. conductor: Franz Hauk, Guild GMCD 7231 (1 CD)

Stabat Mater "no 3" in C minor (oratorio), Orchestra da camera degli “Incontri Europei con la Musica” di Bergamo. conductor: Pieraberto Cattaneo, Dynamic CDS 242 (1 CD)

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Books and other publications on Mayr

Ian Caddy, editor, Componimenti per il settantesimo ottavo natalizio del celebre maestro Gio. Simone Mayr. (Compositions for the 78^th birthday of the celebrated maestro Giovanni Simone Mayr) by Adolfo Gustavo Maironi Daponte. English translation by Elizabeth Thomson, UK: Caddy Publishing or email info@CaddyPublishing.co.uk. A German translation is also available. A primary source-reading. A complete re-setting of the 1841 original:- biography, Mayr’s catalogue of works to 1827, poetic eulogies to the composer and a list of original subscribers.

Dr. Ludwig Schiedermair, BEITRÄGE ZUR GESCHICHTE DER OPER UM DIE WENDE DES 18. UND 19. JAHRH – I. Band: Simon Mayr – II. Band: Simon Mayr (2. Tiel), Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, I. Band 1907; I. Band 1910. [vergriffen/out of print]

II.Band: Die opera semiseria und eroicomica, Die farsa sentimentale, Die Oper seit dem Jahre 1808.

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Scores of some Mayr non operatic works

Te Deum, written for the coronation of Napoleon in Milan Cathedral, 26th May 1805 (Soloists, chorus and orchestra)

Stabat Mater No.5 (Versions for choir & organ and soloists, choir and organ)

Introduction