Antonino Gandolfo Brancaleone

Antonino Gandolfo Brancaleone (24 April 1820, in Catania – 6 June 1888, in Catania) was an Italian composer. His masterpiece was Il Sultano (1851). Biography He began his studies in Palermo with Pietro Raimondi. Afterward Antonino moved to Naples to study with Saverio Mercadante. Back in Catania, after this training period, he composed sacred and chamber music. He composed the oratory La disfatta degli Assiri (The Assyrian Defeat)(1850) and Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) (1852), both performed in Catania during the August Saint Agatha festivities. In 1851, at the Teatro Comunale di Catania was performed for the first time Il Sultano or Maometto II (The Sultan or Muhammad II). The same opera was performed in Naples at the Teatro di San Carlo in 1854 with enthusiastic success, thanks also to the outstanding cast of singers, which included among others the tenor Emilio Pancani and soprano Carlotta Carrozzi Zucchi. In 1859 the opera Caterina di Guisa (Catherine of Guise) was performed for the first time at Teatro Comunale di Catania. In 1859, he was appointed director of the Teatro Comunale di Catania. Antonino had to leave soon Sicily, taking refuge in Malta, to escape the