A contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti, Saverio Mercadante was one of Italy's most productive 19th century operatic composers. Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio was written during the composer's stay in Spain, and is based on a chapter of Cervante's Don Quixote in which the hero prevents the forced marriage of a poor farm girl to the wealthy Camacho. Magnificently entertaining and dramatically innovative, Don Chisciotte combines fashionable Neapolitan style with Spanish folk music elements in an unforgettable melodrama giocoso. It is heard on this recording in it's first modern performance. Antonino Fogliani's many conducting engagements have taken him to leading international opera houses and concert halls. For Rossini in Wildbad he has directed Ciro in Babilonia, L'occasione fa il ladro, Mose in Egitto, La scala di seta, Il signor Bruschino and Otello, as well as Vaccaj's La sposa di Messina.