A product of German, Slav and Italian influences, Antonio Smareglia (1854-1929) is a thoroughly Mitteleuropean composer yet very much his own man, a perfect example of the music of the Trieste-Istria area.
Il Vassallo di Szigeth inaugurated the Vienna Hofoper (today Staatsoper) season on 4 October 1889 which was also the name-day of the Emperor Franz Josef who attended the performance and was as enthusiastic as the rest of the audience. The highly favorable reaction of the powerful critic Eduard Hanslick and Johannes Brahms (both were ferociously anti-Wagner) proves that Smareglia's opera was anything but Wagnerian, in spite of the musician admiration for Wagner. The Vienna Hofoper took their production of Il Vassallo di Szigeth on tour to New York, making it the most celebrated opera in the repertoire and enabling Smareglia to build on its success in 1893 with Cornill Schutt. © Bongiovanni