Johann Simon Mayr

Mayr was a born Bavarian, who travelled to Italy at a young age in order to study in Venice; later he settled in Bergamo, where he became director of church music at the Santa Maria maggiore and finally also composition teacher at the conservatory, where Donizetti was amongst his pupils.
Mayr’s significance for the opera world can be described as follows: he was the connecting element between Gluck and Meyerbeer within a series of German composers who had a greater influence on the development of opera in Italy and France than in Germany itself.
In his Medea, first performed in 1830 – the birth year of both Verdi and Wagner – Mayr overcome for the first time the opera type of Metastasio, with his strict classification into aria, ensemble and accompanied secco recitative. Namely, Mayr extended this formal idea organically, in such a way that the old type of opera seria is also affected, in favor of through-composed large scenes. As a consequence, the ensembles increase, as a result of which the choir and orchestra gradually emancipate onto the level of the soloists.
Mayr’s orchestral parts are actually colorful and contain many obligati.
(Source: Musicalifeiten.nl)