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Errico Petrella (10 December 18137 April 1877) was an Italian opera composer.
None of his early works, premiered between December 1829 and 1839, were particularly successful. It was not until Il carnevale di Venezia (Naples, Nuovo, 20 May 1851) that he really became noticed. Elena di Tolosa (Naples, Fondo, 12 August 1852) followed. Finally, in 1854, he took the Italian operatic world by storm with Marco Visconti (Naples, San Carlo, 1854) based on the novel of the same title by Tommaso Grossi. L'assedio di Leida (La Scala, 1856) was his fourth straight triumph, while Jone (La Scala, 1858) was a major event and remained in the repertory well into the 20th century. With two exceptions ( La Contessa d'Amalfi and I Promessi Sposi) his operas during the 1860s generally failed.
In 1872 his opera Manfredo, based on Lord Byron's poem, was produced in Naples, starring Gabrielle Krauss in her first appearance in Italy. On this occasion the production was a great success and the composer was presented with a silver crown. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed (1954), Vol. VI, p. 690: Petrella, Enrico Krauss also created a character in Petrella's Bianca Orsini on 4 April 1874.
He died at Genoa three years later, aged 64.
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