He's been mentioned before on the forum, but Mancinelli's music sounds interesting:
1. His opera Paolo e Francesca:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Luigi-Mancinelli-1842-1921-Paolo-e-Francesca/hnum/2297479 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Luigi-Mancinelli-1842-1921-Paolo-e-Francesca/hnum/2297479)
2. A new release on Naxos of his Suite Scene veneziane, plus the Overture and Battaglia di Azio from Cleopatra:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Luigi-Mancinelli-1842-1921-Scene-veneziane-Suite/hnum/3431993 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Luigi-Mancinelli-1842-1921-Scene-veneziane-Suite/hnum/3431993)
I've got a Bongiovanni recording of his Incidental music to "Cleopatra" and the "Overture Romantica". The Cleopatra music is only slightly tinged with a studied exoticism, and is immediately forgettable. The Overture fairs somewhat better - but only by comparison. All in all one of Bongiovanni's less successful discs (only to be outdone by their disc of Pacini's "Dante Symphony" - which performance wise is probably the worst cd in my collection.)
But maybe the Naxos performance will be a revelation...
I have the Bongiovanni Cd...but after a lapse of time affected by a virus it is no longer listenable; later I found a second one.........just to verify that it was not listenable as affected by a virus.
The "Ouverture Romantica", commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London, in IMHO a fine work and I hope in a future recording.
Mancinelli is a forgotten composer even in Italy. In 1971 I attended to a full concert dedicated to Mancinelli conducted by the very aged Vittorio Gui; in the program, inter alia, there were excepts from both the "Scene veneziane" and the incidental music for "Cleopatra".
Ha, I just put my copy in and it doesn't play...