Appendix I - Synopses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
Summary
Il Pigmalione opera (‘scena lirica’) in 1 act
Composed: 15 September – 1 October 1816
First performed: Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo, 13 October 1960, with Oriana Santunione-Finzi (Galatea), Doro Antonioli (Pigmalione), conducted by Armando Gatti.
Librettist: unknown
Libretto: based on Antonio Simone Sografi's libretto for Giambattista Cimadoro's Pimmaglione (Venice, 1790), itself a translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Pygmalion (Lyons, 1770) but following Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book X.
Synopsis: Pigmalione, King of Crete (tenor), has renounced women and turned sculptor in order to create his ideal of female beauty. He becomes so enamored of his statue that he can no longer raise his chisel to it for fear of hurting it. In torment he prays to Venus, through whose intervention Galatea (soprano) is brought to life and reciprocates Pigmalione's love.
Manuscript score: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (autograph)
Enrico di Borgogna opera semiseria (‘opera eroica’) in 2 acts
Composed: 1818
First performed: Teatro San Luca, Venice 14 November 1818, with Fanny Eckerlin (Enrico), Adelaide [Adelina] Catalani (Elisa), Adelaide Cassago (Geltrude), Giuseppe Fosconi (Pietro), Giuseppe Spech (Guido), Andrea Verni (Gilberto), Giuseppe Fioravanti (Brunone), Pietro Verducci (Bruno).
Librettist: Bartolomeo Merelli
Libretto: based on August von Kotzebue, Der Graf von Burgund (Vienna, 1795), via an unidentified Italian intermediary.
Synopsis: In exile, Enrico (contralto) learns that his father's murderer has died and that Guido (bass), the usurper's son, has succeeded to his dukedom. Enrico sets off to regain his rights and marry his beloved Elisa (soprano), whom Guido plans to wed.
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- Information
- Donizetti and His Operas , pp. 533 - 577Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982