''La romanziera e l'uomo nero'' (also known as ''La romanzesca e l'uomo nero'') is an 1831 one-act

farsa Farsa (Italian, literally: ''farce'', plural: ''farse'') is a genre of opera, associated with Venice in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is also sometimes called ''farsetta''. Farse were normally one-act operas, sometimes performed to ...

with music by

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

and an Italian libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, possibly based on the 1819 play ''La donna dei romanzi'' by Augusto Bon. Other suggested sources include ''L'homme noir'' (1820) by

Eugene Scribe Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

and Jean-Henri Dupin and ''Le coiffeur et le perruquier'' (1824) by Scribe,

Édouard-Joseph-Ennemond Mazères Édouard-Joseph-Ennemond Mazères (11 September 1796, Paris – 19 March 1866, Paris) was a 19th-century French playwright and librettist. Biography A son of a French colonist of Saint-Domingue, he studied in Paris then joined the army. Lieut ...

and

Charles Nombret Saint-Laurent Laurent-Charles Nombret Saint-Laurent (2 July 1791

.Michele Zurletti, Rovigo.

Performance history

The opera was premiered on 18 June 1831 at the

Teatro del Fondo The Teatro del Fondo is a theatre in Naples, now known as the Teatro Mercadante. It is located on Piazza del Municipio, Naples, Piazza del Municipio #1, with the front facing the west side of Castel Nuovo, Naples, Castel Nuovo and near the Molo (Doc ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, and there was only one further performance. The words and music of the arias and ensembles have survived, but the spoken dialogue has been lost. The opera's music was performed in 1982 at the

Camden Festival Camden Festival was an annual spring festival founded in 1954 and held in London, England. Originally, it was named the St Pancras Festival until 1965. It continued until 1987. The festival specialised in the revival of long-forgotten operas, some ...

, and in

Fermo Fermo (ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo. Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway. History The oldest hum ...

in 1988. In November 2000, staged performances took place in

Rovigo Rovigo (, ; egl, Ruig) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of Northeast Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. Geography Rovigo stands on the low ground known as Polesine, by rail southwest of Venice and south-southwest of P ...

with dialogue re-created by Michelangelo Zurletti from the Scribe plays on which the opera may have been based. Of this work Ashbrook writes: :The plot is a satire on

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

: in the ''rondo''-finale Antonina assures her father that she will give up willows, cypresses, urns and ashes, and take up more appropriate pursuits like singing and dancing and going to the opera. He also points out that Filidoro's

canzonetta In music, a canzonetta (; pl. canzonette, canzonetti or canzonettas) is a popular Italian secular vocal composition that originated around 1560. Earlier versions were somewhat like a madrigal but lighter in style—but by the 18th century, especial ...

is a parody of the Gondolier's song from

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

's ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. Th ...

''.Ashbrook 1982, p. 324.

Roles

La romanziera e l'uomo nero - autograph title by Donizetti - Biblioteca Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella Napoli

List of musical numbers

Recordings

References

Notes Cited sources * Ashbrook, William (1982). ''Donizetti and His Operas''. Cambridge University Press. (hardcover). (paperback)
Snippet view
at

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. * Ashbrook, William; Hibberd, Sarah (2001). "Gaetano Donizetti", pp. 224–247 in ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', edited by Amanda Holden. New York: Penguin Putnam. . * * Osborne, Charles (1994). ''The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini''. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. . * Weinstock, Herbert (1963). ''Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century'', New York: Pantheon Books. .

External links

* (original at the Naples Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella) {{DEFAULTSORT:Romanziera e l'uomo nero Operas by Gaetano Donizetti Italian-language operas 1831 operas One-act operas Operas