''Il Pigmalione'' (''Pygmalion'') is a ''scena lirica'' (lyric scene or

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

) in one act 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 ...

. The

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

is unknown, but it is known that the libretto was based on one by Antonio Simeone Sografi for 's ''Pimmalione'' (1790), in turn based on

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

's '' Pygmalion'' and ultimately based on Book X of Ovid's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his '' magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

''. Sografi's libretto was also used for an opera by Bonifacio Asioli (1796). This was Donizetti's first opera, written in six days between 25 September and 1 October 1816 when the composer was 19Osborne 1994, p. 139 and a student at the Bologna Academy, a position acquired for him with the help of his teacher in Bergamo, Johann Simon MayrAllitt 1991, p. 9 and where his "gift for spontaneous composition flowered". It has been noted that although the comedy is "musically slender, the score, nevertheless, reveals the fledgling composer's flair for melody". It was not performed until 13 October 1960.

Performance history

Falconet - Pygmalion & Galatee (1763)-black bg

The premiere took place at the XVII ''Festival delle novità'' at the

Teatro Donizetti The Teatro Donizetti is an opera house in Bergamo, Italy. Built in the 1780s using a design by architect Giovanni Francesco Lucchini, the theatre was originally referred to as either the Teatro Nuovo or Teatro di Fiera. The first opera to be mo ...

in the composer’s home town of

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Com ...

, Italy, on 13 October 1960. The performance was conducted by Armando Gatto, while the role of Pigmalione was performed by Doro Antonioli and that of Galatea by soprano Oriana Santunione. Other performances appear to have been sporadic: in 1974 under Bruno Rigacci, it was given by the Orchestra della Radiotelivisione della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, and a recording made of a performance in 1990 at the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi in

Terni Terni ( , ; lat, Interamna (Nahars)) is a city in the southern portion of the region of Umbria in central Italy. It is near the border with Lazio. The city is the capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera river. It i ...

in Umbria.

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

presented the New York City premiere in March 2018. Chicago Opera Theater presented the Chicago premiere in April 2018, in a double bill with Donizetti's ''Rita''.

Roles

Synopsis

:Time: The classical past :Place:

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

The story of the opera is based on the famous story of a

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, Pygmalion, originally taken from the tenth book of the ''

'' by

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

. Pigmalione, dismayed that he may never find in real life the ideal of feminine beauty, creates a sculpture of it himself. Having fallen in love with his own creation, Pigmalione's prayer for the sculpture's (christened Galatea) animation is answered by

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

Recordings

References

Notes Cited sources *Allitt, John Stewart (1991), ''Donizetti: in the light of Romanticism and the teaching of Johann Simon Mayr'', Shaftesbury: Element Books, Ltd (UK); Rockport, MA: Element, Inc.(USA) * Ashbrook, William; Sarah Hibberd (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', New York: Penguin Putnam. . pp. 224 – 247. *Loewenberg, Alfred (1970). ''Annals of Opera, 1597–1940'', 2nd edition. Rowman and Littlefield * 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. Other sources *Ashbrook, William (1998), "Donizetti, Gaetano" in

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was pub ...

(Ed.), ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', Vol. One. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. *Ashbrook, William (1982), ''Donizetti and His Operas'', Cambridge University Press.

External links

Work details and libretto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pigmalione, Il Operas by Gaetano Donizetti Italian-language operas Operas Operas set in Cyprus One-act operas 1816 operas Operas based on Metamorphoses Works based on Pygmalion from Ovid's Metamorphoses