''Ricciardo e Zoraide'' (''Ricciardo and Zoraide'') is an

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 two acts by

Gioachino 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 ...

to an Italian libretto by Francesco Berio di Salsa. The text is based on cantos XIV and XV of '' Il Ricciardetto'', an epic poem by Niccolò Forteguerri.

Performance history

''Ricciardo e Zoraide'' was first performed at the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent ...

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 ...

, on 3 December 1818. It continued to be performed until 1846 but fell out of favor afterwards and was not performed in public again until its revival at the Pesaro Rossini Opera Festival in 1990. The Rossini Opera Festival featured a new production of the opera in 2018. Among other performances, the opera received a production at the

Rossini in Wildbad Rossini in Wildbad is a bel canto opera festival in Bad Wildbad, Baden-Württemberg, specialising in the lesser-known operas of Gioachino Rossini and his contemporaries. The festival commemorates a stay by Rossini at the town's spa in 1856, whic ...

festival in 2013.

Roles

Synopsis

:Place: the city of

Dongola Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...

in ancient

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

. :Time: The time of the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

The Nubian King Agorante, who is infatuated with Zoraide, has defeated her father, Ircano and captured her. Ricciardo, a Christian knight and Zoraide's lover, accompanies an emissary to plead for her release. Agorante's jealous wife, Zomira, arranges the capture of Ricciardo as well and plots to have the young lovers executed to protect her position as Queen. The opera ends with an army of Christian knights rescuing Ricciardo and Zoraide. Ricciardo spares Agorante's life.

Recordings

References

Notes Sources * *Farr, Robert
Recording review: ''Ricciardo e Zoraide''

Opera Rara Opera Rara is a London-based opera company and recording label which specialises in recording and performing forgotten operatic repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1970 by bel canto enthusiasts Patric Schmid and Don Whi ...

, ''Music Web International''. * Gossett, Philip; Brauner, Patricia (2001), "''Ricciardo e Zoraide''" in Holden, Amanda (ed.), ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', New York: Penguin Putnam. * Osborne, Charles (1994), ''The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini'', London: Methuen; Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. *Osborne, Richard (1990), ''Rossini'', Ithaca, New York: Northeastern University Press. *Osborne, Richard (1998), ''Ricciardo e Zoraide'', in Stanley Sadie, (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. Three, p. 1312. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. *Osborne, Richard (2018)
Recording review: ''Rossini Ricciardo e Zoraide''

Gramophone (magazine) ''Gramophone'' is a magazine published monthly in London, devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie who continued to edit the magazine until 1961. It was ...

. *Servadio, Gaia (2003), ''Rossini'', New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003. *Steen, Michael and Richard Osborne, '' The Lives and Times of the Great Composers: His Life and Works'', Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 271–278. * Toye, Francis (re-issue 1987), ''Rossini: The Man and His Music'', Dover Publications, 1987.

External links

Libretto in Italian
Retrieved 13 December 2012 {{Authority control Operas by Gioachino Rossini Italian-language operas Operas Opera world premieres at the Teatro San Carlo Operas set in Africa