AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Personalities
• Early Romantic
• Opera

1801–52, Italian Salvadore Cammarano wrote several plays before producing his first libretto in 1834. This so impressed the management at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples that Cammarano was appointed house poet in 1835. That same year, he wrote the libretto for Lucia di Lammermoor, composed by his friend Gaetano Donizetti. Cammarano and Donizetti worked on many more ...

• Major Operas
• High Romantic
• Opera

‘The Troubadour’ Of all Verdi’s operas, Il trovatore (‘The Troubadour’) provides the fullest panorama of melodies, each of them memorable in its own right. Il trovatore did not have the subtle characterization of Rigoletto, and suffered from an all but impenetrable plot, but nonetheless became as frequently played. The Miserere (meaning ‘Have Mercy’) sung by a chorus ...

• Major Operas
• Early Romantic
• Opera

While writing Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti observed a common custom of the 1830s; tailoring his music to the voices of the original cast. For example, Fanny Tacchinardi-Persiani (1812–67), who created the role of Lucia, was technically brilliant and Donizetti’s writing reflected her outstanding abilities. Matching music to performers was a shrewd move: the formula increased the popularity of ...

• Personalities
• Early Romantic
• Opera

1775–1834, French François-Adrien Boieldieu wrote his first opera, La fille coupable (‘The Guilty Girl’, 1793), when he was 18. Shortly afterwards, he left his home town of Rouen and settled in Paris. He scored quick success with his opéras comiques, but his talent did not stop at the standard ingredients of the genre. He was also capable ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(Joo’-sep-pa Ver’-de) 1813–1901 Italian composer Verdi composed 28 operas over a period of 54 years. In his native Italy he became immensely popular early in his career, and by the time he died he was idolized as the greatest Italian composer of the nineteenth century. In other musical centres of Europe it took a little longer for Verdi’s genius to be ...

• Stage & Scene
• High Romantic
• Opera

Throughout his long career, Verdi worked with several librettists and gained a reputation for being something of a tartar. Sometimes he would even write the text himself, only allowing his librettist to put it into verse. The composer had strong ideas about what he wanted from the text to his operas; in the early compositions this was a dramatic ...