Torquato_Tasso_(opera) Knowpia

Torquato Tasso is a melodramma semiserio, or "semi-serious" opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti and based on the life of the great poet Torquato Tasso. The Italian libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, who used a number of sources for his text, including works by Giovanni Rosini, Goethe, Goldoni and Lord Byron, as well as Tasso's actual poetry. It premiered on 9 September 1833 at the Teatro Valle, Rome.

The work has been criticized for "its odd deployment of vocal types"^[1] characteristic of the semiseria genre.

Roles edit

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 9 September 1833 (Conductor: - )
Eleonora, Duke Alfonso's sister	soprano	Adelina Spech-Salvi
Eleonora, Countess of Scandiano	mezzo-soprano	Angiolina Carocci
Torquato Tasso	baritone	Giorgio Ronconi
Roberto Geraldini, the duke's secretary	tenor	Antonio Poggi
Don Gherardo	bass	Ferdinando Lauretti
Ambrogio, Torquato's servant	tenor	Luigi Garofalo
Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara	bass	Antonio Rinaldi
Pages, knights

Time: 16th century

Place: Ferrara, Northern Italy^[2]

Year	Cast (Torquato Tasso, Eleanore d'Este, Roberto, Don Gherhardo)	Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra	Label^[3]
1974	Christian du Plessis, Janet Price, Bruce Brewer, Andrea Snarski	Kenneth Montgomery, Opera Rara Orchestra and Chorus (Recording of a performance in the Collegiate Theatre, London as part of the Camden Festival on 27 February and 1 and 2 March)	Audio CD: Celestial Audio Cat: CA 247
1985	Simone Alaimo, Luciana Serra, Ernesto Palacio, Roberto Coviello	Massimo De Bernart Orchestra and chorus of Teatro Comunale, Genova	Audio CD: Bongiovanni Cat: GB 2028/0-2

Notes

Cited sources

Ashbrook, William (1998), "Torquato Tasso, in Stanley Sadie (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. One. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5
Osborne, Charles, (1994), The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-71-3

Other 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 (1982), Donizetti and His Operas, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23526-X
Ashbrook, William and Sarah Hibberd (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4. pp. 224 – 247.
Black, John (1982), Donizetti’s Operas in Naples, 1822—1848. London: The Donizetti Society.
Loewenberg, Alfred (1970). Annals of Opera, 1597-1940, 2nd edition. Rowman and Littlefield
Sadie, Stanley, (Ed.); John Tyrell (Exec. Ed.) (2004), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd edition. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-19-517067-2 (hardcover). ISBN 0-19-517067-9 OCLC 419285866 (eBook).
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. LCCN 63-13703