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Alfredo il grande

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Alfredo il grande
Opera by Gaetano Donizetti
Donizetti as a young man
LibrettistAndrea Leone Tottola
LanguageItalian
Based onLife of Alfred the Great
Premiere
2 July 1823 (1823-07-02)

Alfredo il grande (Alfred the Great) is a melodramma serio or serious opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Andrea Leone Tottola wrote the Italian libretto, which may have been derived from Johann Simon Mayr's 1818 opera of the same name. The opera tells the story of the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great.

This opera, with its "highly Rossini-influenced score"[1] was Donizetti's first exploration into British history, but it turned out to be a spectacular failure. It received its premiere on 2 July 1823 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and this also became its last performance, until a production in November 2023 at the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo, conducted by Corrado Rovaris and based on a critical edition by Edoardo Cavalli.[2]

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast, 2 July 1823
(Conductor: Nicola Festa)
Alfredo, King of England tenor Andrea Nozzari
Amalia, his Queen soprano Elisabetta Ferron
Eduardo, General of the English army bass Pio Botticelli
Atkins, General of the Danish army bass Michele Benedetti
Enrichetta, an English country girl mezzo-soprano Anna Maria Cecconi
Margherita, another country girl soprano Gaetana Gorini
Rivers, a Dane tenor Gaetano Chizzola
Guglielmo, pastore tenor Massimo Orlandini
Chorus of shepherdesses, English warriors, Danish warriors, armed shepherds

Synopsis

Time: The ninth century
Place: Isle of Athelny in Somerset

Recordings

References

Notes

  1. ^ Osborne 1994, p. 153
  2. ^ Hastings, Stephen. Report from Bergamo. Opera, February 2024, Vol 75 No. 2, p. 221.

Cited sources

  • Osborne, Charles, (1994), The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-71-3

Other sources