Il giovedì grasso
Music by Gaetano Donizetti · libretto by Domenico Gilardoni · premiered 1828 · at Teatro Mercadante
Il giovedì grasso is a farsa in one act by Gaetano Donizetti, from a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni. The literal translation of the title is "Fat Thursday", a reference to Carnival celebration. The libretto was adapted from the French comedies Monsieur de Pourceaugnac by Molière and Le nouveau Pourceaugnac by Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson and Eugène Scribe. The opera uses spoken dialogue rather than recitatives, and the buffo role is given in the Neapolitan language. The work premiered at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples on 26 February 1829.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Il giovedì grasso", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his over 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera,…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Gaetano Donizetti", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Gaetano Donizetti
- Alina, regina di Golconda (1766)
- Betly (1779)
- Il diluvio universale (1788)
- Il Pigmalione (1790)
- Alahor in Granata (1793)
- Don Pasquale (1810)
- Alfredo il grande (1818)
- Enrico di Borgogna (1818)