Gianni di Calais explained

Gianni di Calais is a melodramma semiserio, a "semi-serious" opera in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti (1828), from a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, based on Jean de Paris by Louis-Charles Caigniez.

It was first performed on 2 August 1828 at the Teatro del Fondo, Naples.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 2 August 1828 (Conductor: -)
Metilde, Gianni's wife	soprano	Adelaide Comelli Rubini
Gianni da Calais, shipowner	tenor	Giovanni Battista Rubini
Rustano, head of Gianni's sailors	baritone	Antonio Tamburini
The king, Metilde's father	bass	Michele Benedetti
Arrigo, page of the duchess	contralto	Edvige Ricci
Rogiero	tenor	Filippo Tati
Guido	bass	Giovanni Pace
Corrado, Rogiero's friend	tenor	Gaetano Chizzola
An official	tenor	Capranica
Adelina, duchess and friend of Metilde	soprano
Ermanno, young son of Gianni	silent
Sailors, bridesmaids, people

Synopsis

Time: "The past"^[1]

Place: Portugal

The Duchess Adelina meets a masked woman with a child on the beach at night. The stranger turns out to be her friend, Princess Matilde, the king's daughter, fleeing to avoid having to marry the courtier Rogiero. During her flight she had fallen into the hands of pirates, but had been rescued by the ship-owner Gianni di Calais, who later became her husband. No one knows that the woman is the king's daughter except Gianni's faithful friend, Rustano. Gianni arrives with the sails of his ship showing images of his wife and son. He has been called to court by the king in order to search for his daughter. It is at this point that Gianni realizes the identity of his wife, and she appears at that moment. When the furious Rogiero sees her, he plans his revenge by kidnapping Gianni's and Matilde's son, but the boy is immediately rescued by Rustano. The king punishes Rogiero, and Gianni is accepted as Matilde's husband.

References

NotesCited sources

• Osborne, Charles, (1994), The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.

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.
• Ashbrook, William (1998), "Donizetti, Gaetano" in Stanley Sadie (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. One. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc.
• Ashbrook, William and Sarah Hibberd (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. . 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. (hardcover). (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.

External links

• Donizetti Society (London) website
• Libretto (Italian)

Notes and References

1. Osborne 1994, p. 180