Torquato Tasso (opera)

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Torquato Tasso is a melodramma semiseria, 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 September 9, 1833 at the Teatro Valle, Rome.

The work has been criticized for "its odd deployment of vocal types" (William Ashbrook) characteristic of the semiseria genre.

Contents 1 Roles 2 Synopsis 3 Recordings 4 Sources 5 External links

[edit] Roles

		Premiere, September 9, 1833
Eleonora, Torquato's sister	soprano	Adelina Spech
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

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Recordings

• Torquato Tasso. Luciana Serra, Simone Alaimo, Ernesto Palacio, Roberto Coviello, Orchestra e coro del Teatro Comunale di Genova, cond. Massimo De Bernart. Bongiovanni. GB 2028/0-2
• Torquato Tasso. Snarsky A., Du Plessis, Price, Brewer - Montgomery K. / Unknown Orchestra. Raritas 9

[edit] Sources

• Ashbrook, William: Torquato Tasso in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7

[edit] External links

• Libretto Italian