Gianni di Parigi is a melodramma

Melodramma

Melodramma is an Italian term for opera, used in a much narrower sense by English writers to discuss developments in the early 19th century Italian libretto...

or opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...

 (1839) from a libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Felice Romani

Felice Romani

Felice Romani was an Italian poet and scholar of literature and mythology who wrote many librettos for the opera composers Donizetti and Bellini. Romani was considered the finest Italian librettist between Metastasio and Boito.-Biography:Born Giuseppe Felice Romani to a bourgeois family in Genoa,...

, which had been previously used by Francesco Morlacchi

Francesco Morlacchi

Francesco Morlacchi was an Italian composer of more than twenty operas. During the many years he spent as the royal Royal Kapellmeister in Dresden, he was instrumental in popularizing the Italian style of opera.-Biography:...

 (1818) for an opera of the same name. It is derived from Jean de Paris, an opera by François-Adrien Boïeldieu

François-Adrien Boïeldieu

François-Adrien Boieldieu was a French composer, mainly of operas, often called "the French Mozart".-Biography:...

 (1812) with a libretto by Claude Godard d'Aucourt de Saint-Just.

Performance history

The opera was first performed on 10 September 1839 at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

. There were performances in 1846 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, but it was not revived subsequently until 1988 in Bergamo

Bergamo

Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...

. A new production in 2010 at the Festival della Valle d'Itria

Festival della Valle d'Itria

The Festival della Valle d’Itria is a summer opera festival held in the south eastern Italian town of Martina Franca in the Apulia region. The Festival was founded in 1975 and performances are given in July and August each summer on a specially constructed stage in the outdoor courtyard of the...

 at Martina Franca

Martina Franca

Martina Franca is a town and comune in the province of Taranto, Apulia , Italy. It is the second most populated city of the province after Taranto....

 was revived by Wexford Festival Opera

Wexford Festival Opera

The Wexford Festival Opera is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in South-Eastern Ireland during the months of October and November.-Festival origins under Tom Walsh, 1951 to 1966:...

 in October 2011.

Synopsis

Place: Provence.

Time: 14th century

Pedrigo, an innkeeper from provence, is preparing his inn for the arrival of the Princess of Navarre who ordered her lunch and lodging in advance, but before her arrival comes a rich citizen from Paris, Gianni, who pays him as twice as much and gets hold of the place. To everyone's surprise, when the princess arrives she accepts the situation with good humor - and that's because she recognizes Gianni as King Philip de Valois's son. Finally both princess and prince (after taking off his disguise) fall in love and are prepared to get married.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 10 September 1839 (Conductor: - )
Princess of Navarra	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Antonietta Marini-Rainieri Antonietta Marini-Rainieri Antonietta Marini-Rainieri was an Italian operatic soprano active during the first half of the 19th century. She was married to lauded operatic bass Ignazio Marini and often appeared on stage with him. In 1835 she portrayed Giulietta opposite Amalia Schütz Oldosi as Romeo in the Teatro Regio di...
Il gran siniscalco, her seneschal Seneschal A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...	bass	Ignazio Marini Ignazio Marini Ignazio Marini was a celebrated Italian operatic bass. He sang in the world premieres of several operas by Gaetano Donizetti, Saverio Mercadante, and Giuseppe Verdi and appeared as a guest artist in major opera houses throughout Europe and in New York City and Cairo.-Biography:Ignazio Marini was...
Gianni di Parigi	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Lorenzo Salvi Lorenzo Salvi Lorenzo Salvi was an Italian operatic tenor who had a major international opera career during the nineteenth century...
Pedrigo	bass	Agostino Rovere Agostino Rovere Agostino Rovere was an Italian operatic bass. After studying singing in Milan, he made his professional opera debut in 1826 at the opera house in Pavia. In 1828 he portrayed Clemente in the world premiere of Vincenzo Bellini's Bianca e Fernando at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa...
Lorezza, his daughter	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Marietta Sacchi Marietta Sacchi Marietta Sacchi was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active career during the 1820s and 1830s. She mainly performed in comprimario and soubrette roles, and appeared at most of Italy's major opera houses and at His Majesty's Theatre in London...
Oliviero, a page	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...	Felicita Baillou-Hillaret
Followers of the princess and of Gianni, waiters

Recordings

Year	Cast (La Principessa di Navarra, Il Gran Siniscalco, Gianni di Parigi, Pedrigo)	Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra	Label
1988	Luciana Serra Luciana Serra Luciana Serra is an Italian soprano.-Debuts:Serra made her international debut in 1966 at the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest, but did not achieve general acclaim until the late 1970s, when she took on coloratura roles in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Bellini's La sonnambula... , Angelo Romero, Giuseppe Morino, Enrico Fissore	Carlo Cillario, Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Recorded at performances at the Bergamo Festival, 18, 20, 22, 25 September)	Audio CD: Nuovo Era Cat: 6752-6753