Ginevra di Scozia is an opera in two acts by Simon Mayr

Simon Mayr

Johann Simon Mayr , also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr was a German composer.- Life :...

 set to an Italian 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 Gaetano Rossi

Gaetano Rossi

Gaetano Rossi was an Italian writer who wrote opera libretti for several composers including Mayr, Rossini, Donizetti, Mercadante, Pacini, and Meyerbeer.-Biography:...

 based on Antonio Salvi

Antonio Salvi

Antonio Salvi was an Italian physician, court poet and librettist. He was in the service of the ducal court in Florence and the favourite librettist of Prince Ferdinando de' Medici. Salvi was one of the developers of the opera seria.- Life :Salvi was a court physician in Florence for the De'...

's, Ginevra, principessa di Scozia, which in turn was adapted from Cantos 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...

. Ginevra di Scozia premiered on 21 April 1801 at the Regio Teatro Nuovo in Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

 to celebrate the inauguration of the new theatre. The story is virtually identical to that of Handel's Ariodante

Ariodante

Ariodante is an opera seria in three acts by Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso...

which shares the same source for the libretto.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast 21 April 1801
Ginevra, daughter of the King of Scotland	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...	Teresa Bertinotti Teresa Bertinotti Teresa Bertinotti was a celebrated Italian soprano and voice teacher. She created leading roles in several operas, including Simon Mayr's Ginevra di Scozia.-Biography:...
Ariodante, an Italian soldier prince, betrothed to Ginevra	soprano castrato Castrato A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's...	Luigi Marchesi Luigi Marchesi Luigi Marchesi was an Italian castrato singer, one of the most prominent and charismatic to appear in Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century.-Biography:Luigi Ludovico Marchesi was born in Milan...
Polinesso, Duke of Albany, Ariodante's rival	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...	Giacomo David Giacomo David Giacomo David , was a leading Italian tenor of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Biography:...
Dalinda, attendant on Ginevra, secretly in love with Polinesso	soprano	Angiola Pirovani-Bianchi
Re di Scozia, King of Scotland	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
Lurcanio, Ariodante's brother	tenor	Gaetano Bianchi
Vafrino, Ariodante's squire Squire The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...	tenor	Pietro Righi
Gran Solitario, a hermit Hermit A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...	bass

Recordings

• Mayr: Ginevra di Scozia - Live recording to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opera's premiere. Tiziano Severini conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Lirico "Giuseppe Verdi", with Elizabeth Vidal as Ginevra and Daniela Barcellona as Ariodante. Label: Opera Rara
  Opera Rara
  Opera Rara is a British record label, founded in the early 1970s by Americans Patric Schmid and Don White to promote concerts of rare and/or forgotten operas by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Donizetti and such other "bel canto" composers as Giovanni Pacini, Saverio Mercadante, and Federico Ricci.The...
  
   ORC 23

Sources

• Casaglia, Gherardo, "Ginevra di Scozia", Almanacco Amadeus, 2005. Accessed 9 November 2009 (in Italian).
• Minter, Drew, "Mayr: Ginevra di Scozia" (Opera Rara ORC 23), Opera News
  Opera News
  Opera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...
  
  , June 2003

External links

• Complete libretto (in Italian)