Felice Romani

Felice Romani (Genoa, January 31st 1788 - Moneglia, January 28th 1865) is a librettist, Poète, scholar in literature and mythology and musical Critique Italy N.

Author of the booklets of operas of Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini in particular, Romani is regarded as one of the best librettists Italian, with Métastase and Arrigo Boito.

Biography

First of twelve brothers, Felice Romani is born in Genoa on January 31st, 1788 in an easy family which because of economic difficulties settles in Moneglia.

It begins studies of Droit to Pisa but quickly gives up this way to be registered in letters at the university of Genoa where it has as Master the Helléniste gift Giuseppe Solari. After obtaining its diploma, he teaches as part-time lecturer temporary in this same university but refuses his nomination with the pulpit of Solari by solidarity with his Master who had been discharged from it.

He translates French Littérature and, with one of his colleagues, prepares a dictionary in six volumes of Mythologie and ancient history of Italy including the Celtic period . The know-how of Romani in French and antiquity will be reflected in its booklets: the majority are based on the French literature and much, such as Norma employ mythological sources.

Romani travels much in Spain, in Greece, Germany and France. In spite of its interest for the French literature, he refuses to work with Paris. After having declined also the use of poet of court with Vienna, it begins in Genoa as librettist with the rosa bianca E the rosa rossa for the music from Simon Mayr. Following the great success obtained with Medea has Corinto , always for Mayer, it is engaged by the business manager of the Scala of Milan, Benedetto Ricci, for the production of six new booklets per annum.

In 1814 it settles in Milan where there becomes the friend of the important figures of the literary and musical world while remaining related to the cultural medium génois and while continuing to write in the " Gazzette di Genova" , where it had begun like poet in 1810.

In general, Romani does not create its own stories: it adapts the most popular parts produced on the scene of the Parisian theaters what sometimes proves not to be an excellent strategy being given the vague character of the legislation of the time on the intellectual property laws: when the opera of Donizetti Lucrezia Borgia based on the part of Victor Hugo is put in scene in Paris, it must rewrite the booklet by transforming the Italian characters into Turkish and changing the title for Rinegata because Hugo had obtained the prohibition of any other production.

Of traditional formation , Romani is shown being wary towards the new leavens of the Romantisme but, for the creation of its booklets, it can despite everything draw from the production of authors modern and romantic like Lord Byron, Victor Hugo and Walter Scott, contributing to defend a taste which will continue with the librettists of the following generation like Salvadore Cammarano, Francesco Maria Piave and Antonio Somma.

He writes ninety booklets, with the fluid and elegant worms, one cannot adapted better to the music, whose majority are put in music by the largest type-setters of operas working in Italy between the second and the fifth decade of the 19th century, among which Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti ( Anna Bolena and to elisir It of amore adapted part of Eugene Scribe the Philter ), Saverio Mercadante, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giovanni Pacini, Gioachino Rossini ( It Turco in Italia ) and, to only one occasion, Giuseppe Verdi itself for her first comedy a giorno di regno , originally written for the type-setter Adalbert Gyrowetz.

Particularly lucky and artistically happy was its collaboration with Bellini, which receives feather of Romani (to which it could say: “Give me the good ones towards, I will give you the good music”) the booklets of seven of its ten operas ( It Pirated, Straniera, Zaira, I Capuleti ED I Montecchi, Sonnambula, Norma and Beatrice di Tenda ). The type-setter will express on several occasions his admiration for the worms of the poet génois whom he regards as the largest librettist of his time. What sought Bellini in a booklet, according to a letter of August 4th, 1834 with Florimo, it finds it at Romani whose sometimes exaggerated dramatic situations are expressed in worms “designed to depict passions in the most animated way”.

Following a disagreement about Beatrice di Tenda , Bellini having assembled I Puritani on a booklet of Carlo Pepoli is given to compose more of Italian operas only with Romani. But I Puritani will be its last opera, it dies less than one year after the first. Romani sincerely cried it and wrote a obituary in which it expresses its deep regrets beyond their dissension.

In 1834, Romani is writer with the Gazzetta Ufficiale Piemontese where it will contribute to literary criticism, with an interruption between 1849 and 1854, until its death in 1865 with Moneglia, in the area Ligure.

A volume of its lyric poetries was published in 1841.

Booklets

For each booklet is indicated:

the Type-setter S which put it in music, the date of the first execution and possibly the new title. Sometimes, the republications which comprise modifications.

the rosa bianca E the rosa rossa

Simon Mayr (1813)
Pietro Generali (1818)
Tomás Genovés there Lapetra, Enrico there Clotilde (1831)

Medea in Corinto

Simon Mayr (1813)
Prospero Selli (1839)
Saverio Mercadante, Medea , revision of Salvadore Cammarano (1851)

Aureliano in Palmira

Gioachino Rossini (1813)

Atar ossia It serraglio di Ormus

Simon Mayr (1814)
Carlo Coccia, Atar or O serralho of Ormuz (1820)
Luiz Antonio Miró, Atar or O serralho of Ormus (1836)

It Turco in Italia

Gioachino Rossini (1814)

It due duchess ossia the caccia has lupi

Simon Mayr (1814)
Filippo Celli (1824)

Itwill go di Achille

Giuseppe Nicolini (1814)

tested It di bronzo O sia the capanna solitaria

Carlo Evasio Soliva (1816)
Saverio Mercadante (1827)
Giacomo Fontemaggi (1835)
Vincenzo Mela (1855)

Maometto

Peter von Winter (1817)

Rodrigo di Valenza

Pietro Generali (1817)
Ferdinando Orlandi (1820)
Filippo Chimeri, Elmonda di Valenza (1845)

Mennone E Zemira

Simon Mayr (1817)

the gioventù di Cesare

Stefano Pavesi (1814)

the zingare dell' Asturia

Carlo Evasio Soliva (1817)

Adele di Lusignano

Michele Carafa (1817)
Ramón Carnicer (1819)

I due Valdomiri

Peter von Winter (1817)

Gianni di Parigi

Francesco Morlacchi (1818)
Giovanni Antonio Speranza (1836)
Gaetano Donizetti (1839 but put in music in 1831)

It finto Stanislao

Adalbert Gyrowetz (1818)
Giuseppe Verdi, a giorno di regno (1840)

It baroness di Dolshein

Giovanni Pacini (1818)
Franz Schoberlechner (1827)

Danao

Simon Mayr (1818)
Giuseppe Persiani, Danao Re of Argo (1827)

Gl' Illinesi

Francesco Basily (1819)
Francesco Sampieri (1823)
Luigi Viviani, the eroe francese (1826)
Feliciano Strepponi (1829)
Pietro Antonio Coppola, Gli Illinesi (1835)
Francisco Gum, Irza (1845)

Clemenza d' Entragues

Vittorio Trento (1819)

It falegname di Livonia

Giovanni Pacini (1819)

It califo E the schiava

Francesco Basily (1819)
Gioachino Rossini, Adina , revision of Gherardo Bevilacqua Aldobrandini (1826)
Giovanni Quaquerini (1842)

Bianca E Falliero O sia It consiglio dei tre

Gioachino Rossini (1819)

Vallace O sia The eroe scozzese

Giovanni Pacini (1820)

the sacerdotessa of Irminsul

Giovanni Pacini (1820)

I due Barber O sia It soggetto di una commedia

Michele Carafa (1820)
Giovanni Panizza (1824)
Dionisio Brogliardi (1825)
Saverio Mercadante (1835)
Giovanni Antonio Speranza (1839)

Margherita of Anjou

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1820)

Gave Aurora O sia It romanzo ale improvviso

Francesco Morlacchi (1821)

the voce misteriosa

Giuseppe Mosca (1821)
Carlo Mellara (1823)

Atalia

Simon Mayr (1822)

the esule di Granata

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1822)
Giovanni Tadolini, Almanzor (1827)

Adele ED Emerico ossia It posto abbandonato

Saverio Mercadante (1822)

Chiara E Serafina ossia It pirated

Gaetano Donizetti (1822)
Alberto Mazzucato, I corsari , revision of Temistocle Solera (1840)

Amleto

Saverio Mercadante (1822)

Chi F così, F bucket

Feliciano Strepponi (1823)

Abufar, ossia the famiglia araba

Michele Carafa (1823)
Handbook Garcia, El Abufar (1827)

Francesca da Rimini

Feliciano Strepponi (1823)
Luigi Carlini (1825)
Saverio Mercadante (1828)
Massimiliano Quilici (1829)
Giuseppe Constructed in staff (1831)
Giuseppe Fournier (1832)
Giuseppe Tamburini (1835)
Emanuele Borgatta (1837)
Francesco Morlacchi (made up in 1840, incomplete)
Francesco Canneti (1843)
Giovanni Franchini (1857)

Egilda di Provenza

Stefano Pavesi (1823)
Evangelista Pareira da Costa, Egilda de Provenca (1827)

Amina ovvero the innocenza perseguitata

Giuseppe Rastrelli (1824)
Antonio D' Antoni (1825)
Carlo Valentini, Amina, ossia the orfanella di Ginevra , revision of Andrea Leone Tottola (1825)

Elena E Malvina

Carlo Evasio Soliva (1824)
Ramón Carnicer, Elena there Malvina (1829)
Francesco Vincenzo Schira (1832)
Giuseppe Mazza (1834)
Egisto Vignozzi (1835)

It sonnambulo

Michele Carafa (1824)
Luigi Ricci (1830)
Carlo Valentini (1834)
Luiz Antonio Miró, O sonambulo (1835)
Salvatore Agnelli, It fantasma (1842)
Giuseppe Persiani, It fantasma (1843)

Gli avventurieri

Giacomo Cordella (1825)
Luigi Felice Rossi (1835)
Carlo Valentini (1836)
Antonio Buzzolla (1842)
Antonio Cagnoni, Amori E trappole , revision of Marco Marcelliano Marcello (1850)

Giulietta E Romeo

Nicola Vaccaj (1825)
Eugenio Torriani (1828)
Vincenzo Bellini, I Capuleti E I Montecchi (1830)

It montanaro

Saverio Mercadante (1827)
Pietro Campiuti, the incognito (1832)
Giovan Battista Cagnola, It podestà di Gorgonzola (1854)

the selva of Hermanstadt

Felice Frasi (1827)

It pirated

Vincenzo Bellini (1827)

Gastone di Foix

Giuseppe Persiani (1827)
Franciszek Mirecki, Cornelio Bentivoglio (1844)

It divorzio Persiano ossia It gran bazzarro di Bassora

Pietro Generali (1828)
Feliciano Strepponi, the ullà di Bassora (1831)
Giuseppe Gerli, It pitocco (1834)
Giuseppe Mazza (1836)

I saraceni in Sicilia ovvero Eufemio di Messina

Francesco Morlacchi (1828)
Daniele Nicelli, It proscritto di Messina (1829)
Giuseppe Persiani, Eufemio di Messina ovvero the distruzione di Catania (1829)
Francesco Morlacchi, It rinnegato (1832)
Ramón Carnicer, Eufemio da Messina O Los sarracenos in Sicilia (1832)
Alessandro Curmy, It proscritto di Messina (1843)
Angelo Agostini, It rinnegato (1858)