Il campanello

Il campanello or Il campanello di notte (The Night Bell) is a melodramma giocoso, or opera, in one act by Gaetano Donizetti. The composer wrote the Italian libretto after Mathieu-Barthélemy Troin Brunswick and Victor Lhérie's French vaudeville La sonnette de nuit. The premiere took place on 1 June 1836 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples and was "revived every year over the next decade".^[1]

Performance history

The opera was presented in Italian at the Lyceum Theatre in London on 6 June 1836 and in English on 9 March 1841. It was also given in English in 1870. It was first performed in Italian in the US in Philadelphia on 25 October 1861; this production went on to New York three days later. An English translation was seen in that city on 7 May 1917.^[2]

While today it is very rarely presented, it was given in an English translation by the Santa Fe Opera in 2007 as part of a pre-season "One Hour Opera" series presented in town.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 1 June 1836 (Conductor: - )
Serafina, a young bride	soprano	Amalia Schütz
Don Annibale Pistacchio, an apothecary, her husband	bass	Raffaele Casaccia
Spiridione, Don Annibale's servant	tenor	Domenico Ronconi
Madama Rosa, Serafina's aunt	mezzo-soprano
Enrico, Serafina's cousin	baritone	Giorgio Ronconi

Synopsis

Time: Early 19th century

Place: Naples^[3]

Don Annibale Pistacchio, an old doctor, has just married the young Serafina. Enrico, Serafina's former lover, constantly interrupts the wedding night by ringing the night bell. He appears in several disguises and asks the unfortunate groom to fill a list of preposterous prescriptions.

Recordings

Year	Cast: Serafina, Enrico, Don Annibale, Madame Rosa	Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra	Label[4]
1983	Agnes Baltsa, Angelo Romero, Enzo Dara, Biancamaria Casoni	Gary Bertini, Orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker and the Wiener Staatsoper Chorus	Audio CD: CBS, MK 38450
1995	Anna Rita Taliento, Leo Nucci, Enzo Dara, Cinzia De Mola	Fabrizio Maria Carminati, Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Regio di Torino, (Recorded at performances in the Teatro Regio, Turin, May)	Audio CD: BMG Ricordi, Cat: 74321 35613-2, Ricordi, Cat: RFCD 2024.1
1996	Madeline Bender, Shon Sims, Samuel Hepler, Barbara Kokolus	Christopher Larkin, Orchestra and Chorus of the Manhattan School of Music, (Recording of a performance at the Manhattan School of Music, April)	Audio CD: Newport Classic, Cat: NPD 85608

References

Notes

1. Black 1982, pp. 35—36
2. Weinstock 1963, p. 351 refers to UK and US productions
3. Osborne 1994, p. 248
4. Recordings on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk

Cited sources

• Osborne, Charles, (1994), The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-71-3
• 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, 1963. LCCN 63-13703

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. ISBN 0-521-23526-X
• Ashbrook, William (1998), "Donizetti, Gaetano" in Stanley Sadie (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. One. London: MacMillan Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5
• Ashbrook, William and Sarah Hibberd (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4. 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. ISBN 978-0-19-517067-2 (hardcover). ISBN 0-19-517067-9 OCLC 419285866 (eBook).

External links

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